Harlton 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 ...

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 ...

in the United Kingdom. The village is south-west 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 ...

and neighbours

Haslingfield Haslingfield is a village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England. The village is about six miles south-west of Cambridge, between Harston, Barton and Barrington. The population in the 2001 census was 1,550 people living in 6 ...

History

The parish of Harlton covers an area of . Its southern border is marked by the ancient track

Mare Way A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four y ...

, which runs along a raised ridge dividing it from Barrington (plus a short border with

Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitari ...

). The Bourn Brook forms its northern boundary with

Comberton Comberton is a village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England, just east of the Prime Meridian. History Archaeological finds, including a Neolithic polished stone axe (found to the south of the current village) and a Bronze Age bar ...

, and its western border with

Little Eversden Little Eversden is a village approximately south-west of Cambridge, England. It has two main roads: Harlton Road which goes through Little Eversden and joins the A603, and High Street. The Prime Meridian runs through the parish just to the west ...

mostly follows the Roman Road (now the A603). Field boundaries and old water channels divide it from

to the east. There is a very short border with Barton at its north-eastern tip. The village was an important source of mining for many centuries. The pits to the south east of the village were used to mine the

clunch Clunch is a traditional building material of chalky limestone rock used mainly in eastern England and Normandy. Clunch distinguishes itself from archetypal forms of limestone by being softer in character when cut, such as resembling chalk in low ...

that was used to build

Cambridge Castle Cambridge Castle, locally also known as Castle Mound, is located in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. Originally built after the Norman conquest to control the strategically important route to the north of England, it played a role in the conf ...

in 1295. The quarry was last used for building material in 1906 and it is now a heavily wooded recreation area. The

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

quarry to the south-west of the village was known as the Lady Quarry from the 15th century but is now filled in.

Gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

was mined alongside the Bourn Brook from at least the 15th century, and

coprolite A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is de ...

digging provided employment for the second half of the 19th century. The village had one of the smallest populations in the Wetherley hundred in medieval times, with 20 residents listed in 1086, and 74 in 1676. The census of 1801 listed 156 residents and the coprolite employment caused an increase to a peak of 335 in 1871. It fell to 201 by 1931 and has risen slowly since. The Cambridge to Bedford railway line reached the parish in the 1860s with

Lord's Bridge railway station Lord's Bridge was a railway station on the Varsity Line which ran between Oxford and Cambridge. Situated in the north of the parish of Harlton on the western outskirts of Cambridge, it was the penultimate station before the line's eastern termin ...

opening in 1862, closing in 1968 as part of the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...

. In 1938 the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

took land south-east of the Roman Road for an ammunition dump with new sidings added to the railway line. It closed in 1955 and in 1957 the

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

built the

Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory The Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory (MRAO) is located near Cambridge, UK and is home to a number of the largest and most advanced aperture synthesis radio telescopes in the world, including the One-Mile Telescope, 5-km Ryle Telescope, and ...

there. The land was bought from the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

in 1971 and the section of the railway line there was used to carry a number of mobile

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency ...

dishes. Listed as ''Herletone'' 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 village's name means "farmstead of a man called Herela". The Manor House was listed as 'Huntingfield Manor' in the 1300s on the British History Online website.

Church

The parish church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built to replace an earlier building in the late 14th century. It comprises a chancel with north vestry, aisled and clerestoried nave with north and south porches, and west tower. Some 14th and 15th-century glass remains and there are 16th-century stalls. The tower contains three bells. The wood-engraver

Gwen Raverat Gwendolen Mary "Gwen" Raverat (née Darwin; 26 August 1885 – 11 February 1957), was an English wood engraver who was a founder member of the Society of Wood Engravers. Her memoir ''Period Piece'' was published in 1952. Biography Gwendolen Ma ...

has a memorial at the church as family and friends donated to its restoration in her memory. It is believed the wood block print by Raverat, 'Harvest Feast' was based on The Manor Barn in Harlton.

Village life

The village retains a public house, the Hare and Hounds, which has been open since at least 1879. The Wheatsheaf pub which was open where the Eversden road crosses the Roman Road from at least 1833 is now La Pergola Italian restaurant and pub. Former pubs include The Red Lion on High Street, open from the early 19th century to 1960, and The Railway Inn, near Lord's Bridge station, open by 1886 and closed by 1966. The village had a school from at least 1601, and a dedicated schoolroom was built in 1816, with a larger one replacing it in 1853. The school moved to accepting primary children only in 1920 with the older children attending Haslingfield, and by the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the attendance was only 16. The school closed in 1959. Primary children now attend Haslingfield Primary School, and secondary children go to

Comberton Village College Comberton Village College is an 11–18 mixed secondary school and sixth form with academy status in Toft, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Cambridge. It opened in 1960 as a village college. History The school was first opened in 1960 by Henr ...

. Harlton has a cricket team who play during the summer months.

Harlton CC Harlton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. The village is south-west of Cambridge and neighbours Haslingfield. History The parish of Harlton covers an area of . Its southern border is marked by the ancient tra ...

compete in the CCA Junior League 3 West and play their home games at the Harlton Oval (known as the Angry Wasp Oval for sponsorship reasons).

References

External links

Harlton village website
{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District