User:Burwellian/Burwell

Burwell is a large fen-edge village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England, about 10 miles (16 km) north east of Cambridge. It is situated on the south-eastern edge of The Fens, a large area of relatively flat former marshland which lies close to sea level and covers the majority of Cambridgeshire and neighbouring Lincolnshire. The fens to the west of the village are drained with the help of the man-made Cambridgeshire Lode waterways, including Burwell Lode which has been important in the growth of the village.

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Etymology
The name "Burwell" is of Anglo-Saxon origin and refers to a fort (burh-) located close to a spring (-well). The first record of the name in the area dates from 1060 and the village is recorded in the Domesday Book under the spellings Burewelle, Burwella and Burwelle. A spring is situated in the south of the village close to the remains of 12th century Burwell Castle, although there is evidence of prior settlement on or near the castle site.

Old maps sometimes refer to the village as the plural "Burwells", which refers to either Burwell St Mary  and Burwell St Andrew parishes or the split between the High Town around the churches in the south of the village and the newer North Street and Newnham parts of the village which were separated by a causeway.

Early Settlement
There is evidence of human activity in the vicinity of Burwell since prehistory. Flint tools including axes dating from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic have been found on the west side of the village. Further burned and worked flint has been found close to the spring dating from the late Neolithic but the majority of activity in the area at the time seemed to be on the actual Fen to the west of the village, where the discovery of a large number of flint and stone tools on a raised piece of ground suggests that there was already settlement in the parish before the onset of the Bronze Age. During the Neolithic, peat had begun to form on the fens around the village which has partly buried prehistoric sites.

Activity on the fen continued into the Bronze Age, as did activity close to the spring but they were joined by increasing activity on the heath in the south of the parish, where barrows are known to have existed. The southern part of the parish is also the highest ground within it, and is close to the ancient Icknield Way.

As Burwell entered the Iron Age, activity on the fens to the west of the village appears to have diminished as conditions became more marshy. However, ditch systems and enclosures were found during excavations in 1969 and 1995 in the west of the parish. Activity in proximity to the spring continued with evidence discovered for a burial in a nearby ditch and a settlement was uncovered in 2005 on the eastern edge of the village.

Settlement close to the spring continued after Roman colonisation of Britain, as evidence for a Roman settlement has been found 500 yards north of St Mary's Church. Various Roman archeology has been found around the village, including pottery, a hoard of vessels and bowls, a lead vat, and coins possibly relating to a villa on Ness Road, north of the village. Evidence for another villa in the same area comes from roof tiles dating from the 2nd century although the findings around the village cover the 2nd - 4th centuries. Reach Lode on the north-west edge of the parish is likely to be of Roman construction, as was the original Burwell Lode which has since been replaced

Anglo-Saxons
The Romans withdrew from the area in the early 5th Century and were soon replaced by the Angles. The north and south folk whom had settled in former Iceni lands merged in the 6th Century to become the Kingdom of East Anglia, and Burwell fell within this. East Anglia was a reasonably powerful Kingdom, but faced fierce competition from neighbouring Mercia against whom Devil's Dyke was built as a defence and to control movement along Icknield Way.
 * 6th Century?: Devil's Dyke
 * High Town
 * First Fort?

Normans

 * Burnt down by Hereward the Wake in 1071 BH:Burwell
 * Stephen vs. de Mandeville (The Anarchy)East Cambridgeshire On-Line News: English Anarchy & Geoffrey de Mandeville - Scourge of the Fens (mentions Mandeville's death being due to arrow attacking Burwell Castle)
 * Burwell Castle (1142-44 Poss source)
 * St Mary (12th C?) & St Andrew (built by c. 1170 pg24)
 * North Street (CCC: 1350)
 * Newnham (CCC: 1440)
 * Priory [of St John?] (Poss in Religious Buildings instead) (Woodland Trust: Priory wood named after Priory of St John, HER06864) Evidence thin/non-existant pg25)

Early Modern

 * St Andrew abandoned (pg 24: ruinous by 1743), St Mary becomes CofE
 * New Lode, 17th C (BH:Bur) Before 1685
 * Fen drainage begins
 * Barn Fire
 * Community webste page
 * Church Times (NOTE: "...the largest loss of life in a single building ever recorded in the UK." (which seems to be true as far as fires are concerned; more have died from other causes such as crushes)
 * BBC: Plaque unveiling
 * ECDC: Tombstone is Grade II listed, made of limestone
 * Information Britain: Burwell Puppet Show Fire
 * Newmarket local history society
 * Murder

Modern

 * Riot
 * Industry
 * Brickworks
 * Chemical Works
 * Railway
 * WW2
 * HMS Burwell
 * Development towards Ness Road & Low Road

Governance
Burwell is a parish and thus has a parish council to deal with matters within the village. These include the maintenance and provision of both village halls, the recreation ground, playgrounds, and allotments. The Parish Council convenes at the Jubilee Reading Room on The Causeway.

