[1] The village lies approximately 5 miles (8 km) west-southwest of central Peterborough, near the city's Alwalton district.

Chesterton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England.

Their first appearance was military, a five acre fort at Water Newton on the North border of Chesterton, which was built in the mid first century to guard the crossing of the Nene.

A Civil settlement soon appeared at the gates of the fort, this became Chesterton with its North and West boundary being the River Nene and Billings Brook respectively.

Durobrivae was contained within this boundary, with a Roman Signal Station at its highest point near its Southern border.

[6] In 1085 William the Conqueror ordered that a survey should be carried out across his kingdom to discover who owned which parts and what it was worth.

[9] The Domesday Book does not explicitly detail the population of a place but it records that there was 21 households at Chesterton.

The Domesday Book uses a number of units of measure for areas of land that are now unfamiliar terms, such as hides and ploughlands.

[9] The tax assessment in the Domesday Book was known as geld or danegeld and was a type of land-tax based on the hide or ploughland.

For Chesterton the highest tier of local government is Cambridgeshire County Council which has administration buildings in Cambridge.

[18] Chesterton is part of the electoral division of Norman Cross[16] and is represented on the county council by two councillors.

[19] According to the 2011 census, Chesterton (including Haddon) had a population of 317,[20] with their main industry being in the Wholesale and Retail Trade.

[28] An Ofsted report in 2011 gave Orton Wistow primary school a rating of "Good.

"[30] The nearest secondary school is located 1.4 miles away from the village and is called Ormiston Bushfield Academy.

[31] An Ofsted report in May 2012 rated the school as "Good"[32] St Michael's church, which is located on the north side of the village[33] dates back to the 13th century and has monuments of the Lord of the Chesterton Manor, which belonged to the Beville family.