Croxton 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

about west of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

, England. In 2001, the resident population was 163 people, falling slightly to 160 at the 2011 Census. Croxton Park is to the south of the current village and contains a large house and parkland.

History

The name of the village was spelled ''Crochestone'' in the 1086

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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

. 'Croxton' is derived from 'farmstead in a nook, or of a man called Krókr', or the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

'croh-tun' meaning

saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of '' Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent ...

farm, and may have been part of a late Scandinavian settlement, along with Caxton and Toft. It is likely that the settlement grew up on two sites: around the old

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

of Westbury, at the south end of the village, and around the old manor house of Croxton. It seems that a street to the east of the church formed the main village . By 1811 it had already reduced in size, and after

enclosure Enclosure or inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land", enclosing it, and by doing so depriving commoners of their traditional rights of access and usage. Agreements to enc ...

in 1818, the rectory was demolished and an ornamental lake created on its site. By 1826, all the houses had gone and only Croxton Park mansion remained.'Parishes: Croxton', A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 5 (1973), pp. 36–46. Date accessed: 6 August 2008
/ref> At Westbury, the

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

at the north end of the village street was enclosed and a large house, The Downs, and a farm were built on it. At the south end of the street is a late medieval timber-framed house called Croxton Manor but it was probably the original Westbury manor house. Westbury Farm was probably an earlier site for the manor house - the farmhouse has several medieval parts and remains of a moat. In 1801, 171 people lived in Croxton parish; in 1821, 225 people. The population grew, though it declined between 1841 and 1851, when the mansion was unoccupied and there was emigration overseas from the area. Croxton's population peaked at 308 in 1871; in 1961 it was 155.

Governance

The parish is represented on the South Cambridgeshire District Council by three councillors for the Bourn ward and on

Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council for non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire, England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county, which additionally includes the City o ...

by one councillor for the Papworth and Swavesey electoral division. It is represented at the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

as part of the

South Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire is a Non-metropolitan district, 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 Cambri ...

constituency.

Geography

Croxton parish covers an area of 7.72 km² and lies alongside the

A428 road The A428 road is a major road in central and eastern England. It runs between the cities of Coventry and Cambridge by way of the county towns of Northampton and Bedford. Together with the A421, (and the A43, M40 and the A34), the eastern s ...

between

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

and

, the main village street being at right-angles to the major road. It is west of the county town of Cambridge and north of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The nearest town is

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 ...

, west; minor roads run north to Toseland and south towards Abbotsley. The village sits to the North of Croxton Park, a Grade II* listed landscaped parkland with woodland and a lake. The soil in the parish is clay with a

gault The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in Fo ...

subsoil.GENUKI: Croxton
/ref> The parish ranges from 29 to 64 metres above sea level.Ordnance Survey: Getamap
/ref>

Demography

At the time of the 2001 census, the population of Croxton parish was 163 people. All residents were white, 76.4% described themselves as

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

, three followed another religion and 21.8% either had no religion or did not state one.Cambridgeshire County Council: 2001 parish census profile
In 1921, the population was 234.

Landmarks

A war memorial, commemorating Croxton men who died in the

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

s, was erected in 1920 in the churchyard. A total of 13 structures in the parish are listed, including a milestone by the A428, a cross in the churchyard, a 19th-century

village pump A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

and several cottages. Within Croxton Park is a large Grade II* listed

Country House image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

, also called Croxton Park. It was the historic seat of the Leeds family. The current red brick, three-storey house was constructed around 1760–1 by Edward Leeds and probably incorporated part of the previous Tudor building. Sir (George) Douglas Cochrane Newton, Member of Parliament for Cambridge (and later 1st Baron Eltisley) was lord of the manor and principal landowner in 1929.

Religious sites

A church at Croxton was first mentioned around 1217 and parts of today's church date from the 13th century. It is dedicated to St. James and situated south of Croxton Park, close to the manor house. It was built mainly of fieldstones in the Perpendicular style; the tower has a clock and six bells. The church is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. There are some pictures and a description of the church at the Cambridgeshire Churches website.The church's page at the Cambridgeshire Churches website
/ref>

References

Cambridgeshire Churches

External links

{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District