Arrington is a small village and

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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

South Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, England, with a population of 162,119 at the 2021 census. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Chesterton Rural District and South Cambridgeshire Rural District. ...

district of

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to t ...

, England, with a population of 415 at the time of 2011 census.Cambridgeshire County Council: Arrington
The village is north of

Royston, Hertfordshire Royston is a town and civil parish in the District of North Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It is situated on the Greenwich Meridian, which brushes the town's eastern boundary, and at the northernmost apex of the cou ...

, and south-west of the county city of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

History

Arrington is on the

A1198 road The A1198 is a road in Cambridgeshire, England, which runs between the A505 at Royston, and the A1307 on the outskirts of Huntingdon. Settlements along route * Royston * Kneesworth * Waddon Gap * Arrington * Caxton * Cambourne * Papwo ...

, the old Roman

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 ''Earn ...

. Around 950, the settlement's name was written as ''Earnningtone''; in the 1086

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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

it was spelled ''Erningtune''. By the 13th century, the village was known as Aring(e)ton(e).Arrington Parish Council: History
The probable meaning was 'farmstead of the family or followers of a man called Earn(a)'.Mills, A.D. (1998). A Dictionary of English Place-names. Second Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford. p13. Flint tools have been found along the spring line around Church Farm.Arrington Parish Council: A history of the parish

Governance

The parish council has seven councillors. Arrington is represented on South Cambridgeshire District Council by one councillor for The Mordens ward and on

Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council of Cambridgeshire, England. The council consists of 61 councillors, representing 59 electoral divisions. The council is based at New Shire Hall at Alconbury Weald, near Huntingdon. It is a me ...

by one councillor for Gamlingay electoral division. At Wesminster it is part of the South Cambridgeshire constituency.

Geography

Arrington village and parish are mostly west of the

, with the exception of a small area of land to the east, next to Wimpole Park. A minor road runs west to

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an exten ...

; the next village north is Longstowe and

Wendy Wendy is a given name now generally given to girls in English-speaking countries. In Britain, Wendy appeared as a masculine name in a parish record in 1615. It was also used as a surname in Britain from at least the 17th century. Its popularity ...

lies south. Arrington is nine miles south-west of the county town of

and 44 miles north of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

.Ordnance Survey getamap.co.uk
/ref> The parish ranges from 20 to 76 metres above sea level. The

River Cam The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distance from Cambridge to ...

forms the southern boundary of the parish. The parish's soil is described as 'clayey' with chalk and

gault The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in Fo ...

subsoil.

Landmarks

A war memorial, built in the 1920s, is dedicated to Arrington men and women who died in the First and

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

s. It stands at the old junction of the road to Cambridge and

. There are 20

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in Arrington (including the church). Among them are the old post office and shop, nine houses and two

milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to so ...

s along

, Wraggs Farmhouse, its barn and old granary, the Hardwicke Arms Hotel and entrance gates and piers to

Wimpole Hall Wimpole Estate is a large estate containing Wimpole Hall, a country house located within the civil parish of Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, England, about southwest of Cambridge. The house, begun in 1640, and its of parkland and farmland are owned ...

Religious sites

Arrington's church is dedicated to St Nicholas. It has a brick tower with a low spire and contains one bell; the building was restored in 1894.GENUKI: Arrington
/ref> It is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. There are some pictures and a description of the church at the Cambridgeshire Churches website .

Notable people

John Richardson Major John Richardson Major (1797 – 29 February 1876) was a Church of England clergyman who spent most of his life as a schoolmaster. He served as Master of Wisbech Grammar School and later as the first head master of King's College School, London. ...

, Vicar of Arrington 1871–1876“MAJOR, John Richardson” in John A. Venn, ''

Alumni Cantabrigienses ''Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900'' is a biographical register of former members of the University of Cambridge whic ...

'', Part II, Vol. 4 (1951)
p. 296
/ref>

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District