DOWNHAM, a parish in Ely district, Cambridge; on the Peterborough and Ely railway, near Chittisham r. station, 2¾ miles N by W of Ely. It has a post office under Ely. Acres, 9, 789. Real property, £18, 075. Pop., 2, 158. Houses, 467. The manor belonged to the see of Ely; 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. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely. Value, £1, 108.* Patron, the Bishop of Ely. The church is ancient; of brick and stone. There are chapels for Baptists and Wesleyans. Town-lands produce £158 a year.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))