Dullingham 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

East Cambridgeshire East Cambridgeshire (locally known as East Cambs) is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England. Its council is based in the cathedral city of Ely. The district also contains the towns of Littleport and Soham and surrounding rural a ...

, England. It is situated south of Newmarket and east 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 ...

History

The parish of Dullingham covers 3387 acres in a long thin irregular shape running from just north of the Cambridge to Newmarket road to the

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

border, and is bounded to the south west by

Burrough Green Burrough Green is a village and parish in Cambridgeshire, England. The population of the village at the 2011 census was 378. The soil is various; subsoil, clay and chalk. The chief crops are wheat, barley and roots. The area of the parish is ...

and to the north east by Stetchworth. The ancient

Icknield Way The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern and eastern England that runs from Norfolk to Wiltshire. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills. Background It is generally said to be, withi ...

crosses the north west of the parish. The village seems to have existed for over 1,000 years. By the time of the

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 ...

in 1086, there were four land holdings and 46 peasants. Listed as ''Dullingeham'' in the Domesday Book, the village's name means "homestead of the family or followers of a man called Dulla".

Church

The church of St Mary the Virgin dates from the earliest records in the early 12th century. It consists of a chancel, aisled and clerestoried nave with north porch and south chapel, and west tower. The chancel is the earliest part of the present building, and was built in the 13th century. The tower was added in the 14th century, and the nave was rebuilt in the 15th century. The composer George Barcroft was appointed vicar of Dullingham in 1589. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was opened in the village in 1826 and closed in the late 20th century.

Village life

The village has had its own railway station since 1848.

Dullingham railway station Dullingham is a railway station that serves the village of Dullingham in Cambridgeshire, England. It is about north-west of the centre of the village. It is also the nearest railway station to the town of Haverhill in Suffolk, which is about ...

lies on the Cambridge branch of the Ipswich to Ely Line, and is about from the centre of Dullingham. Dullingham currently has two pubs, The Boot and The King's Head, which closed in 2012 and again in 2022 for major refurbishments. It is situated in a 17th-century house and was in use as an alehouse in 1728. It belonged to the parish charity until 1931. The Boot, open since the mid-19th century stands on the village green. Several other former pubs were recorded in the 19th century, including the Rising Sun at Dullingham Ley that closed just after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and the Royal Oak on Stony Street that closed in 1975. Other notable buildings in Dullingham include Dullingham House, The Old Bakery, The Maltings, The Guildhall, The Workhouse, The Wesleyan Chapel and the Mission hall. In 1945 the Taylor family bought the former

Oddfellows Odd Fellows (or Oddfellows when referencing the Grand United Order of Oddfellows or some British-based fraternities; also Odd Fellowship or Oddfellowship) is an international fraternity consisting of lodges first documented in 1730 in London. ...

' hall (built c. 1925), and gave it as a village hall. It is known as the Sidney Taylor Hall. Dullingham boasts active Cricket and Football teams, based on the sports ground on Stetchworth Road. Many other sports are also played on the Polo ground which is situated beyond the railway station on the road towards the hamlet of

Six Mile Bottom Six Mile Bottom is a hamlet within the parish of Little Wilbraham, near Cambridge in England. Etymology The hamlet was named in 1801, deriving its name from the six mile distance to Newmarket and its location in a bottom, an archaic term for ...

. Dullingham Primary School closed in the early 1990s, and pupils moved to a new school within Dullingham but on the border with Stetchworth that served both villages (Stetchworth School having closed at the same time). Women in the Dullingham Villages ward had the second highest life expectancy at birth, 97 years, of any ward in England and Wales in 2016.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire East Cambridgeshire District