Lolworth is a small village and civil parish in the district of

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 ...

, in the county of

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

, England, located approximately northwest 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 ...

city centre. 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 ...

passes through the village, around just to the west of the crossroads in the centre.

History

Lolworth is a small village and parish, covering only . It owes its position to the

Via Devana Via Devana is the name given to a Roman Road in England that ran from Colchester in the south-east, through Cambridge in the interior, and on to Chester in the north-west. These were important Roman military centres and it is conjectured that th ...

, the Roman road running from Cambridge to Huntingdon that became a turnpike between 1772 and 1876. In the early Middle Ages the village was well populated for its size, with 154 adults registered for the

poll tax A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. ''Poll'' is an archaic term for "head" or "top of the head". The sen ...

of 1377. However, the population declined sharply after that, perhaps due to a devastating fire caused by a thunderstorm of September 1393. By 1524 there were only 17 taxpayers, and the 17 families comprising 90 people listed in 1728 occupied only six buildings. The population reached a peak of 170 in 1871, and has been relatively steady at around 130 since 1961. The celebrated 19th-century missionary

Henry Martyn Henry Martyn (18 February 1781 – 16 October 1812) was an Anglican priest and missionary to the peoples of India and Persia. Born in Truro, Cornwall, he was educated at Truro Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge. A chance e ...

served in Lolworth, which was his first parish from 1803 to 1805 while he was a curate under

Charles Simeon Charles Simeon (24 September 1759 – 13 November 1836) was an English Evangelical Anglicanism, evangelical Anglican cleric and biblical commentator who led the evangelical 'Low Church' movement, in reaction to the liturgically and episcopally ...

Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge Holy Trinity Church is a church in Market Street, in the city of Cambridge, in Cambridgeshire, England, on the corner with Sidney Street. Its current vicar is Stuart Browning. Theologically, it stands within the charismatic evangelical traditi ...

, before setting out for India and present-day Iran and Turkey. Listed as ''Lollesworthe'' in 1034 and ''Lolesuuorde'' in 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 ...

of 1086, the village's name means "Enclosure of a man called Loll".

Church

There has been a church on the site since at least the 13th century, but the present church probably dates from just prior to its rededication in 1406, with the tower added later. This leads to the theory that the great fire of 1393 destroyed the existing church, as little that pre-dates the fire survives. Dedicated to All Saints, the building comprises a chancel, a nave with south porch, and a three-storey west tower.

Village life

The village is too small to warrant amenities other than its church. In 1960, a local resident, T. B. Robinson, bought the former school from the county council and gave it for use as a village hall, which was then named after him. Lolworth has no public house, but did have one alehouse, The Three Horseshoes, between the 1760s and 1798. It also had a small post office run from the front of a resident's house, but this closed in the early 21st century. Lolworth borders

Bar Hill Bar Hill is a purpose-built village with a population of 4,000 about 4 miles (7 km) northwest of Cambridge, England on the A14 road, just east of the Prime Meridian. History Prior to the building of the Bar Hill settlement the area was ...

to the south, which is accessible by a path through the field. To the north lies

Swavesey Swavesey is a village lying on the Prime meridian (Greenwich), Prime Meridian of the world in Cambridgeshire, England, with a population of 2,463. The village is situated 9 miles to the north west of Cambridge and 3 miles south east of St Ives, ...

, where most of the children go to their secondary school. Boxworth is to the west of the village and Childerley to the south.

Transport

The village was previously only accessible via the A14 between Cambridge towards

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by John, King of England, King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver C ...

. However since the upgrade works to the A14 the village has become accessible from the single-carriageway A1307.

In popular culture

Lolworth's church features in the 1990 short story " The Fenstanton Witch" by

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English medievalist scholar and author who served as provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936) as well as Vice-Chancellor of the Univers ...

References

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