Little Staughton 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 authority ...

located in the north of

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

. The parish church, All Saints, is set apart from the present village – the previous village having been abandoned following an outbreak of the

Bubonic plague Bubonic plague is one of three types of plague caused by the plague bacterium (''Yersinia pestis''). One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting, as well a ...

History

Little Staughton, known at the beginning of the 11th century as ''Stoctun'' from the

old english Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

meaning "farmstead at an outlying hamlet". It was referred to in the Doomsday book simply as ''Staughton'', although it does not refer to any taxes being collected in the area. However, by the time of the

Hearth tax A hearth tax was a property tax in certain countries during the medieval and early modern period, levied on each hearth, thus by proxy on wealth. It was calculated based on the number of hearths, or fireplaces, within a municipal area and is cons ...

return in 1671, there were approximately 250 individuals living there. The population rose to a peak of 572 in 1861, then fell due to 218 by 1951, due to the

industrial revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

and two

World Wars A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

Church

The Church of All Saints, previously dedicated to St Margaret's, originally had a spire that was destroyed by lightning. The building has been

Grade I 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 ...

since 1964.

RAF Little Staughton

During

World War II 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 opposin ...

it was the home of 109 Squadron ( Mosquito bombers) and 582 Squadron ( Lancaster bombers) at

RAF Little Staughton Royal Air Force Little Staughton or more simply RAF Little Staughton is a former Royal Air Force station located south of Great Staughton, Cambridgeshire and west of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, England. Station history The airfield was first ...

. The airfield is now largely used for other purposes but retains a recently

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

Control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...

. In January 2020, Little Staughton Airfield and Industrial Park applied for planning permission to develop the site to re-open the airfield.

Geography

Little Staughton is a village in

, in the district 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 ...

, south east of

Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire Kimbolton is a town and civil parish in England. Kimbolton is about west of Huntingdon and north of Bedford. Kimbolton is administered as part of Cambridgeshire; however it is situated within Huntingdonshire, which is an historic county of Eng ...

The parish is part of the Stodden Hundred (which comprises

Bolnhurst Bolnhurst is a small village in the civil parish of Bolnhurst and Keysoe, in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire. The village is about north-northeast of Bedford and about west of St Neots. The name is derived from the Old English ''bula- ...

Clapham Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Early history T ...

Dean and Shelton Dean and Shelton is a civil parish in the Borough of Bedford in the county of Bedfordshire, England. The two parishes of Dean and Shelton were combined in 1934. Until 1974 the parish formed part of Bedford rural district Rural districts were a ...

Keysoe Keysoe is a village located in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. Historically part of the Stodden hundred in Bedfordshire, part of Keysoe was originally located in Huntingdonshire. Today the village forms part of the Bolnhurst a ...

Knotting Knotting may refer to: *tying a knot * Knotting, Bedfordshire, a village in England * Copulatory tie, an aspect of canine reproduction **Knotting, a trope in Omegaverse Omegaverse, also known as A/B/O (an abbreviation for "alpha/beta/omega"), is a ...

, Little Staughton,

Melchbourne Melchbourne is a small village located in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England. The village is located west of Swineshead, Bedfordshire, Swineshead and east of Yielden. Melchbourne forms part of the Melchbourne and Yielden civil par ...

Milton Ernest Milton Ernest is a village and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, about north of Bedford itself. It had a population of 754 in 2001. This had risen to 761 according to the 2011 census.//www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/Lead ...

, Oakley,

Pertenhall Pertenhall is a small village and civil parish located in Bedfordshire, close to the borders of Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. Its parish council is Quality Parish Council It has recently published its Parish Plan which is available on the ...

& Swineshead, Riseley,

Shelton Shelton may refer to: Places United Kingdom *Shelton, North Bedfordshire, in the parish of Dean and Shelton, Bedfordshire *Lower Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire *Upper Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedfor ...

Tilbrook Tilbrook is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Tilbrook lies approximately west of Huntingdon, near Covington. Tilbrook is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as b ...

and

Yelden Yielden or Yelden is a village in Bedfordshire, near the borders with Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire. It lies on the River Til which feeds into the Great Ouse valley and is about above sea level. It is approximately north of Bedford, sout ...

). The village sits on

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 is located away from the parish Church of All Saints, it is possible that the villagers moved away from the church due to victims of an outbreak of

black death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

in 1349 where 1 in 3 members of the local population were killed and likely buried in the church graveyard. An alternative theory is that the village moved to follow the local road network.

References

External links