Downham, Cambridgeshire

Description
Downham in the Isle,/b., a village and a parish in Cambridgeshire, on the G.E.R., with a station called Black Bank, 2 3/4 miles N by W from Ely. There is a post and money order office under Ely; telegraph office, Ely. Acreage, 10,154; population, 1878. The manor formerly belonged to the see of Ely, but now belongs to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and was once the principal residence of the bishops. The palace was last occupied by Bishop Wren, and was suffered to decay during the Commonwealth, but some remains of it exist, and a portion of the building is used as a farmhouse. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely; value, £1195. Patron, the Bishop of Ely. The church, a building of rubble in the Norman, Early English, and Perpendicular styles, was restored in 1890. There are Baptist, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist chapels.