West Wickham 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 ...

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, 10 miles south-east 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 ...

on the border with Suffolk.

History

The parish of West Wickham and Streetly End is approximately rectangular and covers an area of 2,931 acres. Its straight southern border follows the ancient track of Wool Street that divide it from the parishes of Linton and Horseheath. Field boundaries separate it from

West Wratting West Wratting is a village and civil parish 10 miles southeast of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire. At above sea level, it can claim to be one of the highest villages in Cambridgeshire. The parish covers 3,543 acres in south east Cambridge, a thin ...

to the north, and

Balsham Balsham is a rural village and civil parish in the county of Cambridgeshire, England, which has much expanded since the 1960s and is now one of several dormitory settlements of Cambridge. The village is south east of the centre of Cambridge be ...

to the west. Its eastern boundary follows the border with Suffolk. At the time of 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 ...

the parish contained three settlements: Wickham at the centre, plus the hamlets of Enhale (now Yen Hall) and Streetly (now Streetly End). Streetly End still has a number of houses, but Yen Hall consisted only of a farmhouse by the 18th century. By the 14th century a hamlet had appeared at "Bovetoun", and still exists as Burton End. The village was known as Wickham until the 14th century, at which time the prefix "West" was added, presumably to distinguish it from the Wickhams in Suffolk (now known as

Wickham Market Wickham Market is a large village and electoral ward situated in the River Deben valley of Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coastal heritage area. It is on the A12 trunk road north-east of the county town of Ipswich, north-east of Wood ...

and Wickham Skeith). The name "Wickham" means "homestead associated with a ''vicus'', an earlier Romano-British settlement".

Church

The village was listed as having a church in 1200, but nothing survives of the building from that time. The present parish church, dedicated to Saint Mary consists of a chancel, nave with north chapel and south porch, and west tower. The oldest part of the church appears to be the tower, which may date from the 13th century. The nave and chancel were built in the 14th century.

Village life

The village has little in the way of amenities. It has a village hall and recreation ground, which is used for sports, leisure activities and events by local residents and clubs. A post office also operates once a week from the village hall. It had one public house, the White Horse, that opened in the early 19th century but has closed in recent years. Former pubs included the White Hart at Burton End, certainly open by the mid-18th century but closed by 1933, and the Chequers at Streetly End, which opened in the early 19th century. The Chequers closed after a fire destroyed its thatched roof in 1985.Chequers Public House
British Listed Buildings A National school replaced a Sunday School in the village in 1878. After 1937 older children attended Linton Village College, and the school closed in 1971 with primary children instead attending

References

External links

West Wickham Village Website
{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District