Wimpole is a small 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 ...

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 ...

, about southwest 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 ...

. Until 1999, the main settlement on the A603 was officially known and signed as ''New Wimpole and Orwell, Cambridge Road''. On 1 April 1999, following a parish boundary change and a referendum of local residents, the village name was simplified to ''Wimpole''. It is the site of the country house of

Wimpole Hall Wimpole Estate is a large estate containing Wimpole Hall, a country house located within the civil parish of Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, England, about southwest of Cambridge. The house, begun in 1640, and its of parkland and farmland are owned b ...

and its accompanying

Wimpole's Folly Wimpole's Folly is a folly ruin located in the grounds of Wimpole Hall, in the parish of Wimpole, in Cambridgeshire, England. The folly is designed to resemble the ruins of a medieval castle, but is not a ruin itself. It was built on the grou ...

History

The present village of Wimpole was founded around 1840 about a mile to the east of

Ermine Street Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London (''Londinium'') to Lincoln (''Lindum Colonia'') and York (''Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earningas'', ...

, either side of the Roman road that once linked Ermine Street to Cambridge (now the A603). A Roman settlement has been found in the parish on the site of the south-west lodge near Arrington Bridge. Listed as ''Winepole'' 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 parish formerly contained two other small settlements, Wratworth and Whitwell, but both had been absorbed into the single parish by the end of the 13th century, though the manor of Wratworth survived until the 17th century. The name 'Wimpole' comes from "pool of a man named Wina". The pool in question is that found in Wimpole Park. The modern parish is 2468 acres in extent.

Parish church

St Andrew's Church, Wimpole (16976782298)

The parish church of St Andrew is in use within the

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 ...

Group of Parishes, holding services on the first and third Sundays of each month. The building is Grade II* listed. It is next-door to the Hall and was once part of the Hall's estate (whose east service wing nearly abutted it at one point). It contains the family tombs of some of its residents, such as the Earls of Hardwicke, and a stained-glass window commemorating

Thomas Agar-Robartes Thomas Charles Reginald Agar-Robartes (known as Tommy) (22 May 1880 – 30 September 1915) was a British Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician. Background and education Tommy Agar-Robartes was the eldest son and heir of Thomas Agar-Robartes, ...

, eldest son of Thomas Charles, 6th Viscount Clifton and Mary, Viscountess Clifton of Lanhydrock, Bodmin, Cornwall. A medieval church on the site was demolished (except for most of the Chicheley

Chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area in ...

or Chapel dating to 1390, which survived despite thus being open to the north side of the body of the nave during the 1749 construction work) in 1749 to build the present nave and chancel. The chantry's name dates to when the estate was owned by

Henry Chichele Henry Chichele ( , also Checheley; – 12 April 1443) was Archbishop of Canterbury (1414–1443) and founded All Souls College, Oxford. Early life Chichele was born at Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, in 1363 or 1364; Chicheley told Pope Euge ...

and his relations' descendants. However, it was actually founded by the previous owner of the estate, Sir William de Staundon (MP, Master of the Grocer's Company, and

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...

in 1392 and 1407) in c.1390. He and his first wife Elizabeth are buried at Wimpole. Both the church and chantry were remodelled in

Neo Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style in the mid 19th century, and then restored again straight after 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 ...

, in 1993/4 and in 1997.

Notable people

John Conder John Conder D.D. (3 June 1714 – 30 May 1781) was an Independent minister at Cambridge who later became President of the Independent College, Homerton in the parish of Hackney (parish), Hackney near London. John Conder was the theological tutor ...

(1714 – 1781), Independent minister

References

External links

Wimpole Past. A local history and genealogy site for Wimpole
{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District

History

Parish church

Notable people

See also

References

External links