Hinxton is a village in

South Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, England, with a population of 162,119 at the 2021 census. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Chesterton Rural District and South Cambridgeshire Rural District. I ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The

River Cam The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distance from Cambridge to ...

runs through the village, as does the Cambridge to Liverpool Street railway, though the village has no station. Hinxton parish's southern boundaries form the border between

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 ...

and

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. The village is five miles (8 km) north-west of

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15, ...

and nine miles (14 km) south 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 ...

. The 2001 population was 315. Hinxton is the home of the

Wellcome Genome Campus The Wellcome Genome Campus is a scientific research campus built in the grounds of Hinxton Hall, Hinxton in Cambridgeshire, England. Campus The Campus is home to some institutes and organisations in genomics and computational biology. The Camp ...

, which includes the

Wellcome Sanger Institute The Wellcome Sanger Institute, previously known as The Sanger Centre and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is located on the Wellcome Ge ...

and the

European Bioinformatics Institute The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is an Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) which, as part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) family, focuses on research and services in bioinformatics. It is located on the Well ...

History

The name Hinxton is a contraction of ''Hengestestun'', "the town of Hengest". The village of Hinxton is listed 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 as ''Hestitona'', as ''Hyngeston'' in the Ely Registers of 1341 and ''Hengestone'' in the Ramsey Chartulary. Its parish church is the medieval St Mary and St John Church.

Hinxton Hall

Hinxton Hall, set on an estate of on the banks of the River Cam, is a Grade II* red-brick building built in the eighteenth century.Historic England listing
/ref> It is currently used as a meetings venue, hosting the engagement and learning programmes of Wellcome Connecting Science.

History

The first house on the site of the hall was a modest hunting lodge built by Joseph Richardson of

Horseheath Horseheath is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, situated a few miles south-east of Cambridge, between Linton, Cambridgeshire, Linton and Haverhill, Suffolk, Haverhill, on the A1307 road. It was known to the Roman Empire, Romans, and it had f ...

in around 1740, before being sold to Thomas Brown of

Ickleton Ickleton is a village and civil parish about south of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire, England. The village is beside the River Cam, close to where a southern branch of the Icknield Way crossed the river. The eastern and southern boundaries of the ...

in 1748, passing into the possession of his great-niece Mary Holden. Holden's first husband John Bromwell Jones pulled down the original house and built the present hall between 1748 and 1756. Subsequent owners extended the property and land. In 1953, the owner, Col. R. P. W. Adeane of

Babraham Babraham is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about south-east of Cambridge on the A1307 road. Babraham is home to the Babraham Institute which undertakes research into cell and molecula ...

, sold the hall and estate to Tube Investments Ltd. for use as research laboratories, and new buildings were added on the grounds as laboratories. In 1992, the Hall and its estate was bought by the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

. The Hall was used by the

and housed the early years of the UK's contribution to the Human Genome Project. Hinxton Hall is referenced in

E.M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly '' A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stor ...

's novel

The Longest Journey ''The Longest Journey'' ( nb, Den Lengste Reisen) is a magical realism, magical realist Adventure game, point-and-click adventure video game developed by Norway, Norwegian studio Funcom for Microsoft Windows and released in 1999. The game was a ...

as the home of Emily Failing, the eccentric aunt of leading character Rickie Elliot.

Hinxton Mill

Hinxton Mill straddles the River Cam as it flows northward through the village. Although the present mill was built in the seventeenth century, it is almost certainly the site of the mill mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The mill, used for grinding corn, ceased operation in 1955 and fell into disrepair until being restored in the 1980s with help from Cambridge Past, Present and Future who now own the building; it is open to visitors on about six days per year.

Hinxton Village Hall

The flint and brick building lies at the heart of the village, and dates back to Victorian times. Its community role began when the oldest part of the hall was opened as a reading room for villagers, a place to meet and keep up with the news and share books. Generations of Hinxton residents have cared for the building and over the last five years it has undergone a programme of sympathetic updating – to combine the best of traditional village life with modern amenities. Inside the hall

The village hall is in the High Street, next to the recreation ground. It can be hired for family parties, business and commercial events.

Village life

The village is home to the Red Lion public house, a seventeenth-century building that has been in use as a public house since at least 1841, though there are records of an inn in Hinxton in 1744.

References

External links

{{authority control Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District Villages in Cambridgeshire

History

Hinxton Hall

History

Hinxton Mill

Hinxton Village Hall

Village life

See also

References

External links