Benwick is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the Fenland district of

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. It is approximately from

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

and from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. The population of Benwick was recorded as 1137 in the

United Kingdom Census 2011 A Census in the United Kingdom, census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Inter ...

with 452 households. The River Nene (Old Course) (part of the

Middle Level Navigations The Middle Level Navigations are a network of waterways in England, primarily used for land drainage, which lie in The Fens between the River Nene, Rivers Nene and Great Ouse, and between the cities of Peterborough and Cambridge. Most of the a ...

) passes through the village, which is thus accessible by boat from the inland waterways network in England.

History

The settlement's name is derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''bean'' or ''beam'', and ''wic'', meaning "farm where beans are grown" or "farm by a tree-trunk." Benwick's High Street is built on a

roddon A roddon, also written as rodham, roddam or rodden, is the dried raised bed of a watercourse such as a river or tidal-creek, especially in The Fens in eastern England. Such raised silt and clay-filled beds are ideal for settlement in the less f ...

; the silt banks of the old West Water river. The earliest records of village refer to a garrison built in Benwick by Geoffrey de Mandeville in 1143. In 1221, Benwick had 15 tenants and by 1251, 32.'North Witchford Hundred: Doddington'
A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 4: City of Ely; Ely, N. and S. Witchford and Wisbech Hundreds (2002), pp. 110–116. It used to be in the parish of Doddington, one of the largest parishes in England. Under the Doddington Rectory Division Act of 1856 it was divided into seven rectories. H. C. Darby, in his ''Drainage of the Fens'', records that in 1611 a scholar from the continent, toured the Isle of Ely, noting that the houses in Benwick were all surrounded by water, like islands, and the inhabitants were occupied with fishing and fowling. In 1774 the

Earl of Orford Earl of Orford is a title that has been created three times. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1697 when the naval commander Admiral of the Fleet Edward Russell was made Earl of Orford, in the County of Suffolk. He was cr ...

remarked of Benwick that "the number of children crossing near a cottage and a school added much to the scene, in appearance much like the best Flemish Landscapes". In 1737, it was reported 'From March in the Isle of Ely we hear of a most audacious and uncommon Outrage committed on the 6th inst. at Berwick, a small Village between March and Whittlesey, by a numerous Body of Irishmen, who having swarm'd in those Parts for Harvest-Work, upon a Quarrel with the Inhabitants they ravag'd and plunder'd the whole Town and the next Day they attempted the like at March (and) might probably have succeeded, had not Numbers from Whittlesey came opportunely to the Succour of the March-Men but after a sharp Engagement, wherein several were wounded on both Sides, the Irishmen were put to the Route, leaving behind them only five of their Companions, who were taken Prisoners and committed to Wisbech Goal'. In 1864 the

village lock-up A village lock-up is a historic building once used for the temporary detention of people in England and Wales, mostly where official prisons or criminal courts were beyond easy walking distance. Lockups were often used for the confinement of dru ...

was demolished and sold. From 1898 to 1966 Benwick was the terminus of the Benwick goods railway which ran from Three Horseshoes junction at Turves, on the

Ely Ely or ELY may refer to: Places Ireland * Éile, a medieval kingdom commonly anglicised Ely * Ely Place, Dublin, a street United Kingdom * Ely, Cambridgeshire, a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England ** Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formal ...

line. The station was on the road to

Whittlesey Whittlesey (also Whittlesea) is a market town and civil parish in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England. Whittlesey is east of Peterborough. The population of the parish was 16,058 at the 2011 Census. History and architecture W ...

. There was never a passenger service on the line, except a special enthusiasts train on 9 September 1956. ''Benwick Bygones'', a book on the History of Benwick was published in 2008 by Adam Keppel-Garner and Janet Fountain.

Listed buildings in Benwick

Governance

Benwick Parish Council consists of seven members; elections are held every four years, the last were in 2015. Benwick is represented on

Fenland District Council Fenland may mean: * Fenland, or the Fens, an area of low-lying land in eastern England ** Fenland District, a local authority district in Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, forming part of the Fens ** Fenland Airfield, an airfield near Spalding, ...

. Benwick is part of the parliamentary constituency of

North East Cambridgeshire North East Cambridgeshire is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Steve Barclay, a Conservative. Constituency profile This large and rural seat is in The Fens and has a significant farming and ...

; the current Member of Parliament is

Steve Barclay Stephen Paul Barclay (born 3 May 1972) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care since October 2022, having previously held the position from July to September 2022 under Boris Johnson. He served a ...

Religion

Records exist of an early chapel to St James, where an

indulgence In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The '' Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God o ...

for repairs was granted in 1518, whilst the earliest recorded church was built around 1637 but unconsecrated. The Parish Church of St Mary's was started in 1850 and opened in 1854. Designed by

Samuel Sanders Teulon Samuel Sanders Teulon (2 March 1812 – 2 May 1873) was an English Gothic Revival architect, noted for his use of polychrome brickwork and the complex planning of his buildings. Family Teulon was born in 1812 in Greenwich, Kent, the son of a ...

, it was built on the site of the earlier unconsecrated church. St Mary's was built of Norfolk carr stone with

Caen stone Caen stone (french: Pierre de Caen) is a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone quarried in north-western France near the city of Caen. The limestone is a fine grained oolitic limestone formed in shallow water lagoons in the Bathonian Age about ...

facings, costing £2,500 to build. The tower contained two bells and a clock was added in 1871. In 1966 the tower was removed and the clock loaned to March Museum. Over time the church moved more and was condemned. The last service was held in 1980 and in 1985 the church was demolished. The font and doorway from the parish church are now at St Jude's, Westwood, Peterborough. A

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

Chapel was built in 1833; a plain square building to seat 150. An organ was installed in 1923. The chapel fell into disuse in 2006 and was subsequently sold and demolished. A

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

chapel was first built in 1818 on land endowed from Gideon Gascoigne; at first just a preaching place as the church was not formed until 1858. The chapel was whitewashed and thatched but in 1873 was recorded as being in a dilapidated state. A new chapel opened in 1874. The chapel was demolished in 1963. After years of fundraising, in 2012 a church room was built as an extension to the village hall.

Demography

At the time of the 2011 census, Benwick parish had 1137 inhabitants – 548 males and 589 females, living in 452 households.The Benwick Bugle: September 2013. Available Online: https://issuu.com/benwickbugle/docs/16._september-october

References

Bibliography

* * Fountain, J and Keppel-Garner, A (2008). ''Benwick Bygones'' (1 ed.). Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Victoire Press.

External links

Benwick
{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire Fenland District