Burwell parish falls within Burwell ward and provides three councillors to the local East Cambridgeshire District Council which convenes at The Grange in Ely. A larger Burwell electoral division also provides one councillor to Cambridgeshire County Council which convenes at Shire Hall in Cambridge.

The village falls within the South East Cambridgeshire constituency, which has been a Conservative stronghold since formation in 1983. James Paice became the local MP in 1987 and held his seat at the 2010 general election. His predecessor as local MP, Francis Pym, served as Foreign Secretary between the Falklands War and the 1983 general election and lived in the village.

Cambridgeshire falls entirely within the East of England constituency for European Parliament elections, which elects seven MEP's.

Local government boundaries have varied somewhat over the years. At a parish level, the boundary followed Devil's Dyke through the neighbouring village of Reach bisecting it until it was formed into a new parish in 1961. The parish boundaries have also changed slightly several times over the years, most obviously on the county border where part of the Parish was lost to Newmarket when it was adjusted to follow the A14 bypass in the 1993.

As with the rest of England, a system of Hundreds used to cover Cambridgeshire until the 19th century. Burwell covered the South-Western edge of the Staploe Hundred, which also included the nearby parishes of Chippenham, Fordham, Isleham, Kennett, Landwade, Snailwell, Soham and Wicken.

East Cambridgeshire District Council only came into being in 1974 with the Local Government Act 1972. Before the reorganisation, Burwell fell inside the Newmarket Rural District which had existed since 1894. Between 1875 and 1894, this was part of a larger Newmarket Rural Sanitary District which also encompassed the Moulton Rural District in neighbouring West Suffolk.

The boundaries of Cambridgeshire itself have also changed somewhat over the years, with the current county only coming into effect in 1974, in the same 1972 Act which created East Cambridgeshire district. Before Huntingdon and Peterborough joined the county in 1974, Burwell fell within Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely which covered the southern and eastern parts of the modern county. Between 1888 and 1965, the village also fell within a smaller administrative county of Cambridgeshire, covering only the southern part of the modern county.

Geology

 * Geology
 * Clunch
 * Chalk
 * &
 * 

Topography

 * Topography
 * The Fens
 * Burwell Lode
 * Farmland & Woods?
 * Devil's Dyke

Village Structure

 * Urban structure
 * North/South
 * Burwells (High Town, Newnham & North Street)
 * 

Culture and Community

 * Burwell Carnival
 * 
 * Reach Fair
 * Twinning

St Mary's

 * User:Burwellian/St Marys


 * Grade I

Stevens' Mill

 * User:Burwellian/Stevens


 * Grade II*

Burwell Castle

 * User:Burwellian/Castle


 * Scheduled monument

Devil's Dyke

 * Devil's Dyke, Cambridgeshire


 * Scheduled monument
 * Site of Special Scientific Interest

Transport
Road access to Burwell is primarily through the B1102 Cambridge to Mildenhall road which runs the length of the village, and from the B1103 which links the village with Newmarket. The A14 passes along the southernmost edge of Burwell parish on the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border, but cannot be accessed without leaving the parish.

Public transport is provided by way of Stagecoach in Cambridge bus routes 10 and 10A running through the village between Cambridge and Newmarket. Stagecoach took over what used to be Cambus in the mid-90's, Cambus itself had only split from the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company in 1984. Eastern Counties had absorbed Burwell and District in 1979, the local bus company having provided transport to nearby Cambridge, Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds as well as further afield destinations such as Great Yarmouth and Felixstowe.

Between 1884 and 1965, Burwell had a railway station in the south of the village on the Cambridge to Mildenhall railway. The station closed to passengers in 1962, and although nothing of the station remains, its presence is still acknowledged in the names of the streets Railway Close and Station Gate on the site of the former station. There was also a halt on Newmarket Road to the south-east of the village. The B1103 still goes over a railway bridge on the site.

To the north of the village, temporary tramways provided access from the nearby Ipswich to Ely Line to the local brickworks, situated near the lode.

Burwell Lode is navigable upto the edge of the village at Anchor Lane. The Lode joins Reach Lode in the north-west corner of the parish before they confluence with the River Cam at Upware, 5 miles from Burwell.

Education
Burwell contains a nursery, a Montessori and a playgroup for pre-school age children.


 * BVC(P)
 * BVC, SVC & St Bedes
 * Cambridge Collegiate Board: http://www.cambridgeareapartnership.org.uk/
 * Former schools at Old School Close, Parsonnage Lane, etc
 * Library
 * Museum

Religious Sites

 * St Mary's
 * Church website
 * old St Andrew's (High St, long gone)
 * New St. Andrews? (North St)
 * Opening date & cost:
 * Priory?
 * Trinity Church
 * Baptist Church
 * Cemetery on Ness Road
 * RC = St Etheldreda in Newmarket.
 * Nearest mosque? Synagogue?
 * BH: Churches & Non Conformity

Sport

 * Sports Centre
 * Swimming Pool

Water
Burwell is served by the water company Anglian Water and falls mainly within the Newmarket Public Water Supply Zone (FS03). The southern edge of the village fall within the Bottisham Public Water Supply Zone (FE35)


 * water companies - Anglian Water
 * Examining Anglian Water we discover:
 * The Crown public house 88 High St, Burwell, Cambridge has the postcode CB25 0HD
 * Putting CB25 0HD into the "In Your Area" section of the Anglian Water website we find Burwell (or at least CB25 0HD) is in The Newmarket Public Water Supply Zone FS03 which, from an Anglian Water Company perspective has total population of 28,347
 * The water supply for Newmarket supply zone originates from ground water sources
 * Drinking quality: Excellent
 * Hardness: 2010 is 296 mg/l
 * Lead: 0.209 microgrammes per litre which favourably compares with the regulatroy standard of less than 25 microgrammes per litre
 * Nitrate: 31.8 milligrammes per litre compared with regulatroy 50 milligrammes per litre
 * Chlorine levels in this zone are 0.31 milligrammes per litre free chlorine and 0.360 milligrammes per litre total chlorine
 * A full Drinking Quality Report for Jan 2009 to December 2009 is available from the Anglian Website
 * --Senra (Talk) 15:58, 14 October 2010 (UTC)


 * notable reservoirs which form part of the local supply - Grafham Water
 * body/authority is responsible for waste management and/or sewerage. - Anglian Water?

Power

 * Distribution Network Operator for electricity - EDF Energy
 * notable energy arrangements in the locality (i.e. wind farm, power station) - Substation.

Healthcare
Healthcare within the village is available through The Burwell Surgery on Newmarket Road, with more extensive services available at Newmarket Community Hospital. The nearest Accident and Emergency ward is at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge which also includes the Rosie Maternity on the same site. Both Addenbrookes and the Rosie are run by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust


 * any hospitals, surgeries, or other health centres in the settlement (with the possibility of elaborating where the nearest NHS hospital may be). - Newmarket Road surgery, Addenbrookes & Newmarket.
 * Using CB25 0HD again, this time on the NHS - Your choices website], we find
 * six doctors surgeries within 8 km of Burwell (erm, strictly CB25 OHD); the nearest is The Burwell Surgery, Newmarket Road, Burwell, Cambridge, Cambs, CB250AE 0.2 miles from CB25 0HD
 * the nearest of ten Hospitals is Newmarket Community Hospital, (providing services for Suffolk PCT), 56 Exning Road Newmarket Suffolk CB8 7JG 3.45 miles from CB25 0HD whilst Addenbrookes is 10.34 miles away
 * NOTE: Newmarket has no A&E so Addenbrookes is the closest in that regard.
 * the nearest of ten dental surgeries is The Dental Surgery, (3.8 miles) 123 High Street, Newmarket, Suffolk, CB8 9AE
 * NOTE: There's also a private Dentist on Ness Road in the village.


 * NHS Trust serves the area. - NHS East of England
 * ambulance service operates in the area.

Fire & Police

 * police forces serves the settlement, and if any stations are in the area.
 * fire service serves the settlement and if any stations are in the area. - Fire Station on Reach Rd.
 * A note on any other notable public services (telecommunications, social housing, and local businesses are not generally suitable).

Media
The village of Burwell is served by a variety of different media sources. The community magazine Clunch and the fortnightly newspaper Burwell Bulletin deal with news on a village level. The village is also within the catchment area of the Cambridge News and Newmarket Journal newspapers, as well as radio stations BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and Heart Cambridgeshire. For regional television, Burwell is in the BBC East and ITV Anglia regions.