Alconbury, Huntingdonshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1932.

ALCONBURY:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1932.

"ALCONBURY, Alconbury-cum-Weston was described as one 'vill' in 1316 and is still one ecclesiastical parish. More often referred to as Alconbury with Weston, or as two separate places Alconbury and Alconbury Weston, which remain separate for civil purposes. About half the whole area of the two civil parishes is arable and the rest pasture. The soil is clay and the principle crops are cereal and beans. The Alconbury Brook, a tributary of the River Ouse, runs from the north-west to the south-east, and then turning south-west forms the southern boundary. The land rises from the brook, where it is about 50 ft. above sea-level to about 164 ft. at Alconbury Hill and Common Farm on the north-east side. On the south-west, the rise is more gradual and, except at Weybridge Lodge where it reaches 163 ft, it is mostly low-lying.

The Ermine Street is on the eastern side of Alconbury parish and west of it is the old Great North Road which joined Ermine Street at Alconbury Hill. A modern Motorway (known as the A1(M)) now goes through and over the parish, bypassing it, and also over a tributary of the Alconbury Brook, and a little to the west is the site of Matcham's Gibbet.

The fairly large village of Alconbury lies just west of the modern A1(M) road, and is three-quarters of a mile from Ermine Street; the Alconbury Brook runs through the length of it. The church stands at the north end of the village with, a little to the south-east of it, Manor Farm. There is a long narrow Green in the centre of the village which is mentioned in 1327; the Alconbury Brook flows through the Green and is spanned by a 15th century bridge of four arches. The eastern arch and the south face of the second arch of the bridge have been rebuilt, and the cut-waters on the north side much repaired. Bequests towards the repair of this bridge were made in 1497 and at intervals to 1531. The housing in the village is a mix of building from the 17th and 18th centuries, but much modern housing has been built during the late 20th century.

Weybridge lies to the south of the parish and is the survival of the King's Forest of that name. However there was really only a farm of that name here which stood on a moated site, and was built in the latter part of the 16th century. It was in Weybridge Forest, close to his manor of Woolley, that John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, was captured when hiding from Henry VI in 1470.

Alconbury Weston is about three-quaters of a mile north-west of Alconbury village - see separate page.

There was an inclosure award made to Alconbury-cum-Weston in 1791. SAWTRY, it is not known when the village of Sawtry began, but there were three churches at Sawtry mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086. In 1147, the Cistercian Abbey of Sawtry was founded by Simon de St. Liz, Earl of Northampton and grandson of Earl Walteof and Judith, the neice of William the Conqueror, who held the manor. The three parishes of Sawtry lie on the Great North Road (and is now by-passed by the A1(M) Motorway) and are bounded on the north by Conington, east by Higney and Wood Walton, south by Abbot's Ripton, Upton and Coppingford, and south-west by the Giddings. Of the area thus enclosed, the northern part forms the parishes of Sawtry All Saints and Sawtry St Andrews but the two parishes were so intermixed that it is impossible without a map to know where the divisions between them run. The houses are all grouped together in one village just west of the Great North Road. The Church of All Saints stands on the eastern edge of the village, while that of St Andrews was on the eastern side of the road where its churchyard still lies. The southern part of the area once formed the parish (and then the extra-parochial district) of Sawtry Judith (sometimes referred to, in error, as St. Judith). The Abbey, with the Church of St Mary, stood in the north-east corner but there are few houses now still standing. The three parishes were consolidated by different steps during the 19th century. In 1851, the Sawtry Local Government District was formed from the two parishes of Sawtry All Saints and Sawtry St Andrew under the Public Health Act of 1848. The two ecclesiastical parishes were united in 1873. In 1879 both churches were demolished and a new church for both parishes was erected on the site of All Saints and dedicated to All Saints and St. Andrew. The sub-soil of Sawtry is mainly Oxford clay. A considerable area is fen land which has now been drained. The main portion of Sawtry Fen was included in the Great Level Drainage undertaking of the Earl of Bedford in the 17th century."