Toft is a village situated in

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 is approximately six miles to the 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 ...

, and is situated within four miles of the

M11 motorway The M11 is a motorway that runs north from the A406 road, North Circular Road (A406) in South Woodford to the A14 road (Great Britain), A14, northwest of Cambridge, England. Originally proposed as a trunk road as early as 1915, various plans ...

. It has approximately 600 residents and 200 homes. Comberton Village College and Comberton Sixth Form fall within the Toft Parish boundary. The village has two churches, St Andrew's Parish Church and Toft Methodist Church. Meridian marker - geograph

Just to the east of the village is Cambridge Meridian Golf Club, which has the

Prime Meridian A prime meridian is an arbitrarily chosen meridian (geography), meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. On a spheroid, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian ...

running through the 14th fairway. The name "Toft" is derived from an old Viking word meaning "curtilage" or "homestead".

History

The ancient parish of Toft consisted of 1,285 acres between the villages of

Comberton Comberton is a village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England, just east of the Prime Meridian. History Archaeological finds, including a Neolithic polished stone axe (found to the south of the current village) and a Bronze Age ba ...

to the east and Caldecote to the west. At the time of 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

in 1086, the parish extended up to the

–

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 ...

road, and thus included modern-day Hardwick until it became a separate parish in 1815. The village probably sprang up during Saxon times, when the wooded area began to be cleared for farming. By the time of the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

the lands were owned by the king, the Abbot of Ely and a woman named Eddeva. The Normans gave Eddeva's lands to Alan, Count of Brittany, who passed them to the manor of

Swavesey Swavesey is a village lying on the Prime meridian (Greenwich), Prime Meridian of the world in Cambridgeshire, England, with a population of 2,463. The village is situated 9 miles to the north west of Cambridge and 3 miles south east of St Ives, ...

. By 1109, the lands were all granted to the newly formed Bishopric of Ely. Toft has 23 listed buildings of special architectural or historic interest. Among these is Toft Manor, formerly the Rectory, which was built in 1844 along with several cottages. Toft is one of 54

Thankful Villages Thankful Villages (also known as Blessed Villages; ) are settlements in England and Wales from which all their members of the armed forces survived World War I. The term Thankful Village was popularised by the writer Arthur Mee in the 1930s; in '' ...

in England and Wales, where all those who served in World War One returned safely.

Church

The parish church has been dedicated to Saint Andrew since at least the 13th century and stands on the site of an earlier church. The present building contains some structure from the late 14th century but was largely rebuilt in 1863, apparently repeating the layout of the medieval church. The medieval tower was rebuilt in 1894. In the 17th century, Toft became a centre of

Puritanism The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should ...

. When the Archdeacon of Ely visited in 1685, he found that the church had been greatly neglected, with cracks in the walls and the building being used as a store for bricks and stones. The church was restored over the next few decades. The church is in the patronage of

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

John Wesley John Wesley ( ; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a principal leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies ...

is believed to have preached in a barn in the village, and in 1862 a Primitive Methodist chapel was built in the High Street.

Village life

Toft contains a village shop (specialising in

South African cuisine South African cuisine reflects the diverse range of culinary traditions embodied by the various communities that inhabit the country. Among the indigenous peoples of South Africa, the Khoisan foraged over 300 species of edible food plants, suc ...

), a hairdresser's, a Chinese takeaway, a fish and chip shop, a social club and a florists. A post office first opened in the village in the 1870s as part of the village shop. A library was opened in 1913, but has since closed. At the end of the 19th century there were two pubs in the village, the Black Bull and the Red Lion, Both have since closed, and the latter now houses the Chinese restaurant. The Toft Historical Society holds regular exhibitions and is building a web-based archive of the history of the village.Toft Historical Society
The village had a football club, Toft Lions, who play in the CDFL Cambridgeshire men's league.

References

External links

Toft village website
{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District