Covington and Keyston History Group
Covington and Keyston History Group was formed with the aim of researching, recording and presenting the history of both villages. Meetings take place on the second Monday of the month from October to March at 7:00pm alternating between Covington and Keyston Village Halls.
The programme for each 'season' can include visiting speakers, primary document research, identification of archaeological finds. Visitors are very welcome to come along to Group meetings. We also go on interesting summer outings, which usually include a very good lunch!
Recent topics have included talks on Rural Protests, The Huntingdon Mint, Identifying worked Flint, and an Archaeological dig at the Priors Hall Roman Estate in Corby. Some summer highlights have included visits to Kimbolton Castle and Huntingdon Archives along with the continuance of the archaeology activities including metal detecting, field walking and test pits / trenches.
Covington is a small village, consisting of never more than 200 souls for most of its history, so attempting a genealogy of the entire village is a reasonably achievable target. Simon Parsons is currently distilling parish records, gravestones, photographs, personal histories and stories into a genealogy database. The site is being regularly updated, usually when Simon is on holiday, with 1100 People and 253 Families entered as of the last update on 4th December, 2023. Unless original family name known, female subjects retain their maiden name all the way through. You can access the Covington database by clicking HERE.
Following the creation of The Covington and Keyston History Group, it was decided that we should also have a database of Keyston residents. The village has always been slightly larger than Covington with a peak population of just short of 240 in 1881, since 1951 we do not have an exact population, as for reporting purposes, it was merged with Bythorn. We do have access to St John the Baptist church records for Births, Deaths and Marriages along with Census data for the village from 1841 to 1911 so populating the database should not be difficult. You can access the Keyston database by clicking HERE.
History Group – Latest News
CKHG – Stall at Keyston Fete
Covington and Keyston History Group will be hosting a table at the Keyston Church / Village Hall Fete from 2:00pm on the 21st June 2025 in the village hall carpark. At which we will display the Keyston timeline based on […]
CKHG – Summer Archaeological Dig – Part 1
Covington and Keyston History Group will be returning to a field in Covington on the weekend of 14th June 2025 at 10:00am to continue the investigation started last year. Three trenches remain open and we intend to see if we […]
CKHG – Pot Identification Part 2
Covington and Keyston History Group intends to complete the pot identification at Bottom Farm on the Saturday 31st May at 10:00am from the Keyston fieldwalking earlier this year. Any non members that wish to take part please get in touch […]