Sawtry Judith, Huntingdonshire, England. Geographical and Historical information from 1932.

SAWTRY JUDITH:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1932.

"SAWTRY JUDITH is an ancient parish named after the Countess Judith, niece of William the Conqueror. It is sometimes referred to, in error but also in a long-standing tradition, as St. Judith, but this has never been the dedication of the parish. In 1086, there was a church dedicated to St Mary in Sawtry Judith which probably later became merged with the parochial church at the gateway of Sawtry Abbey.

Judith's son-in-law Simon de St. Liz, Earl of Northampton and Huntingdon, founded the Abbey of Sawtry in the parish in 1147. The Abbey disappeared around 1540 at the Dissolution, and along with it, the church of St Mary.

There was a great wood in the parish known as Ewingswood, and later Monks' Wood, and a smaller wood known as Little Wood but now called Archer's Wood. Sawtry Judith became an extra-parochial liberty from 1573, although in practice, the inhabitants attended the parish church of All Saints.

Sawtry Judith was united with the remainder of Sawtry for civil purposes in 1935, and for ecclesiastical purposes in 1969."