Etton 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 the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

area of the city of

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire unti ...

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 ...

, in England. For electoral purposes it forms part of Northborough ward in

North West Cambridgeshire North West Cambridgeshire is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Constituency profile Th ...

constituency. The parish had a population of 158 persons and 58 households in 2001. Woodcroft is a

deserted medieval village In the United Kingdom, a deserted medieval village (DMV) is a former settlement which was abandoned during the Middle Ages, typically leaving no trace apart from earthworks or cropmarks. If there are fewer than three inhabited houses the conve ...

and site of

Woodcroft Castle Woodcroft Castle is a moated medieval castle in the parish of Etton, Cambridgeshire, England. History Woodcroft Castle was built at the end of the 13th century near the city of Peterborough in the Soke of Peterborough (now in Cambridgeshire). ...

History

A mysterious Neolithic settlement at Etton Woodgate was excavated by

Francis Pryor Francis Manning Marlborough Pryor (born 13 January 1945) is an English archaeologist specialising in the study of the Bronze and Iron Ages in Britain. He is best known for his discovery and excavation of Flag Fen, a Bronze Age archaeological si ...

in 1982. He reported that the site was in two halves, with each working building on one side mirrored by an unused 'ritual' copy on the other.

was built and moated about 1280. The medieval west range and corner tower survive along with an early Tudor (late 1400s) north wing. During the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

it fell to Parliamentary troops in 1648. Peterborough Corporation Water Works opened here in 1907 "to augment the supply of water to the City of Peterborough."Water works at Elton
Hidden Heritage (retrieved 19 December 2009)

References

Sources

* East Anglian Archaeology report No.109, 2005: Archaeology and Environment of the Etton Landscape, by Charles French and Francis Pryor, Oxbow Books;

External links

Village Signpost
Villages in Cambridgeshire Geography of Peterborough Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire English Civil War {{Cambridgeshire-geo-stub