Bartlow 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 authorit ...

in the South Cambridgeshire district of

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 t ...

, England, about south-east 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 ...

and west of Haverhill in

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 ...

. 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 ...

runs through the village.

History

At Bartlow is one of the smallest parishes in

. Its southern border, which was partially straightened on a few successive occasions to follow the former railway line, divides it from Ashdon parish in

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, 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 Riv ...

. It also has borders with the neighbouring parishes of

Castle Camps Castle Camps was a Norman Castle located in what is now the civil parish of Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire. Owners Castle Camps was originally a Saxon manor, belonging to Wulfwin, a Thane of King Edward the Confessor. After the Norman invasion, W ...

and

Shudy Camps Shudy Camps is a village in the south-east corner of Cambridgeshire, England, near the border of Essex and Suffolk, and is part of the Chilford Hundred. In 2001, according to the census, the population was 310, increasing to 338 at the 2011 Cen ...

to the east,

Horseheath Horseheath is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, situated a few miles south-east of Cambridge, between Linton and Haverhill, on the A1307 road. It was known to the Romans, and it had for a while a fine house in a great park, but both are now ...

to the north, and

Linton Linton may refer to: Places Australia * Linton, Victoria Canada * Linton, Ontario * Linton, Quebec United Kingdom England * Linton, Cambridgeshire * Linton, Derbyshire * Linton (near Bromyard), Herefordshire * Linton (near Ross-on-Wye), Her ...

to the west. Though the area has been occupied since Roman times, there is no record of Bartlow itself as a village until 1232, largely because the settlement south of the River Granta with its Roman burial mounds was part of Ashdon parish nearby in Essex. Recorded as ''Berkelawe'' in 1232, the name "Bartlow" means "mounds or tumuli where

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' cont ...

trees grow".

Bartlow Hills

Bartlow is also home to

Bartlow Hills Bartlow Hills is a Roman tumuli cemetery in Bartlow, Cambridgeshire, England. The site was in Essex until a boundary alteration in 1990. Four of the original seven tumuli or barrows remain; the largest three are accessible to the public, the nor ...

, a Roman tumuli cemetery with four remaining mounds, though only one falls into the parish of Bartlow. Originally, all of the Bartlow Hills were in

County and were part of the parish of Ashdon, a village in Essex (1.5 miles south), when the boundary between

and Essex ran from Steventon End to the River Granta, then along the Granta westwards to

, as shown on ordnance survey maps including those dated 1805, 1838 and 1882. There were originally seven Bartlow mounds. The tallest at 15 metres in height is the largest barrow north of the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

. For centuries the mounds were believed to cover the bodies of those killed at the

Battle of Assandun The Battle of Assandun (or Essendune) was fought between Danish and English armies on 18 October 1016. There is disagreement whether Assandun may be Ashdon near Saffron Walden in north Essex, England, or, as long supposed and better evidenced, ...

in 1016, but excavation demonstrated that they are the graves of a wealthy family and date from the 1st or 2nd century AD. Excavations in the 19th century found large wooden chests, decorated vessels in bronze, glass and pottery and an iron folding chair, most of which were lost in a later fire at Bartlow Hall. A small Roman villa, occupied until the late 4th century, was situated north of the mounds and was excavated in 1852.

Church

It has long been maintained that the church in Bartlow was built by King Cnut near the site of the

, but no evidence for a building of that age has been found; another possibility is that the church in question is St Andrew's in Ashingdon, Essex. The present parish church of Bartlow, dedicated to St Mary, consists of a chancel, a nave with north porch, and a circular west tower. The tower is all that remains of what is believed to be the original church and dates from the late 11th or early 12th century. The nave and chancel were built in the 14th century. Bartlow St. Mary is one of only two existing

round-tower church Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, mostly in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, six in Essex, three in Sussex and two each in Cambridgeshire and Berksh ...

es in

, the other one being located in

Snailwell Snailwell is a small village and civil parish in East Cambridgeshire, England around north of Newmarket. History The parish of Snailwell covers an area of in the extension of eastern Cambridgeshire that surrounds the town of Newmarket in Suff ...

.Bartlow St. Mary
- Round-tower Churches There are three bells in the tower, all cast by William Chamberlain in 1440 and still hang in their original frame. The first and second bells' weights are unknown but the tenor (largest) is 9 cwt. Due to the frame being unsafe, they are not rung full circle. The church is also known for its 15th-century wall-paintings whose fragments include depictions of

St Christopher Saint Christopher ( el, Ἅγιος Χριστόφορος, ''Ágios Christóphoros'') is venerated by several Christian denominations as a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman emperor Decius (reigned 249–251) or alternatively u ...

, St Michael weighing souls, and St. George's Dragon.

Village life

The village has one remaining pub; the Three Hills pub was open by 1847 and is housed in a 17th-century building. Bartlow was listed as having two alehouses in 1682. The Three Hills pub is now open again having been refurbished.

Railways

The railway reached the village in 1865 when the Stour Valley line from Great Shelford to Haverhill opened, running along the southern edge of the parish, with a secondary line on the Saffron Walden Railway branching at Bartlow opening in 1866.

Bartlow railway station Bartlow railway station was a station in Bartlow, Cambridgeshire on the Stour Valley Railway at the junction with the Saffron Walden Railway. There were two platforms on the Stour Valley line and a separate linked platform for the line to Saff ...

was open at the railway bridge on Ashdon Road until closing when the Haverhill line was axed in 1967. The station is now a private house called Booking Hall.

References

External links

Bartlow Village website

Bartlow Hills at the Megalithic Portal
{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District