Norman Cross is a hamlet in the

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England, which was historically a county in its own right. It borders Peterborough to the north, Fenland to the north-east, East Cambridgeshire to the e ...

district of

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. It lies south of

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

, between the villages of Folksworth,

Stilton Stilton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England, about north of Huntingdon in Huntingdonshire, which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as a historic county of England. History There is evidence of Neo ...

and Yaxley, and at the junction of the A1 and A15 roads. Traditionally in the county of Huntingdonshire, Norman Cross gave its name to one of the hundreds of Huntingdonshire and, from 1894 to 1974, to

Norman Cross Rural District Norman Cross was a rural district in Huntingdonshire from 1894 to 1974. It was formed in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894 from the part of the Peterborough rural sanitary district which was in Huntingdonshire (the rest forming part of ...

. The hamlet is situated partly in the

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 ...

Folksworth and Washingley Folksworth and Washingley is a civil parish near Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, England, comprising the villages of Folksworth and Washingley. The parish was formed following the combination of the two separate parishes of Folksworth and of Wa ...

, west of the A1, and partly in Yaxley parish, to the east. Norman Cross was the site of one of the earliest purpose-built

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

Norman Cross Prison Norman Cross Prison in Huntingdonshire, England, was the world's first purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp or "depot". Constructed in 1796–97, it was designed to hold prisoners of war from France and its allies during the French Revolutionary W ...

, and a memorial to the prisoners who died there was erected in 1914 and relocated in 2005. It takes the form of a bronze

imperial eagle The eagle is used in heraldry as a charge, as a supporter, and as a crest. Heraldic eagles can be found throughout world history like in the Achaemenid Empire or in the present Republic of Indonesia. The European post-classical symbolism of ...

on a column and is grade II listed.

Norman Cross Hundred

Norman Cross was the most northerly of the four Hundreds of Huntingdonshire, the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

s into which the county of Huntingdonshire was divided. It was named after the cross that stood at the junction of

Ermine Street Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London (''Londinium'') to Lincoln ('' Lindum Colonia'') and York ('' Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earninga ...

and the road from Yaxley to Folksworth, which was named Norman after a Scandinavian settler or ‘Northman’. According to ''

Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales The ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' is a substantial topographical dictionary first published between 1870 and 1872, edited by the Reverend John Marius Wilson. It contains a detailed description of England and Wales. Its six volumes h ...

'' it "was known to the Saxons as Northmannescros".

References

{{Coord, 52.5038, N, 0.2908, W, type:city_region:GB, display=title Hamlets in Cambridgeshire Yaxley, Cambridgeshire