The Offords is the name given to the two villages of

Offord Cluny Offord Cluny is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Offord Cluny and Offord D'Arcy. It is north of St Neots and south-west of Huntingdon. Offord Cluny is in Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridges ...

and

Offord D'Arcy Offord D'Arcy is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Offord Cluny and Offord D'Arcy. It is north of St Neots and south-west of Huntingdon. Offord D'Arcy is in Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridg ...

, situated on the east bank of the

River Great Ouse The River Great Ouse () is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the Wa ...

between

Saint Neots St NeotsPronunciation of the town name: Most commonly, but variations that ''saint'' is said as in most English non-georeferencing speech, the ''t'' is by a small minority of the British pronounced and higher traces of in the final syllable ...

and

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...

in west

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 ...

. The Offords were both recorded 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 ...

as 'Upeforde' under two different landowners, which suggests they were one village at that time. By the 13th Century they had evolved into two distinct settlements, and remained so until the proximity and resulting close co-operation of the two villages lead to their merger in 2010. In 2008 the Parish Councils merged, and in 2010 the Huntingdon (Parishes) Order 2009 officially created the new Parish of 'Offord Cluny and Offord D'Arcy'.

Origins

The name 'Offord' originates from the name found in the Domesday Book 'Upeforde', which in turn is believed to be derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "uppe", up (stream), and "ford", ford. The name 'Cluny' comes from

Cluny Abbey Cluny Abbey (; , formerly also ''Cluni'' or ''Clugny''; ) is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saint Peter. The abbey was constructed in the Romanesque architectural style, with three churches ...

in the Bourgogne region of France, which were granted a manor in Offord by Arnulf de Hesding some time before 1086. The name 'D'Arcy' is first mentioned in records when, in 1279 "William de Broughton was holding a manor, with a common fishery, in Offord Darcy of the Abbot of Ramsey".

Today

Today the Offords have an estimated population of 1,240; in the 2001 census Offord Cluny had a population of 502 and Offord D'Arcy a population of 747. The parish church shared by the Offords is All Saints in Offord Cluny, a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

dating back to the 13th Century.

Baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

weddings A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...

and

funerals A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

are held there along with a monthly family service. Offord Village Hall provides a meeting place for (amongst others) the Offord Players (the local amateur dramatics group), the Offord Gardeners Association, the Mums and Tots group and on occasion the 'Cotton Farm Action Group'. The community is served by two garages (a

MOT test The MOT test (or simply MOT) is an annual test of vehicle safety, roadworthiness aspects and exhaust emissions required in the United Kingdom for most vehicles over three years old. In Northern Ireland the equivalent requirement applies after ...

and servicing centre and a TVR/

Noble Automotive Noble Automotive Ltd, more commonly known simply as Noble, is a British sports car manufacturer based in Leicester. Noble Automotive Ltd. was established in 1999 by Lee Noble in Leeds, West Yorkshire, for producing high-speed sports cars with ...

garage), a village store and two pubs (the Swan Inn and the Horseshoe Inn & Restaurant). Local children can attend the Offord Primary school, ranked in the top five in Cambridgeshire. There are a number of events held throughout the year including the Offord Film Festival, the Offord Dog Show and the Offord Music Festival, the last two of which are held at Millennium Green, the local village green. There is an

equestrian centre An equestrian facility is created and maintained for the purpose of accommodating, training or competing equids, especially horses. Based on their use, they may be known as a barn, stables, or riding hall and may include commercial operations descr ...

providing riding instruction and livery service, and a local

angling Angling is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook or "angle" (from Old English ''angol'') attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated via a fishing rod, although rodless techniqu ...

club which fishes the

river Great Ouse The River Great Ouse () is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the Wa ...

in and around the villages.

Demography

Population

In the period 1801 to 1901 the population of Offord Cluny was recorded every ten years by the

UK census Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 (during the Second World War), Ireland in 1921/Northern Ireland in 1931,https://www.nisra.gov. ...

. During this time the population was in the range of 170 (the lowest was in 1801) and 369 (the highest was in 1851). At the same time, the population of Offord D'Arcy was in the range of 156 (the lowest was in 1801) and 437 (the highest was in 1861). From 1901, a census was taken every ten years with the exception of 1941 (due to 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 ...

). All population census figures from report ''Historic Census figures Cambridgeshire to 2011'' by ''Cambridgeshire Insight''.

References

External links