Ely is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England, 14 miles northeast of Cambridge, 24 miles southeast of Peterborough and 80 miles from L…Ely is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England, 14 miles northeast of Cambridge, 24 miles southeast of Peterborough and 80 miles from London. At the 2021 census, it had a population of 19,200. Ely is built on a 23-square-mile Kimmeridge Clay island which, at 85 feet, is the highest land in the Fens. It was due to this topography that Ely was not waterlogged like the surrounding Fenland, and an island separated from the mainland. Major rivers including the Witham, Welland, Nene and Great Ouse feed into the Fens and, until draining commenced in the eighteenth century, formed freshwater marshes and meres within which peat was laid down. Once the Fens were drained, this peat created a rich and fertile soil ideal for farming.
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