Barrington 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 ...

in the

South Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, England, with a population of 162,119 at the 2021 census. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Chesterton Rural District and South Cambridgeshire Rural District. I ...

district of

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. The village is about south-west 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 ...

, between

Haslingfield Haslingfield is a village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England. The village is about six miles south-west of Cambridge, between Harston, Barton and Barrington. The population in the 2001 census was 1,550 people living in 6 ...

and

Shepreth Shepreth is a small village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, lying halfway between Cambridge and Royston. History The parish of Shepreth is roughly-rectangular and covers 1318 acres. It is bounded by the River Rhee to the north, which se ...

History

The parish of Barrington is roughly a trapezium in shape and covers 2282 acres. The southern boundary follows the

River Cam The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distance from Cambridge to ...

which separates it from the parishes of Shepreth, Foxton, and

Harston Harston is a village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England, located around 5 miles (8 km) south of Cambridge. In 2011, it had a population of 1,740. Village Sign The village sign was erected in the Queen's Silver Jubilee yea ...

and formed the ancient boundary of Wetherley

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

. Its northern boundary reaches the ancient Mare Way at its north-westernmost tip, a track that ran along the ridge of the White Hill, and now forms the A603. It borders

Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitari ...

to the west,

Harlton Harlton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. The village is south-west of Cambridge and neighbours Haslingfield. History The parish of Harlton covers an area of . Its southern border is marked by the ancient tra ...

to the north and Haslingfield to the east. Listed as ''Barentone'' 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 the name "Barrington" is believed to mean "farmstead of a man called Bara". The village has long been an important manufacturer of bricks and cement; there were already four brick-makers by the 1840s. The Prime family opened the Shepreth road brickworks by 1876 which changed hands several times over the 20th century as it grew in size. At the northern end of the village was the

Cemex CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., known as Cemex, is a Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than 50 countries. ...

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

works which closed in 2008. Barrington Hall was once the seat of the Bendyshe family; it was used for a while as offices (see

Harlequin Harlequin (; it, Arlecchino ; lmo, Arlechin, Bergamasque dialect, Bergamasque pronunciation ) is the best-known of the ''zanni'' or comic servant characters from the Italian language, Italian ''commedia dell'arte'', associated with the city o ...

) but currently for hosting weddings and other events.

Church

The parish church of All Saints is a Grade I

listed building 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 ...

. It has a chancel, an aisled and clerestoried nave with north and south porches and side chapels, and a west tower. The chancel and nave date from the 13th century and perhaps incorporate parts of an older building at its western end. The tower was added later in the 13th century, though only reached its current height in the 16th century, and the chancel was extended in the 14th century. The tower contains six bells.

Village life

The village retains one public house, The Royal Oak, which is housed in a building that dates back to the 13th century. Former pubs in the village include The Boot, and The Catherine Wheel, both open by 1850, The Victoria and The Fountain both open by 1900, and The Butcher's Arms by 1937. All were closed before the end of the 1960s. The cement works at Barrington closed in 2008 after 90 years, with the loss of 80 jobs. In its heyday, the site produced a million tonnes of cement a year for the UK construction industry. The chimney of the works was scheduled for demolition at the end of December 2018.

Notable residents

Edmund Leach Sir Edmund Ronald Leach FRAI FBA (7 November 1910 – 6 January 1989) was a British social anthropologist and academic. He served as provost of King's College, Cambridge from 1966 to 1979. He was also president of the Royal Anthropologi ...

, social anthropologist *

Elsie Widdowson Elsie Widdowson (21 October 1906 – 14 June 2000), was a British dietitian and nutritionist. She and Dr Robert McCance, a pediatrician, physiologist, biochemist, and nutritionist, were responsible for overseeing the government-mandated additi ...

, dietitian

References

External links

Barrington village website

Barrington Hall
website * {{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District