Comberton is a 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

South Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire is a Non-metropolitan district, 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 Cambri ...

, England, just east of 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 ...

History

Archaeological finds, including a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

polished stone axe (found to the south of the current village) and a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

barrow (to the north), suggest there has been a settlement here for thousands of years. A

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house in the territory of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Nevertheless, the term "Roman villa" generally covers buildings with the common ...

was discovered in 1842. The village was mentioned in

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 ...

of 1086 as ''Cumbertone'', and therefore dates to at least the 11th century. Some houses in the village date from the 14th century. The hamlet of Green End was named after the landowner Sir

Henry Green Henry Green was the pen name of Henry Vincent Yorke (29 October 1905 – 13 December 1973), an English writer best remembered for the novels ''Party Going'', ''Living (novel), Living,'' and ''Loving (novel), Loving''. He published a total of n ...

(d.1370), Chief Justice of the King's Bench 1361–1365. The current Manor House at Green End dates back to the late 16th century.

Geography

Comberton is about south-west of the city 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 just east of the Prime Meridian, lying at a

height above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level v ...

of around . The

covers , and is part of the local government district of

. Nearby villages include Barton to the east and Toft to the west. Comberton is twinned with Le Vaudreuil, a village near

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

, France. The Greenwich Prime Meridian is marked by a Meridian Line stone plaque on the north side of the main road (B1046) between Comberton and the neighbouring village of Toft.

Community

Comberton has a population of about 2,300, down from 2,400 in 2011. It contains two churches: the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

St Mary's, a Grade I listed Early English-style building dating from the 13th century, and a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

church dating from 1868. It also a

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

, The Three Horseshoes, shops, a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, a

recreation ground A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. N ...

, a doctor's surgery, a dental surgery, and at the centre of the village, a village

pond A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression (geology), depression, either naturally or artificiality, artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing ...

with resident ducks. The village has an infant playgroup, the Meridian Primary School, Comberton Village College, and the Comberton Sixth Form. The latter two are part of the Cam Academy Trust. Literary journalist and writer Lyn Irvine lived at Cross Farm, Comberton. A family home for Irvine and her husband mathematician

Max Newman Maxwell Herman Alexander Newman, FRS (7 February 1897 – 22 February 1984), generally known as Max Newman, was a British mathematician and codebreaker. His work in World War II led to the construction of Colossus, the world's first operatio ...

and their two sons, Edward (born 1935) and

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

, later a computer scientist (1939). Irvine wrote the

nature writing Nature writing is nonfiction or fiction prose about the natural environment. It often draws heavily from scientific information and facts while also incorporating philosophical reflection upon various aspects of nature. Works are frequently writte ...

novel ''Field With Geese'' (1960) at Cross Farm, in the small dovecote on the farm. Irvine considered Comberton and Cross Farm her home for the rest of her life, until her death in 1973.

References

External links

Comberton Parish Council
{{Authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District

History

Geography

Community

See also

References

External links