Abington Pigotts
| Abington Pigotts | |
| Cambridgeshire | |
|---|---|
| |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TL304444 |
| Location: | 52°4’59"N, 0°5’46"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 143 (2001) |
| Post town: | Royston |
| Postcode: | SG8 |
| Dialling code: | 01763 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | South Cambridgeshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
South Cambridgeshire |
Abington Pigotts is a small village in the south of Cambridgeshire, about 4 miles northwest of Royston.
The parish of Abington Pigotts covers an area of 1,237 acres and is roughly circular in shape. It is surrounded by the parishes of Shingay, Wendy, Bassingbourn, Litlington, and Steeple Morden with its boundaries largely following minor waterways and streams.
Name
The name 'Abington' is the Old English Æbbantun, meaning 'Æbba's estate'. It is listed as Abintone in the Domesday Book of 1086. In the Middle Ages the village was variously known as Abington by Shingay, after its neighbouring village, and Abington in the Clay, from the heaviness of its soil, to distinguish it from The Abingtons in the southeast of Cambridgeshire.
The village became Abington Pigots by the 17th century after the Pykot or Pigott family that owned the manor from the 15th to the 19th century.[1][2]
History
A settlement from the early Iron Age has been found in the parish, covering around 20 acres a half mile north-west of the church, and was occupied through the Belgic and Roman periods. Pottery from the Anglo-Saxon era has also been found near the site.[2]
In early Middle Ages, Abington was sometimes listed as a hamlet of its southern neighbour, Litlington, despite possessing its own church from at least 1200.
Church
The parish church has been dedicated to St Michael (now St Michael and All Angels) since at least the 13th century and consists of a chancel, nave with south porch and north vestry, and west tower. The present building dates from the 14th century, though the chancel was reconstructed in 1875. The three-stage tower is 15th century, but traces of Romanesque carving from an earlier building can still be seen.
The village
The high street consists of a number of small 18th and 19th century timber-framed cottages. The largest building on the high street is the village's one pub, The Pig and Abbott, an early-18th century inn which was known as the Darby and Joan from the early 19th century until the 1980s. A village hall was opened in 1926.[2]
A schoolroom was built on the road to the church in around 1850 with the children taught by the wives of the local craftsmen. The number of pupils remained around 40 for the rest of the 19th century but had dropped to 15 in the 1920s. In 1926 older children were sent instead to Bassingbourn with junior children following in 1933. The school reopened on a different site in 1939 but closed again in 1954. Primary children now attend the school in Steeple Morden before moving to Bassingbourn Village College.[2]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Abington Pigotts) |
- Abington [Pigotts] in the Domesday Book
References
- ↑ A. D. Mills (2003). "A Dictionary of British Place-Names". http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O40-Abington.html.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely, Volume 8 Pages 4 - 12
- History of Abington Pigotts with Litlington: churches & parishes, with the manors; by Magens De Courcy-Ireland. Royston: [the author], 1944
