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

ALCONBURY WESTON:
Geographical and Historical information from the year 1932.

"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 the two separate places of 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.

Alconbury Weston is about three-quaters of a mile north-west of Alconbury village on a road running west. There is no chuch in this village, and the occupants used Alconbury for this purpose. The houses were originally built along both sides of the road, and the Alconbury Brook runs besides the road running through the village. The Great North Road passed over the brook at the south-east end of the village by a brick bridge, and a footpath crosses the brook at the north-west end by a bridge with a timber superstructure, the central pier and the abutments of which are said to be built of stone from Copmanford church. A Cross is mentioned here in 1278-9.

A weekly market on Thursday and a yearly fair on the vigil, feast and morrow of St John the Baptist and the six days following, was granted to John de Segrave and his heirs for the Manor of Wood Weston (Alconbury Weston) in 1304. This fair was later transferred to Alconbury. The fair was abolished in 1872 when it was said to have been held for "pedlars' wares"; the remembrance of it still survives in the village feast on 24th June as it is still called 'the Fair'.

In Hermitage Wood, east of Alconbury Weston, is a moated site; whether this has any relation to the hermitage which existed at Alconbury Weston in the 14th century, is uncertain. It has been said that there was a chapel dedicated to St Anne at Alconbury Hill, but no evidence of it has been found.

There was an inclosure award made to Alconbury-cum-Weston in 1791. (See also Alconbury).