Linton 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 authorit ...

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, on the border with

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, an ...

. The village is approximately southeast from the city and

county town In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...

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 beca ...

. The A1307 passes through the village. The civil parish population at the 2011 Census was 4,525.

History

The 1086 ''

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 ...

'' records Linton as "Lintone", with 27 households and two mills. The village has expanded since the 1960s and is now a dormitory village of

. The railway station was on the Stour Valley Railway between Shelford and

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Col ...

, closed since 1967. The Wacky Races was a local annual event that occurred from 2002 to 2006 on the second

Bank Holiday A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or h ...

Weekend in May. It began on the extended Bank Holiday Weekend, which commemorated

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

's 50th coronation anniversary, and raised money for local charities. Participants would race in comedic, homemade costumes and carts down the High Street, with one team mate stopping in each pub to have a pint, and then racing through the fields next to the village and back down the High Street, again drinking in the pubs. Along the course, firemen, from Linton Fire Station, would spray water at the racers, as well as spectators utilising water pistols and water bombs.

Landmarks

St Mary's Anglican Church is more properly known by its dedication to the Blessed Virgin Mary and is therefore the Parish Church of St Mary-the-Virgin serving the whole ecclesiastical parish of Linton. It has been established here on the banks of the River Granta for more than 800 years. The six bells of St Mary's were renovated in 2005. St Mary's bellringers are associated with the Ely Diocesan Association of Church Bell Ringers. Linton House (64 High Street) is a Grade II* listed building. An L-shaped building, it was originally two houses, the later, built by

John Lone John Lone (; jyutping: zyun1 lung4; born October 13, 1952) is an American actor. He starred as Pu Yi in the Academy Award-winning film ''The Last Emperor'' (1987), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. A veteran o ...

dating from about 1690. The west doorcase is said to have been reclaimed from Catley Park. Linton Zoo is on the southern edge of Linton village. At the north side of the parish is Chilford Hall and its vineyards. On Rivey Lane at Rivey Hill is Linton

Water Tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towers often operate in conj ...

. The

River Granta The River Granta is the name of two of the four tributaries of the River Cam, although both names are often used synonymously. The Granta starts near the village of Widdington in Essex, flowing north past Audley End House to merge with the ...

, a chalk stream, runs through the village. There are around 200 chalk streams, most of which are in England. Linton village is on the Icknield Way Path, 110-mile route from

Ivinghoe Beacon Ivinghoe Beacon is a prominent hill and landmark in Buckinghamshire, England, 233 m (757 ft) above sea level in the Chiltern Hills, close to Ivinghoe and Aldbury. Dunstable, Berkhamsted and Tring are nearby. The Beacon lies within ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...

Knettishall Heath Knettishall Heath is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Knettishall in Suffolk. A larger area of 176 hectares is the Knettishall Heath Nature Reserve, which is managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. Despite its name, Kne ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. The Icknield Way Trail, a route used by walkers, horse riders and off-road cyclists, also passes through the village. The author

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

's wife once owned The Queens House in Linton. His wife Vivien bought the house in 1947 but sold the house in 1948. The house is on High Street, opposite The Crown

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

, one of three public houses in the village. There is a trading estate at The Grip.

Education

There are four schools in Linton. Linton CE Infant School is a school in the middle of the village, adjacent to St Mary's church, teaching children aged 4 to 7. At the end of the village facing Balsham, on Wheatsheaf Way, is Linton Heights Junior School, a primary school which teaches children from ages 7 to 11.

Linton Village College Linton Village College is a secondary school in Linton, 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 ...

is on the A1307, the main Haverhill-to-

road, and teaches children aged 11 to 16, including those from surrounding villages. The Granta School, located next to Linton Village Collage, is one of Cambridgeshire's six area special schools, where pupils with special educational needs from the ages of 3 to 19 are taught.

Popular culture

Fictional character

Alan Partridge Alan Gordon Partridge is a comedy character portrayed by the English actor Steve Coogan. A parody of British television personalities, Partridge is a tactless and inept broadcaster with an inflated sense of celebrity. Since his debut in 1991, h ...

stayed at the also fictional Linton Travel Tavern in

I'm Alan Partridge ''I'm Alan Partridge'' is a British sitcom written by Steve Coogan, Peter Baynham and Armando Iannucci. Coogan stars as Alan Partridge, a tactless and inept radio DJ and television presenter who has been left by his wife and dropped from the B ...

, claiming that Linton is

equidistant A point is said to be equidistant from a set of objects if the distances between that point and each object in the set are equal. In two-dimensional Euclidean geometry, the locus of points equidistant from two given (different) points is th ...

between

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, wit ...

.Fake home page of the fictional Linton Travel Tavern
/ref> Linton is near the halfway point of the London-to-Norwich A11 trunk road, although some four miles from the actual road. The actual location used for the BBC television series was the Hilton Hotel on the A41 near

Bushey Bushey is a town in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire in the East of England. It has a population of over 25,000 inhabitants. Bushey Heath is a large neighbourhood south east of Bushey on the boundary with the London Borough of Harrow re ...

in south

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gover ...

External links

*
Linton village web site

2001 Census

Linton Zoo

References

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