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Burwell ... is attributed as having Saxon origins -- meaning ‘the spring by the fort’. The spring near to St. Mary’s Church may be the inspiration of this name and the church may stand on a pre-conquest fortified site. (Various sources) |
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From "Thirty-five Years of a Dramatic Author's Life", 1859
[It was] "... in the rural and romantic village of Burwell, in Cambridgeshire, a village scarcely, at that period, known beyond the limits of its own county, that the author of these pages was born ... one side being screened, from the traveller's observation, by the great Danish embankment which crosses from the border of the fens at Reach, to the furthest limits of Newmarket Heath; and the other by the vast marshy level which extends as far as the eye can trace to the venerable and picturesque cathedral in the Isle of Ely. In this old English nook, in an ancient house, overshadowed by a stupendous hollow elm tree, of great antiquity, designated the 'Cross Tree,' your humble servant first saw the light. The house, afterwards disposed of ... is now, from the convenience of its size, converted into a public-house, exulting in the unpoetical appellation of The Old Fox." ∼∼∼ In 1897-8 (at least) Hubert HUNT, 'Cross Tree Cottage', Burwell, requested planning permission from Newmarket Urban District Council (see Access2Archives documents: Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds Branch). The 1901 census lists Herbert HUNT age 29 b. Yorks Leeds, living Cambridgeshire Burwell, Architect; and in Kelly's 1904 trade directory is HUNT Herbert, architect & surveyor, North st., Burwell. |
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From "General View of the Agriculture of the County of Suffolk", 1797
Wheat (pages 43-44) "Burwell is in Cambridgeshire, on the border of Suffolk, near Newmarket Heath, a considerable part of which lies in Burwell parish, and where the greatest number of races are run: but as it is a place famous likewise for producing the best seed wheat in the kingdom, I shall take a pleasure ... in giving the best description of it I can. Burwell, then, is a large parish, containing within bounds nearly 7000 acres, 3000 of which are arable, 5OO are pasture, and the rest are fen grounds. The arable land is divided into three shifts, two of which produce corn every year, viz. wheat and barley, and the third is fallow. The greatest number of acres under the plough are called white lands, as the appearance of the land in dry weather is white, on account of its being a shallow soil, lying near the white stone, and not being a spit deep in many places. There is another sort of plough land in the parish, which is called red land, lying down towards Newmarket Heath; but the quantity of this is very small, when compared with the white land, and its quality is far inferior. It is the white land which produces the true seed wheat which is in great request in the north, on account of its becoming ripe much sooner than any other seed that is sown, and consequently makes an earlier harvest in a cold climate. This wheat bears the highest price in the market, and is threshed as soon as it is got into the barn, that is, it is only topped out, not threshed to straw, and the sheafs are tied up again, and laid up for some time before they are threshed again to straw, so that it is the ripest and best part of the ear from which the seed is obtained in the early threshing. The reason why this white land wheat is so beneficial for seed, I humbly think, is owing to the saltpetre with which the soil is impregnated, arising from the white stone underneath it; and whas has confirmed me in this opinion is, that my house is built with the same stone, dug out of the pits, and the walls, in damp wxeather, are always wet with saltpetre, and produce a great deal of moisture after a frost. With regard to the method of cultivating the land here, there has been no alteration in that particular for these twenty-three years, the time of my residence in this parish." (Written by Mr. TURNER) |
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From "A Topographical Dictionary of England", 1831
page 362: "The most remarkable earthworks are the trenches that extended from the woods on the east side of the county [of Cambridgeshire] to the fens, the most entire of which is called the Devil's ditch; it runs seven miles, from Wood-Ditton to Reach, in the parish of Burwell, nearly in a straight line. Another trench, Fleam dyke, runs parallel with it, at the distance of seven miles, extending from the woodlands at Balsham to the fens at Fen-Ditton: a considerable part of it has been levelled." |
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From "The Batsford Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of East Anglia", 1980
page 40: "The Lode End -- Burwell was a Fen port at least from the medieval period: the lode is most probably Roman." |
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From "The Estates of Ramsey Abbey", 1957
Several mentions of land in Burwell, rents. page 282: "The Burwell villein lists for 1307 and 1324 may be found appended to the PRO account rolls of Holywell for the same years." "Table LXIV ..... Early Fourteenth-Century Tenants and Tenancies at Burwell". |
