Isle of Ely County Council was the

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irel ...

Isle of Ely The Isle of Ely () is a historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an administrative county. Etymology Its name has been said to mean "island of eels", a reference to the creatures th ...

in the east of England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1889 and was abolished on 1 April 1965. The county council was based at County Hall,

March March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March ...

. It was amalgamated with

Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council of Cambridgeshire, England. The council consists of 61 councillors, representing 59 electoral divisions. The council is based at New Shire Hall at Alconbury Weald, near Huntingdon. It is a me ...

to form the new Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely County Council in 1965. The Isle of Ely County Council was granted a

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

on 1 May 1931. Previous to the grant the council had been using the arms of Diocese of Ely: ''Gules, three ducal coronets, two and one or''. In the 1931 grant, silver and blue waves were added to the episcopal arms, to suggest that the county was an "isle". The crest above the shield was a human hand grasping a trident around which an eel was entwined, referring to the popular derivation of "Ely". On the wrist of the hand was a " Wake knot", representing Hereward the Wake.W. C. Scott-Giles, ''Civic Heraldry of England and Wales'', 2nd edition, London, 1953

References

{{Former county councils of England Former county councils of England Local authorities in Cambridgeshire Local education authorities in England