Wendy is a hamlet in the

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 ...

of Shingay cum Wendy in South

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a 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 Northamptonshire to the ...

, England around 5 miles north west of Royston.

History

Wendy was a separate parish until 1957 when it was merged with neighbouring Shingay to form the present civil parish of Shingay cum Wendy. The historical parish covered an area of . Its northern border with

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

(formerly Croydon-cum-Clapton) and Arrington followed the River Cam, and its western border with Wendy was marked by the North Ditch. The parish's straight eastern boundary with Whaddon follows the Roman

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' ...

(now the A1198), and its southern border with Bassingbourn and

Abington Pigotts Abington Pigotts is a small village in Cambridgeshire, England about 4 miles (6 km) northwest of Royston, Hertfordshire. History The parish of Abington Pigotts covers an area of . Roughly circular in shape it is surrounded by the parishes of ...

largely follow field boundaries. The hamlet itself is around a mile west of the Roman Road, just south of the river. There were 17 residents 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 manus ...

of 1086, and there were probably around 80 in 1377, though numbers fell in later centuries. By 1801 there were 109 in the parish, rising to a peak of 154 in 1851 before dropping to 66 by 1931. There are six listed buildings in the village and another three on the Roman Road.

RAF Bassingbourn Royal Air Force Bassingbourn or more simply RAF Bassingbourn is a former Royal Air Force station located in Cambridgeshire approximately north of Royston, Hertfordshire and south west of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. During the Second ...

covers a sizeable portion of the southern part of the parish, and was built just prior 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 opposi ...

. The village's name means "river-bend island", named after the sharp bend in the North Ditch where it joins the River Cam.

Church

The former medieval parish church was probably built in the 12th century, extensively rebuilt in the 16th century by the preceptory of Shingay, and dedicated to St Mary and later All Saints. It is listed as having a steeple. By the 17th and 18th century was in a ruinous state and in 1734 was demolished and a new church, only 45 feet in length with a western bell turret, was completed by 1737. By the 1860s the church was deemed unsafe for use and a nearby barn was dedicated for services. The church was again demolished and a new church opened on the same site in 1866. The 19th century church was built in the Early English style with a chancel and south vestry, a three-bay nave with a western bell turret, and a west porch. The double hammer-beam roof over the nave was taken from the recently dismantled church of All Saints in the Jewry that stood opposite

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

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 ...

. Once again the church's foundations proved insufficient and extensive cracks after the

led to its demolition in around 1950. Until 1972 services were held in the mission church at Shingay, after which the old school in Wendy was consecrated as a church, and still serves as All Saints Church.

Village life

Wendy is too small to sustain any pubs or amenities. From at least 1809 to 1851 the Cox family ran the Windsor Arms next to the church and there was a shop for a period during the 19th century, but no pubs have been recorded since then. A school was built in Wendy in 1828 by Thomas Windsor, and was rebuilt in 1875 with an attendance of around 38. By 1902 there were only 19 children and the school was closed in 1904. The Wendy and Shingay District Church of England School opened in Wendy in 1906, closing again in 1931 with the children transferred to Bassingbourn.

References

{{reflist Hamlets in Cambridgeshire Former civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District