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From "A Manual for the Study of Monumental Brasses", 1848
pages xxvi-xxvii "The Chasuble or Chesible was put on over all the Eucharistical vestments, and was worn only at the celebration of the holy eucharist. ... was ornamented with orphreys, which wee placed either round the edges, or down the front and back in a straight line, or both. ... On brasses the chasubles are entire, and quite plain except the orphreys; in a few cases they are seen ornamented ... on part of the figure of an Abbot, c. 1500, the reverse of a palimsest brass at Burwell, Camb. ..." |
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From
Appendix No. XV From a Copy of Mr. Hayward's General Survey of the Level, taken A.D. 1635-6
page 172 Burwell towne, a common ffen more east, beyonde the river at Burwell Block : by Wickin Lode north and east; another Lode west; and the ffeild ground south
The same towne, another common ffen adioyning more west : betwene Wickin Lode north, and Burwell high lode south; with a narrow gory point westward, at the meeting of the twoe lodes
The same towne and Reach, another common ffen adioyning more south : by the high ground east and part south; and Reach Lode on the south-west; with a narrow gory point westward at the meeting of the two lodes
page 264 Out of the common fen grounds of or belonging to Fordham, in the said county of Cambridge, lying between the fen grounds of Burwell and the hard lands near Wickin, twenty-seven acres at the west end of the same fen
page 266 Out of the common fen grounds of or belonging to Burwell and Reach in the said county of Cambridge, seven hundred acres at the north-west part of the same fens abutting upon Wickin Lode and Reach Lode
Appendix No. XVIII An Act for the Draining of the Great Level of the Fens
Die Martis, 29 Maii, 1649 [Tuesday, 29 May] Preamble "Whereas the said Great Level, by reason of frequent overflowing of the Rivers of Welland, Neane, Grant, Ouse, Brandon, Mildenhal, and Stoke, have been of small and uncertain profit, but (if drained) may be improved and made profitable, and of great advantage to the commonwealth, and to the particular owners, commoners, and inhabitants, and be fit to bear coleseed and rapeseed in great abundance, which is of singular use to make soap and oils within this nation, to the advancement of the trade of clothing and spinning of wool, and much of it will be improved into good pasture for seeding and breeding of cattle, and of tillage to be sown with corn and grain, and for hemp and flax in great quantity, for making all sorts of linen cloth and cordage for shipping within this nation; which will increase manufactures, commerce, and trading at home and abroad, will relieve the poor by setting them on work, and will many other ways redound to the great advantage and strengthening of the nation : Boundaries of the Level And first, to the end it may be known what that Great Level is, and for the ascertaining the extent, bounds, and limits thereof, and for prevention of all doubts, questions, and ambiguities touching the same, be it enacted, ordained, and declared by the authority of this present Parliament, that the moors, marshes, fenny and low surrounded grounds, bounding themselves ... ... the uplands of Mildenhall in the county of Suffolk, southward from Worlington Lode unto Burwell Block, upon the uplands of Freckingham, Isleham, Fo[r]dham, Soham, and Wicken in the county of Cambridge, and excluding the low grounds of Burwell, Lanward, and other places lying eastward from Burwell Block aforesaid; and from thence unto the Mill near Anglesey Abbey, upon the uplands of Burwell Reach, Swaffham Prior, Swaffham Bulbeck, and Bottesham in the said county of Cambridge ..." |
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From "Memoirs of the Protectorate-house of Cromwell", 1784
page 383 Sir William Russell, knt. sirnamed the black sir William, to whom king Charles gave the treasureship of the navy with sir Henry Vane; he was not ungrateful; he never deserted his royal master, for which he was stiled the cream of the Russells; his attachment to his sovereign occasioned his imprisonment by the parlement in 1646. He married Ann, daughter of ______ Bendysh, by whom he had an only child, a daughter, who died an infant, near whom he is buried, at Burwell, in the county of Cambridge*." * In the chancel of the church of Burwell is a neat monument of marble, to the memory, I should suppose, of the lady of sir William Russell, knt. called the black sir William; and, if so, she must have lived to a great age. The inscription is: Neare this Place
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From "Farm Insects", 1860
