Knapwell is a hamlet in Cambridgeshire situated about west of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, 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. Cam ...

. It is within the diocese of Ely. Its population was estimated at 110 in 2001. At the 2011 census the population had fallen to fewer than 100. Nearby villages include Boxworth, Conington,

Elsworth Elsworth is a village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England, 9 miles northwest of Cambridge and 7 miles southeast of Huntingdon. At the 2011 census, the population was 726. It was one of only two sites in Cambridgeshire to be cov ...

and the expanding new settlement of

Cambourne Cambourne is a new settlement and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England, in the district of South Cambridgeshire. It lies on the A428 road between Cambridge, 9 miles (14 km) to the east, and St Neots and Bedford to the west. It compris ...

History

The place-name 'Knapwell' is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon will of 1043–5, where it appears as ''Cnapwelle''. It was referred to as ''Cnapenwelle'' in 1060, and was listed as ''Chenepewelle'' 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 manus ...

of 1086, when it was held by the Abbot of

Ramsey Ramsey may refer to: Geography British Isles * Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, a small market town in England * Ramsey, Essex, a village near Harwich, England ** Ramsey and Parkeston, a civil parish formerly called just "Ramsey" * Ramsey, Isle of Man, t ...

. The name means 'Cnapa's well or stream'. 'Cnapa' may be 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 settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''cnapa'' meaning boy or servant, so the name might mean 'boy's well'. It seems likely that Knapwell is named after the chalybeate Red Well in the wood just to the east of the village. The well was the only source of water for both the village and neighbouring Boxworth. Its waters were known for their medicinal properties. A mound to the north-east of the church is believed to be the motte of a Norman

motte-and-bailey castle A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy t ...

. It would have been a small fortification, probably with a timber superstructure, and perhaps dating from The Anarchy under King Stephen. The village's manor house was established in Norman times, between the church and the motte, and traces of a building and moat remain in the wood ( Overhall Grove) to the east of the church.

Church

The village has had a church, dating back to at least 1180. A church, dedicated to All Saints, was probably built in the early 14th century. The medieval church had a long, low chancel and a three-bay aisled nave, all under a single roof, and a west tower. In 1864 the medieval church was demolished, except for the tower, and rebuilt in a plain Gothic style. The original 14th-century tower is built of field stones dressed with limestone and is unbuttressed.

The Knapwell elm trees

Ancient gnarled tree stump (geograph 3049544)

Knapwell was once celebrated for its many ancient pollarded Field Elms, which marked the old boundaries, closes and lanes of the larger medieval village and which were locally called "the Dodds".Mabey, R. ''The Flowering of Britain'', Hutchinson, 1980,p.97

Rackham, Oliver Oliver Rackham (17 October 1939 – 12 February 2015) was an academic at the University of Cambridge who studied the ecology, management and development of the British countryside, especially trees, woodlands and wood pasture. His books inc ...

''Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape'',Dent, 1976, p.1171 The trees grew both in the fields immediately bordering the main street and amongst the houses of the modern village. The name may have derived from "dodderel", a dialect word for a pollard. The trees succumbed to

Dutch Elm Disease Dutch elm disease (DED) is caused by a member of the sac fungi (Ascomycota) affecting elm trees, and is spread by elm bark beetles. Although believed to be originally native to Asia, the disease was accidentally introduced into Americas, America ...

in the 1980s. Overhall Grove (not to be confused with Knapwell Wood) has a notably large number of surviving elm trees.

Village life

The village has no shops or pubs, though was home to the Three Horseshoes pub until its closure in 1880. The local primary school is Elsworth CE(A) Primary School in

References

External links

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