Little Paxton
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Little Paxton in
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 ...
, England 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 authority ...
that lies south of
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 ...
and north of
St 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 ...
. It is in the district and historic county of
Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popul ...
. Until the 1970s it was a minor village and the church was under threat of closure. The building of a housing estate and a junior school revived its fortunes and the establishment of the Paxton Pits Nature Reserve around part of the nearby gravel pits has brought visitors to the village. The nature reserve features lakes, woodland and part of the
Ouse Ouse may refer to: Places Rivers in England * River Ouse, Yorkshire * River Ouse, Sussex * River Great Ouse, Northamptonshire and East Anglia ** River Little Ouse, a tributary of the River Great Ouse Other places * Ouse, Tasmania, a town in Au ...
floodplain and is home to large numbers of cormorants and many summer visitors such as nightingales and a large number of
passerine birds A passerine () is any bird of the Order (biology), order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other order ...
.
Grebes Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order (biology), order Podicipediformes . Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in sea, marine habitats during Bird migration, migration and winter. Some flightless ...
, ducks and geese have colonised the lakes. The population of the village of Little Paxton is now much larger than that of
Great Paxton Great Paxton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England lying north of St Neots in the Great Ouse river valley. The population was 1,007 in the 2011 census. Despite its name, Great Paxton is much smaller than the neighbouring vi ...
.


History

Little Paxton is not explicitly mentioned 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 ...
of 1086 but is covered by the entry for Great Paxton (or Pachstone as it was then). At that time the settlement of Pacstone had 69 households, which is considered to be a very large settlement for that period, and contained 3 mills and a church (presumably the church at Great Paxton). All of the lands at Little Paxton were held by
Countess Judith Judith of Lens (born in Normandy between 1054 and 1055, died c1090) was a niece of William the Conqueror. She was a daughter of his sister Adelaide of Normandy, Countess of Aumale and Lambert II, Count of Lens. Life In 1070, Judith married Ea ...
who was a niece of
William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
. There were a number of fisheries on the river Great Ouse at Little Paxton, the earliest of which can be traced back to 1544. The open fields in the parish were enclosed by an Act of Parliament in 1811–12. The quarrying of gravel has been an important industry in Little Paxton since the 19th century when gravel from Paxton Park was used in local housing. It was in the 1940s that a much large scale quarrying operation began in the area to the north of Little Paxton village. In 1989, the Paxton Pits nature reserve opened on the site of those quarries which by then were no longer used.


Government

As a civil parish, Little Paxton has a parish council. The parish council is elected by the residents of the parish who have registered on the
electoral roll An electoral roll (variously called an electoral register, voters roll, poll book or other description) is a compilation that lists persons who are entitled to vote for particular elections in a particular jurisdiction. The list is usually broke ...
; the parish council is the lowest tier of government in England. A parish council is responsible for providing and maintaining a variety of local services including allotments and a cemetery; grass cutting and tree planting within public open spaces such as a village green or playing fields. The parish council reviews all planning applications that might affect the parish and makes recommendations to Huntingdonshire District Council, which is the
local planning authority A local planning authority (LPA) is the local government body that is empowered by law to exercise urban planning functions for a particular area. They exist in the United Kingdom and India. United Kingdom Mineral planning authorities The role ...
for the parish. The parish council also represents the views of the parish on issues such as local transport, policing and the environment. The parish council raises its own tax to pay for these services, known as the parish precept, which is collected as part of the
Council Tax Council Tax is a local taxation system used in England, Scotland and Wales. It is a tax on domestic property, which was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, replacing the short-lived Community Charge The Community C ...
. The parish council consist of fourteen councillors. Little Paxton was in the historic and
administrative county An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until either 1973 (in Northern Ireland) or 2002 (in the Republic of Ireland). They are now abolished, although mos ...
of Huntingdonshire until 1965. From 1965, the village was part of the new administrative county of
Huntingdon and Peterborough Huntingdon and Peterborough was a short-lived administrative and geographical county in East Anglia in the United Kingdom. It existed from 1965 to 1974, when it became part of Cambridgeshire. Formation The Local Government Act 1888 created fo ...
. Then in 1974, following the
Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...
, Little Paxton became a part of the county of Cambridgeshire. The second tier of local government is
Huntingdonshire District Council Huntingdonshire District Council is the local authority for the district of Huntingdonshire in Cambridgeshire, England. Based in Huntingdon, it forms the lower part of the two tier system of local government in the district, below Cambridgeshire ...
which is a
non-metropolitan district Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''shire counties'') in a two-tier arrangement. Non-m ...
of Cambridgeshire and has its headquarters in Huntingdon. Huntingdonshire District Council has 52 councillors representing 29 district wards. Huntingdonshire District Council collects the
council tax Council Tax is a local taxation system used in England, Scotland and Wales. It is a tax on domestic property, which was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, replacing the short-lived Community Charge The Community C ...
, and provides services such as building regulations, local planning, environmental health, leisure and tourism. Little Paxton is a district ward and is represented on the district council by one councillor. District councillors serve for four-year terms following elections to Huntingdonshire District Council. For Little Paxton the third tier of local government is
Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council of Cambridgeshire, England. The council consists of 61 councillors, representing 59 electoral divisions. The council is based at New Shire Hall at Alconbury Weald, near Huntingdon. It is a mem ...
which has administration buildings in Cambridge. The county council provides county-wide services such as major road infrastructure, fire and rescue, education, social services, libraries and heritage services. Cambridgeshire County Council consists of 69 councillors representing 60 electoral divisions. Little Paxton is part of the electoral division of ''Little Paxton and St Neots North'' and is represented on the county council by two councillors. At Westminster Little Paxton is in the parliamentary constituency of
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 ...
.


