Dry Drayton 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 ...

about 5 miles (8 km) northwest of

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 ...

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, listed as Draitone in the Domesday Book in 1086. It covers an area of .

History

The ancient parish of Dry Drayton formed between the Roman

Via Devana Via Devana is the name given to a Roman Road in England that ran from Colchester in the south-east, through Cambridge in the interior, and on to Chester in the north-west. These were important Roman military centres and it is conjectured that the ...

(now the A14) to the north, and the Cambridge to St Neot's road to the south, covering an area of 2421 acres. In 1966 around 350 acres were removed from the north west of the parish to create the new civil parish of

Bar Hill Bar Hill is a purpose-built village with a population of 4,000 about 4 miles (7 km) northwest of Cambridge, England on the A14 road, just east of the Prime Meridian. History Prior to the building of the Bar Hill settlement the area was o ...

. Now completely cleared of ancient woodland, the village has been used for arable farming for centuries. Listed as ''Draitone'' 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 ...

, the village became known as Dry Drayton by the start of the 13th century to distinguish it from

Fen Drayton Fen Drayton is a small village between Cambridge and St. Ives in Cambridgeshire, England, and between the villages of Fenstanton and Swavesey. The village has a primary school, village hall, tennis courts and football fields, where Drayton Li ...

(5 miles to the north west) and the fact that it was susceptible to times of drought. The name "Drayton" means "farmstead where drays or sledges are used".

Church

The parish church in the village has been dedicated to St Peter and St Paul since the 15th century. The building dates from the 13th century, and consists of a chancel, an aisled and clerestoried nave with north porch, and a three-storey west tower. The tower is the oldest part of the present building and dates from the 13th century, as does the majority of the chancel and nave, though the church was

restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian music musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004 by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard ...

in the 19th century. The plain octagonal font dates from the 13th century.

Village life

Dry Drayton has an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church, a

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 ...

church, a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

and a

cricket ground Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by strikin ...

. The village has one remaining public house, The Black Horse, that opened around 1780. Former pubs include the Three Horseshoes, that opened in the mid-18th century and closed in the mid-20th century. Away from the village was the Five Bells, that opened in the early 19th century where the

Oakington Oakington is a small rural Anglo-Saxon village north-west of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire in England, and belongs to the administrative district of South Cambridgeshire. Since 1985 the village has formed part of the parish of Oakington and Westw ...

road met the Huntingdon turnpike (now the A14). It became a farmhouse in the first decades of the 20th century. The village High Street once was the main focus of the village but with expansion the focus has moved towards the area closer to the field called 'The Park', despite not being a play park or recreational area. Most of the village services and shops closed following the opening of the

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

superstore in Bar Hill.

Dry Drayton is connected to Bar Hill by a cycle path and pedestrian path known as "The Drift".Dry Drayton - Domesday Reloaded
/ref> There is currently a campaign to improve the cycling facilities between Bar Hill, Dry Drayton, Madingley and Cambridge by providing an off-road cycle trac
www.bhddmadcycle.com

Nearby villages

to the northeast * Hardwick to the south *

Madingley Madingley is a small village near Cambridge, England. It is located close to the nearby villages of Coton and Dry Drayton on the western outskirts of Cambridge. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 210. The village was kno ...

to the southeast *

to the north

References

External links

DryDrayton.net Village websiteDry Drayton Village Hall website
{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District