Carrot Insects, pages 408-9 "... an insect so far from common ... with a view of completing the history of the carrot insects, than from any necessity of guarding the agriculturist against its inroads ... As England has been better drained, many native insects are expelled from their ancient haunts, and are becoming extinct in some districts: this is the case with Papilio Machaon ... Some fifty years back, this conspicuous butterfly appeared annually in neighbourhoods where now it is never seen ... at present, if any one wishes to find this beautiful butterfly, he must go to the fens of Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, or Norfolk, where, at Burwell, Whittlesea, and Horning, thirty or forty may be taken in a fine day from May to midsummer. The female butterfly will lay her eggs indiscriminately upon the leaves and flowers of carrots, the marsh milk-parsley (Selinum palustre), rue or fennel, in the end of May and in June. The caterpillars of various sizes and colours may be found feeding in June and July; and the butterfly is sometimes seen until the middle of August." |
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From "Magna Britannia", 1808
pages 97-8 "Burwell, in the hundred of Staplehoe, lies about four miles N. W. of Newmarket; it is situated within the diocese of Norwich and deanery of Fordham. The abbot and convent of Ramsey had a large estate and manor in this parish given by King Edgar and Elsture de Langyath; upon the dissolution of monasteries it was granted to Sir Edward North, who, after possessing it about five years, surrendered it again to the crown, under which it has ever since been held on lease, except during the protectorate of Cromwell, when the manor was sold to Richard Ashfield, and others, and the manor house to Justinian Povey. A lease from the crown, which is nearly expired, is vested in the representatives of the late lessee, the Rev. William Affleck. Burwell Castle, of which the moat and other considerable vestiges remain, was besieged in the reign of King Stephen by Geffrey de Mandevill, Earl of Essex, who lost his life by a wound from an arrow before its walls. The castle appears to have belonged to the abbey of Ramsey. The remains of it, consisting of a piece of ruined wall and extensive earthworks, are situated in a close, a little to the west of the church within the manor of Ramsey. The manor of Tiptofts takes its name from the baronial family of Tibetot or Tiptoft, who possessed it as early as the year 1277, before which time it had belonged to the family of Camois. John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, died seised of this manor, and another manor in this parish called Dullinghams, in 1470. From the Earl of Worcester, the manor of Tiptofts passed by descent to Sir Thomas Lovell, who possessed it in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In 1632, Tiptofts was in the family of Marshe, Dullinghams in the Cromwells : they now both belong to the Earl of Aylesford, whose father acquired them in marriage with the younger daughter of Charles Duke of Somerset. A third manor, called the manor of St. Omer, which, in 1632, belonged to the Goodwin family, has since been in that of Isaacson, and is now the property of Mr. William Sandiver, surgeon, of Newmarket. There were formerly two churches in Burwell; that of Burwell St. Andrew has been dilapidated nearly 200 years [there are now no remains of it, the ruins of the west end have been removed since the year 1770]. Burwell St. Mary is a very handsome gothic building, which appears to have been erected soon after the middle of the fifteenth century; the wall between the nave and the chancel, and the roof of the nave, were completed in 1464, at the expence of the Bennet family, as appears by an inscription still remaining in the church, where are memorials for the families of Cotton, Gerrard, and Russell. An estate, consisting of a hundred acres of arable land, given in ancient times by certain persons for the repair of this elegant gothic structure, was recovered by the exertions of Mr. Turner, the present vicar; under whose superintendence it was put, and by whom it has been since kept in a state of complete repair. When Sir Edward North surrendered the Burwell estate to King Henry VIII., he prevailed on that monarch to give the rectory and rectory-manor of Burwell St. Mary to the university of Cambridge; a vicarage was then endowed, with a stipend of 20l. per annum, payable out of the tithes. Sir Edward North stipulated that his heirs should appoint to the viarage one of two persons nominated by the university; and as a farther compensation for his good offices, he is said to have received of the university the sum of 700l., for which transaction Dr. Lever, master of St. John's College, in a sermon preached before King Edward VI., gives him the appellation of a Judas. Pursuant to a convenant in the deed of conveyance to the university, a sermon is annually preached in this church on Midlent Sunday, by the vice-chancellor, or his deputy. The dilapidated rectory of St. Andrew belongs also to the university, having been purchased at a subsequent period. A memorable and most melancholy accident happened at Burwell in the year 1727, when 79 persons, being spectators at a puppet-show, exhibited in a barn, lost their lives in consequence of a fire which destroyed the building. It is thus recordedin the parish register. "1727, September 8, N. B. About nine o'clock in the evening a most dismal fire broke out in a barn, in which a great number of persons were met together to see a puppet-show; in the barn there were a great many loads of new light straw; the barn was thatched with straw, which was very dry, and the inner roof of the barn was covered with old dry cob-webs, so that the fire like lightning