Geography

Little Paxton lies on the western side of the
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 ...
river valley between and above ordnance datum and the parish covers an area of . The boundary of the parish to the south and east is the Great Ouse and to the west is the
River Kym The River Kym is a river in Cambridgeshire, England. It flows through the village of Tilbrook, to Kimbolton, and joins the Great Ouse at St Neots. It is known as the River Til in its upper reaches, tributaries include the Pertenhall Brook. Co ...
. The
A1 road A list of roads designated A1, sorted by alphabetical order of country. * A01 highway (Afghanistan), a long ring road or beltway connecting Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar * A1 motorway (Albania), connecting Durrës and Kukës * A001 highwa ...
follows the route of the Great North Road and lies to the west of Little Paxton; it runs roughly from south-west to north through the parish. There is a restricted access junction at the northern edge of Little Paxton (cannot join A1 southbound) and a restricted access junction that only allows southbound access to the A1 to the south-west of the village.The
A1 Road A list of roads designated A1, sorted by alphabetical order of country. * A01 highway (Afghanistan), a long ring road or beltway connecting Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar * A1 motorway (Albania), connecting Durrës and Kukës * A001 highwa ...
is Northbound traffic to Peterborough and Southbound to London but this only happens from the South-West of Little Paxton On the eastern side of the parish are a number of disused and working gravel pits. The disused gravel pits are now lakes and the largest of these are Heronry South Lake and Sailing Lake while the smaller lakes are Weedy Lake, Rudd Lake, Cloudy Lake and Hayling Lake. The village and parish lies on a bedrock of
Oxford clay The Oxford Clay (or Oxford Clay Formation) is a Jurassic marine sedimentary rock formation underlying much of southeast England, from as far west as Dorset and as far north as Yorkshire. The Oxford Clay Formation dates to the Jurassic, specifical ...
and in regions there are superficial Glaciofluvial and River Terrace deposits of sand and gravel from the
Quaternary period The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three period (geology), periods of the Cenozoic era (geology), Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spa ...
, together with
alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
(clay and silt) from the same period. The land in the north of the parish is characterised as Oadby Member
Diamicton Diamicton (also diamict) (from Greek ''δια'' (dia-): through and ''µεικτός'' (meiktós): mixed) is a terrigenous sediment (a sediment resulting from dry-land erosion) that is unsorted to poorly sorted and contains particles ranging in size ...
, again from the Quaternary period, with rocks formed during Ice Age conditions by glaciers scouring the land. On the western side of the parish, the soil has been classified as a freely draining and slightly acid loamy soil. On the eastern side of the parish, the soil is classified as freely draining and slightly acid but a base-rich loamy soil. The main agricultural land use within the parish of Little Paxton is grassland, but to the north-west of the parish there is a wooded area


Demography

The usual resident population of Little Paxton (including Eynesbury) in the 2011 census was 3,244 of whom 49.6% were male and 50.4% female; the population density was 1,832 persons per square mile (706 per km2). There were 1,361 households; 23.7% of these households consisted of one person, 72.5% contained one family group and there were 3.8% of other household types. The census showed that 15.7% of households had one or more dependent children under the age of 18, and 22.6% of households consisted of people who were all over the age of 65. The mean average number of people per household was 2.4 people. Of the usual resident population, 19.2% were under the age of 18 years, 61.5% were between 18 and 65 years old, and 19.4% were over the age of 65 years. The mean age was 42.9 years and the median age was 45 years. In 2011, 53.2% of the residents of Little Paxton were involved in part-time, full-time or self-employment. The three major industry areas for residents of Little Paxton were 16.9% in Wholesale and Retail (including repair of motor vehicles), 12.3% in Manufacturing, and 11.5% employed in Human Health and Social Work. The 2011 census showed that 94.9% of the residents of Little Paxton were born in the United Kingdom, with 1.8% of residents coming from other European Union countries, and 3.3% coming from the rest of the world. At the same time, 97.7% of people in Little Paxton described themselves as white, 0.9% as having mixed or multiple ethnic groups, and 0.8% as being Asian or British Asian, with the remainder in another ethnic group. In that same census, 62.6% described themselves as Christian, 28.5% described themselves as having no religion, 7.7% did not specify a religion, and 1.2% described themselves as having another religion.


