Abington Pigotts is a small village in
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
, England about 4 miles (6 km) northwest of
Royston, Hertfordshire
Royston is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Hertfordshire, District of North Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England.
It is situated on the Prime meridian (Greenwich), Greenwich Meridian, which brush ...
.
History
The parish of Abington Pigotts covers an area of . Roughly circular in shape it is surrounded by the parishes of
Shingay
Shingay is a hamlet and former civil parish, now in the parish of Shingay cum Wendy, in the South Cambridgeshire district, in the county of Cambridgeshire, England around 5 miles north west of Royston. In 1951 the parish had a population of 38. ...
,
Wendy
Wendy is a given name now generally given to girls in English-speaking countries.
In Britain, Wendy appeared as a masculine name in a parish record in 1615. It was also used as a surname in Britain from at least the 17th century. Its popularity ...
,
Bassingbourn,
Litlington, and
Steeple Morden with its boundaries largely following minor waterways and streams.
A settlement from the early
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
has been found in the parish, covering around 20 acres a half mile north-west of the church, and was occupied through the Belgic and Roman periods. Pottery from the Anglo-Saxon era has also been found near the site.
In early medieval times Abington was sometimes listed as a hamlet of its southern neighbour, Litlington, despite possessing its own church from at least 1200.
Listed as ''Abintone'' in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086, the name Abington means "estate associated with a man called Abba". In medieval times the village was variously known as ''Abington by Shingay'', after its neighbouring village, and ''Abington in the Clay'', from the heaviness of its soil, to distinguish it from
The Abingtons in the south east of Cambridgeshire. The village became ''Abington Pigots'' by the 17th century after the ''Pykot'' or ''Pigott'' family that owned the manor from the 15th to the 19th century.
The village is notable as being the birthplace of
Thomas Lester, who was prominent in the rural lacemaking industry in
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...
,
establishing a ''Lace Manufactory'' business which survived until the onset of machine-made lace in the early 20th century.
Church
The parish church has been dedicated to St Michael (now St Michael and All Angels) since at least the 13th century and consists of a chancel, nave with south porch and north vestry, and west tower. The present building dates from the 14th century, though the chancel was reconstructed in 1875. The three-stage tower is 15th century, but traces of Romanesque carving from an earlier building can still be seen.
Village life
The high street consists of a number of small 18th- and 19th-century timber-framed cottages. The largest building on the high street is the village's one
pub
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
, The Pig and Abbott, an early 18th-century inn which was known as the
Darby and Joan
Darby and Joan is a proverbial phrase for a married couple content to share a quiet life of mutual devotion.
Usage
''The Nuttall Encyclopædia'' defined the phrase as "a married couple celebrated for their mutual attachment", the ''Random House ...
from the early 19th century until the 1980s. A village hall was opened in 1926.
A schoolroom was built on the road to the church in around 1850 with the children taught by the wives of the local craftsmen. The number of pupils remained around 40 for the rest of the 19th century but had dropped to 15 in the 1920s. In 1926 older children were sent instead to
Bassingbourn with junior children following in 1933. The school reopened on a different site in 1939 but closed again in 1954. Primary children now attend the school in
Steeple Morden before moving to Bassingbourn Village College.
See also
*
List of places in Cambridgeshire
This is a list of cities, towns and villages in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It includes places in the former county of Huntingdonshire, now a district of Cambridgeshire.
A
*Abbotsley
*Abbots Ripton
*Abington Pigotts
*Alconbury
*Alco ...
References
Further reading
*''History of Abington Pigotts with Litlington: churches & parishes, with the manors''; by Magens De Courcy-Ireland. Royston:
he author
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
1944.
External links
*
*
{{authority control
Villages in Cambridgeshire
Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire
South Cambridgeshire District