Great Wilbraham
| Great Wilbraham | |
| Cambridgeshire | |
|---|---|
 St Nicholas, Great Wilbraham | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TL549577 |
| Location: | 52°11’46"N, -0°16’1"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 639 (2001) |
| Post town: | Cambridge |
| Postcode: | CB21 |
| Dialling code: | 01223 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | South Cambridgeshire |
Great Wilbraham is a small village in a rural setting of southern Cambridgeshire. It lies six miles east of Cambridge, between the edge of an area of low-lying drained fens to the west and north, and higher ground that rises at the eastern edge of the county. Half a mile north of Great Wilbraham is Little Wilbraham.
The village is mostly residential and employment is mostly agricultural, though a few small businesses operate. Many of the working residents commute into Cambridge or other nearby towns such as Newmarket.
Great Wilbraham has a variety of house types, mostly Victorian but with several older examples in Church Street and Angle End, with post-war infill development stretching out to Frog End, and a small number of modest-scale modern estates. A number of attractive period houses surround the large village green, which adjoins the churchyard. There is one post office and general store, one public house and a well-used village hall/social club.
The village has two churches, both at the very north of the village:
- St Nicholas (Church of England)
- Great Wilbraham Baptist Chapel
Great Wilbraham has a strong sporting tradition. The village has a cricket team and a football team which play on the Green. Darts and indoor bowls are played in the Social Club, attracting teams and visitors from outside the village.
The Sports Club organises sporting and social events, as does the Church.
Great Wilbraham appears in the Domesday Book as Wilburgaham; its name is said to derive from an Anglo-Saxon princess, Wilburh, a daughter or close kinswoman of Penda King of the Mercians, and who is portrayed on the village sign.
In the Middle Ages the Knights Templar held the manor of Great Wilbraham, which was subject to their local headquarters at Denny Abbey. The manor house is still called "The Temple". Within the grounds of the Temple were found the remains of a Roman villa, and above it (technically in the Parish of Little Wilbraham) a Middle Saxon burial ground, in the higher land above the fen, possibly dating from the time of the village's foundation.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Great Wilbraham) |
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