Historical population

The population of Little Paxton from 1801 to 1901 varied between 225 and 310 people. Census: Little Paxton 1801–1931, 1961 Census: Little Paxton 1951, 1971, 1991 Census: Little Paxton 2001, 2011


Culture and Community

The village has a public house called The Anchor. Gravel extraction remains an important industry in and around the village. There is also a fencing company, a tool hire and a conservatory village. On the edge of the village, a derelict industrial site has been redeveloped to provide modern housing on an island in the middle of the River Great Ouse, between the lock and the weir stream. Little Paxton playing field has two football pitches, a cricket pitch and a floodlit multi-purpose games area. A variety of water sports including waterski, jet ski, and sailing are available on the lakes at Little Paxton. With suitable permits, fishing is allowed in some of the gravel pits and on the river Great Ouse in Little Paxton.


Transport

The
Ouse Valley Way The Ouse Valley Way is a 150-mile footpath in England, following the River Great Ouse from its source near Syresham in Northamptonshire to its mouth in The Wash near King's Lynn. The path begins outside the King's Head pub in Syresham and ends o ...
is a long footpath that follows the River Great Ouse from its source near
Syresham Syresham is a village and civil parish in the English district of West Northamptonshire. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 855. It is near Brackley town and close to Silverstone Circuit. It is surrounded by villages and hamlets ...
in Northamptonshire to its mouth in
The Wash The Wash is a rectangular bay and multiple estuary at the north-west corner of East Anglia on the East coast of England, where Norfolk, England, Norfolk meets Lincolnshire and both border the North Sea. One of Britain's broadest estuaries, it i ...
near
King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...
and passes through the village. Route 12 of the
National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) is the national cycling route network of the United Kingdom, which was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout Britain, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the cha ...
is a route from
Enfield Lock Enfield Lock is an area in the London Borough of Enfield, north London. It is approximately located east of the Hertford Road between Turkey Street and the Holmesdale Tunnel overpass, and extends to the River Lee Navigation, including the Enfi ...
to Spalding and passes through the west of the parish. It is from Little Paxton to the railway station at St Neots which is on the
East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...
where regular services run south to London and north to Huntingdon and Peterborough.


Education

Little Paxton Primary School opened in 1972 and has around 360 pupils aged from four to eleven as of December 2022. Senior school pupils attend
Longsands Academy Longsands Academy is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in the town of St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, England.Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...
by the
Nature Conservancy Council The Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) was a United Kingdom government agency responsible for designating and managing National Nature Reserves and other nature conservation areas in Great Britain between 1973 and 1991 (it did not cover Northern ...
, a nature reserve on a part of the site at Little Paxton Pits was opened in 1989. The nature reserve has a number of walking trails and animal observation hides, together with a visitor centre and a small car park. With the acquisition of further land after 2001, the nature reserve was extended to . In 2007 Huntingdonshire District Council announced a plan to extend the nature reserve to more than as part of the approval for further extraction of gravel from the Paxton Pits by the Aggregate Industries. Little Paxton Hall is a
Grade II* listed 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 ...
building, close to the church, that was re-built c.1738 but incorporates features that are probably from a 17th-century building on the site. The house has a west facing 18th century facade and was extended to the south in the 19th century.


Religious Sites

The parish church at Little Paxton is dedicated to St. James and is a Grade II* listed building that consists of a chancel, nave, south aisle, west tower and a north porch. The church was not mentioned in the Domesday Book, but there is evidence that there was a stone church on the site by the end of the 12th century. The west tower was built c.1400 and the south aisle c.1500. The west tower had just four bells but these had not been rung since 1899 when it was decided that they needed re-hanging. A refurbishment project in 2010–11, which had some National Lottery funding, saw the original bells restored, the acquisition of two-second hand bells, and a new bell cast. The church now has a clock striking bell and a peal of six bells; the new bells were rung for the first time in November 2011. The church of St. James, Little Paxton, is in the deanery of St Neots in the diocese of Ely.


References


External links


Little Paxton, HuntingdonshirePaxton Pits Nature ReserveLittle Paxton primary School
{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Huntingdonshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire