Conington (Conington All Saints, or "Conington-juxta-Petriburg") is an English 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 Cambridgeshire district of Huntingdonshire. Conington lies about 10 km (6 miles) south of

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 3 km (2 miles) north of

Sawtry Sawtry () is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Sawtry lies approximately north of Huntingdon. Sawtry is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic cou ...

. It is within earshot of the A1(M), part of the Great North Road, which follows the course of the Roman

Ermine Street Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London (''Londinium'') to Lincoln (''Lindum Colonia'') and York (''Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earningas'', ...

. Conington lies within

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popul ...

, which is a

non-metropolitan district Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shire counties'') in a two-tier arrangement. Non-m ...

of Cambridgeshire and one of the historic counties of England.

History

Conington was listed in the Domesday Book in the

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

of Normancross in Huntingdonshire; the name of the settlement was written ''Coninctune'' in the Domesday Book of 1086, when there was just one manor at Conington; the annual rent paid to the lord of the manor in 1066 had been £9 and the rent was the same in 1086. The Domesday Book also records that there were 27 households at Conington. Estimates for the average size of a household at that time range from 3.5 to 5.0 people. These yield population estimates of 94–135. The survey records there was an area of 15 ploughlands at Conington in 1086. In addition to the arable land, there were some of meadow. The total tax assessment for the manor at Conington was nine

geld Geld may refer to: * Gelding, equine castration * Danegeld Danegeld (; "Danish tax", literally "Dane yield" or tribute) was a tax raised to pay tribute or protection money to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was calle ...

. By 1086 there was already a church and a priest. The Cotton Baronetcy of Conington was created in the Baronetage of England on 29 June 1611 for the antiquary

Robert Bruce Cotton Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Baronet (22 January 1570/71 – 6 May 1631) of Conington Hall in the parish of Conington in Huntingdonshire, England,Kyle, Chris & Sgroi was a Member of Parliament and an antiquarian who founded the Cotton library. ...

(1570–1631), who also represented five constituencies in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

. The novelist, expurgator and editor Henrietta Maria Bowdler was born in Conington in 1750. In the Second World War, Conington was located next to Royal Air Force Station Glatton.

RAF Glatton Royal Air Force Glatton or more simply RAF Glatton is a former Royal Air Force station located north of Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England. History United States Army Air Forces use When completed in late 1943, the facility was placed under ...

was constructed to Class "A" standards to support heavy bombers in 1943, as it was to be used by the US Army Air Forces. The 457th Bombardment Group (Heavy) arrived on 21 January 1944. The recognisable tail code of the 457th was the "triangle U" painted on the vertical stabilizers of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses which operated from the air base. The 457th Bomb Group operated from RAF Glatton from January 1944 until 20 April 1945, when it completed its 237th and last combat mission at the conclusion of the war. In All Saints' Church, Conington is a memorial to the 457th Bomb Group.

Governance

As a civil parish, Conington has an elected parish council. It consists of five members. Conington was in the historic and

administrative county An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until either 1973 (in Northern Ireland) or 2002 (in the Republic of Ireland). They are now abolished, although mos ...

of Huntingdonshire until 1965. From 1965, it became part of the new administrative county of

Huntingdon and Peterborough Huntingdon and Peterborough was a short-lived administrative and geographical county in East Anglia in the United Kingdom. It existed from 1965 to 1974, when it became part of Cambridgeshire. Formation The Local Government Act 1888 created fo ...

. Then in 1974, following the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

, Conington became part of the county of Cambridgeshire, with

Huntingdonshire District Council Huntingdonshire District Council is the local authority for the district of Huntingdonshire in Cambridgeshire, England. Based in Huntingdon, it forms the lower part of the two tier system of local government in the district, below Cambridgeshire ...

as its second tier. Conington lies in the district ward of Sawtry. It is represented on the district council by two councillors as part of the electoral division of ''Sawtry and Ellington'', and is represented on the county council by one councillor. It lies in the parliamentary constituency of

North West Cambridgeshire North West Cambridgeshire is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Constituency profile Th ...

,. The member has been

Shailesh Vara Shailesh Lakhman Vara (born 4 September 1960) is a Ugandan-British politician, who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from July to September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) ...

(

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

) since 2005.

Demography

Population

The historical

UK census Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 (during the Second World War), Ireland in 1921/Northern Ireland in 1931,https://www.nisra.gov. ...

population of Conington in the period 1801 to 1901 ranged between 154 in 1801 and 319 in 1851. The subsequent ten-year census results were as follows: All population census figures have been taken from the report ''Historic Census figures Cambridgeshire to 2011'' by ''Cambridgeshire Insight''. In 2011, the parish covered an area of , so that the population density for Conington in 2011 was 42.2 per square mile (16.3 per km²).

Level crossing

The nearby

level crossings A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also ...

and sidings have suffered several

railway accidents Classification of railway accidents, both in terms of cause and effect, is a valuable aid in studying rail (and other) accidents to help to prevent similar ones occurring in the future. Systematic investigation for over 150 years has led to the r ...

, notably the

Connington South rail crash The Connington South rail crash occurred on 5 March 1967 on the East Coast Main Line near the village of Conington, Huntingdonshire, England. Five passengers were killed and 18 were injured. The 22:30 express from King's Cross to Edinburgh, ...

of 1967, which caused five deaths. A former Mayor of Peterborough, Arthur Mellows, was killed at Connington North level crossing, when his car was hit by a train on 16 October 1948. On 1 March 1948, a train struck a lorry at Connington North, causing six deaths. The Connington North level crossing is 68 miles 28 chains from King's Cross on the East Coast Main Line. The crossing has three lines.

External links

Page at GENUKI
– confusingly the church was said here to be dedicated to St Mary, which is the dedication of the church in the other Conington.

References

{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire Huntingdonshire