Here at Hildersham we have a good team of enthusiasts that make up the Hildersham History Recorders, if you would like help with any Family, Local, Social or Church History enquiries at Hildersham, please feel free to contact our Secretary or ring 01223 892430 or click here for an enquiries form.  We are always more than willing to help and have available a transcribed full set of digital Hildersham Census and parish registers.

In Cambridgeshire we are extremely lucky to have two fantastic depositories of local records, these are the Cambridgeshire Collection currently located at the Cambridge Central Library and Cambridgeshire Archives at Shire Hall, Castle hill, Cambridge. 

A lot of their records can now be found on their online search facility called "CALM".  To have a look at some of the records held at the Cambridgeshire Archves relating to Hildersham why not click here.

In 1851, Gardner in his one off directory listed Hildersham as being of 1,450 acres, with 50 houses, miraculously, 119 women and 119 men, with a total rateable value of £687.

In 1904, Kelly's Directory gave the following account of Hildersham

HILDERSHAM is a parish and pretty village on the river Granta, 1.5 miles north-west from the Linton station of the Cambridge and Melford branch of the Great Eastern railway, 9 south-east from Cambridge, in the Eastern division of the county, hundred of Chilford, Union and Petty sessional division of Linton, County Court district of Saffron Walden, Rural Deanery of Camps, and Archdeaconry and Diocese of Ely. The church of Holy Trinity is a building of rubble, chiefly in the ‘decorated style’, consisting of Chancel, Clerestoried Nave, Aisles, South Chantry, South Porch and a Western Tower of Early English date containing 3 Bells, presented to the church by the sisters of the rector: In the Chantry are two oaken effigies of Sir Robert Busteler and his wife; and some fine Brasses to their descendants Robert de Paris, of Caermarthen, ob. 1379, and his widow Alianora, with kneeling effigies besides a ‘floriated cross’; and to Henry Paris esq. Ob. 1466, with effigy in full armour under a mutilated canopy; there is also a small brass with knightly effigy in plate armour to Henry Paris, ob. 1427, and a skeleton figure in shroud, circa 1530: The Tower and Sacristy date from the 12th century, and the former contains an ancient ladder; there is an early octagonal Font: The Stained East window is a memorial to the late Rev. Charles Goodwin M.A. rector from 1806, and patron, and Sarah his wife: In the North and South Aisles are four fine Stained Windows of the 14th century, and there are others inserted in 1885, and also containing ‘Fragments of glass of Ancient date’:

The Reredos of Alabaster, executed from a design by Mr. C. A. Buckler, Architect, was a memorial gift to the church: The Nave and Chancel were new roofed in 1878, and the church was repaired in 1890, under the directions of Messrs. Buckler, Architects, of Oxford, the total cost amounting to over £2000: There are 200 sittings. The Register dates from the year 1559. The living is a Rectory, net yearly value £290, with residence and including 58 acres of ‘Glebe’, in the gift of the Misses Goodwin, and held since 1900 by the Rev. Philip Richard Phillips M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge. Hildersham Hall, the residence of the Hon. Mrs Thornton, stands in a park consisting of 70 acres, well wooded and containing a piece of ornamental water.

Denys Alexander Shine Lawlor Huddleston esq. of Sawston Hall, is Lord of the Manor and principal landowner. The soil is Gravel and Chalk. The chief crops are Wheat, Barley and Oats. The area is 1,511 acres; rateable value, £1,506; the population in 1901 was 187.

Sexton: Gerorge Davy

Post, Parcel & Postal Order office: - Frederick French, Sub-Postmaster.  Letters received through Cambridge, delivered at 7am & dispatched at 7.30pm.  The nearest money order or telegraph office is Little Abington, 1.5 miles distant.

Public elementary school: enlarged & neewly rebuilt in 1879-80, for 70 children; average attendance, 40; Miss Laura Thompson, Mistress

Prominent Residents:

The Goodwin Misses (Sarah & Frances)

Phillips; Revd Philip Rd M.A. Rectory

Thornton; Hon. Mrs; Hildersham Hall

Tomes; John Edwin; Old Mill House

Conder Samuel, Beer Retailer

Conder William; Collector of Rates

French Frederick; Engineer, Blacksmith & Sub-Postmaster

French Mary; Draper

Gibson Clara; Beer retailer

Kemp Jabez; Miller (Wind)

Potter George Henry; Land Agent & Farmer; Hildersham Dairy

Unwin George; Farmer; Cooks Pen

Vale James; Shopkeeper