Boxworth

From Wikishire
Jump to: navigation, search
Boxworth
Cambridgeshire
Boxworth, St Peter - geograph.org.uk - 3275.jpg
St Peter, Boxworth
Location
Grid reference: TL348642
Location: 52°15’34"N, 0°1’35"W
Data
Population: 226  (2001)
Post town: Cambridge
Postcode: CB23
Dialling code: 01954
Local Government
Council: Cambridge
Parliamentary
constituency:
South Cambridgeshire

Boxworth is a village in Cambridgeshire not far from the rapidly expanding developments of Cambourne and Northstowe. It is situated about 8 miles to the north-west of Cambridge.[1] Boxworth is a relatively small village, with around 100 houses.

History

In the 1664 Hearth Tax a large house belonging to a gentleman, Mr. Killingworth, accounted for eight hearths at Boxworth.[2] It has today one public house from the 1760s or earlier, named the Golden Ball from 1820.

Boxworth's population, once considerable, shrank severely after the Middle Ages and reached a peak of c. 350 in the mid 19th century.

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Boxworth like this:

"BOXWORTH, a parish in the district of St. Ives and county of Cambridge; 3 miles WSW of Long-Stanton r. station, and 5 SSE of St. Ives. Post Town, Long-Stanton, under Cambridge. Acres, 2,521. Real property, £2,946 Pop., 347. Houses, 64. The property is divided among a few. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Ely. Value, £459.* Patron, G. Thornhill, Esq. The church has a monument of Sanderson, the blind professor of mathematics; and is good."

Church

The parish church is St Peter.

Recorded from the mid 12th century, when relics of St 'Inicius' were said to be deposited there, the church of St Peter is an ancient edifice of flint and stone in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, south aisle, north and south porches and a lofty embattled tower containing a clock and one bell: in the church is a monument to Nicholas Saunderson LL.D., F.R.S. the celebrated blind professor of mathematics in the University of Cambridge, who died 19 April 1739: the church was thoroughly restored in 1868-9, and affords 150 sittings.[3]

Outside links

Commons-logo.svg
("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Boxworth)

References

  1. Information on Boxworth  from GENUKI
  2. Evans, N. and Rose, S., editors, Cambridgeshire Hearth Tax Returns, Michaelmas 1664, British Record Society, London, 2000, p.73.
  3. The church's page at the Cambridgeshire Churches website