flew round the barn in an instant; and there was but one small door belonging to the barn, which was close nailed up, and could not easily be broke open; and when it was opened, the passage was so narrow, and every body so impatient to escape, that the door was presently blocked up; and most of those who did escape, which were but very few, were forced to crawl over the heads and bodies of those that lay on a heap at the door, and the rest, in number seventy-six, perished instantly, and two more died of their wounds within two days. The fire was occasioned by the negligence of a servant, who set a candle and lanthorn to, or near, the heap of straw which was in the barn. The servant's name was Richard Whitaker, of the parish of Hadstock in Essex, near Linton, in Cambridgeshire, who was tried for the fact at the Assizes held at Cambridge, March 27, 1728, but was acquitted." The names of the sufferers are subjoined in the register. Names of some of the victims, from a pre-trial account Reach, formerly a market town, is partly in this [Burwell] parish, and partly in the parish of Swaffham-Prior (separated by the Devil's ditch, which runs through it). It is probable that the market originated in the grant to Robert Tibetot of a market within his manor of Burwell on Wednesdays, and a fair for 15 days, to begin on Whit-Monday (the parish feast is still held on Whit-Monday); the market at Reach has been long wholly discontinued. There is a great fair for horses held annually on Rogation Monday, the tolls of which belong to the corporation of Cambridge; There was anciently a chapel at Reach, now dilapidated (most of the houses are in the parish of Swaffham-Prior, though the site of the chapel is in Burwell). The manor of East-Reach, in Burwell, was in the family of Chapman in the reign of James I., it does not appear to be now known. A navigable draining cut, comes up to Reach, and another to Burwell." |
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From "The Traveller's Guide", 1805
page 759 "Geoffry de Mandeville ... after his release, again appeared under arms against the king, and committed many outrages. At length, besieging the king's castle at Burwell, he received a wound in the head of which he died, Sept. 14, 1144. The keep of this castle, stripped of its out___de stones, is still remaining: the ruins belong to Lord Braybook. On the Green behind the castle, is a singular work, called The Maze consisting of a number of concentric circles, with four outworks issuing from the four sides, all cut in the chalk, supposed by Dr. Stuke__y to be a British place of exercise for the soldiery." |
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From "The Beauties of England and Wales", 1809
pages 142-6 "BURWELL is a very considerable village on the eastern side of the county, about three miles distant from Newmarket. The only published record of its ancient history, is contained in Camden's Britannia, in which it is observed, that its Castle was vigorously attacked, in the confusion of Stephen's reign, by Geoffry de Magnaville, Earl of Essex, who was slain by an arrow, and the county delivered from the fears they had long entertained of his oppressive conduct. This fortress was probably erected in the time of the Otarchy, as its situation is so near to the Devil's Ditch, the reputed boundary of the kingdom of the East Angles. Some small remains of the Castle are yet standing: and surrounding the site is a very large fosse, with many springs of excellent water flowing into it. This village became memorable from the melancholy event known by the name of Burwell Fire, which, from the destruction of lives it occasioned, is, perhaps, unparalleled by any similar accident in the history of Britain. [Account from the Parish Register, as above] The names of the unfortunate sufferers are annexed to this relation; among them were several young ladies of fortune, and many children. Some additional particulars concerning this sad accident were published in 1769, by the Rev. Thomas Gibbons, who was born in the neighbourhood, and heard many circumstances from the relatives of the survivors, that were unnoticed in the register. He likewise derived information from a person named Howe, who was in the barn when the fire commenced, and only escaped the flames from the circumstance of having been seated on a beam, which gave him an opportunity of springing over the heads of those who had fallen, and blocked up the lower part of the doorway. From this collective evidence it appears, that nearly two-thirds of the barn were filled with trusses of oat-straw, and that the barn was only separated from a stable, where many other trusses were heaped up, by a partition of lath and plaster. In the stable were two horses belonging to Mr. Shepherd, the master of the puppet-shew, which were under the care of Whitaker, who went to feed them after the entertainment was begun, and being desirous of seeing it without paying the price of admission, became, through his eagerness to remove the straw, which impeded his observation, the unintentional cause of the above complicated misery. When the roof fell, which was scarcely half an hour from the commencement of the fire, the shrieks and anguish of the helpless sufferers were at once ended in one universal silence and death. The Bodies were reduced to a mass of mangled carcases, half consumed, and wholly undistinguishable, and were promiscuously buried in two pits, dug for the purpose in the church-yard. This dreadful catastrophe was soon after noticed in a sermon preached by the Rev. Alexander Edmonson, the vicar of the parish, from the following most appropriate text, selected from the fourth chapter of 'Lamentations'. Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become dry like a stick. The principal beauty at Burwell is its elegant church, which is built in the style of architecture mistakenly termed Gothic, and, for symmetry and accurate proportions, is scarcely exceeded by any village church in the kingdom. It was erected about twenty years after the foundation of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and probably by some of the artificers who were employed in the construction of that fabric: but, whoever were the architects, it is evident that the excellence of the desigu, and masterly manner in which it was executed, could have originated only with those who were perfectly conversant with the principles of their art. The windows are extremely large, and have a very noble appearance; and the tower, which is embrasured, and ornamented with elegant pinacles, adds greatly to the general effect and grandeur of the edifice. Above the point of the fine arch which separates the nave from the chancel, is a Latin abbreviated inscription in the old black letter: this, without the abbreviations, is as follows. Orate pro animabus Johannis Benet Johane et Alicie uxorum ejus parentumque qui fieri fecerunt hunc parietem ac carpentariam navis Ecclesiae anno domini Millesimo quadringentesimo sexagesimo quarto. Over the inscription is a beautiful piece of crocket work in stone, being a kind of rose window, very elegantly diversified. The roof is of oak, finely carved with heads and figures of strange animals. Over the window, nearest the chancel, on the north side, is a piece of sculpture, representing the Virgin Mary between two angels, with roses in their hands. The altar is neat, but of modern workmanship. When the present resident Minister (Rev. H. E. Turner, B.D. - for the chief particulars of Burwell, we are indebted to this gentleman) took possession of his benefice, about twenty-eight years ago, the church was considerably out of repair, especially the windows, which were greatly defaced, and the crocket-work nearly filled up with stones and mortar. On enquiry, he discovered that the revenues of one hundred acres of arable land had been given to adorn the church, and keep it in good order; but the money was appropriated to very different uses. After some exertion, he recovered the estates, though the writings relative to the donation had been burnt, with a view of diverting the income from its proposed destination; and during the last twenty years, by the judicious expenditure of the annual receipts, the church has been thoroughly repaired, and restored to its original state of primary elegance. The names of the persons who gave the hundred acres cannot be affirmed with certainty; but they are supposed to have been William Sygar, Thomas Catlyne, and ------ Foster. Burwell had anciently two parishes, and two Churches, dedicated to St. Mary and St. Andrew. The tithes of the former were given by Henry the Eighth to the University of Cambridge; and those of the latter, which was called the Dilapidated Rectory of St. Andrew, were purchased by the University about a century afterwards. The ruins of the west end of this Church have been removed within the last thirty years, and the church-yard converted into pasture ground. The length of this village is upwards of three quarters of a mile: it consists chiefly of one irregular street. The houses are built with a peculiar kind of stone, obtained from the neighbouring pits; and many of the inclosures in the vicinity are surrounded with it. This stone is famous for making excellent lime. Pyrites, and many sharks' teeth, in good preservation, have been found in the pits wherein it is dug. The population appears to have increased with the last century, and the houses are at present insufficient to supply residences to the families who wish to live in the village. The male inhabitants are chiefly employed in agriculture, and the women in spinning. The parish contains 7000 acres, 3500 of which are fen lands, that are frequently overflowed in wet seasons. Of the remaining quantity, 2000 acres are appropriated to the growth of corn. The seed wheat they produce is in high repute, and much sought after by the farmers of the northern counties, as it grows faster, and comes earlier to the sickle, than that which is produced of most other parishes. The number of houses is 271; that of inhabitants 1250; of these 594 are males, and 656 females." |
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From "The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia", 1830
page 295 "The Cambridgeshire canal commences in the river Ouse, at Harrimere, and terminates in the town of Cambridge. A cut of three miles extends to Reche, and another of three miles and a half to Burwell. The river Cam is embanked in all its lower parts above the adjoining fens. It has no locks in some parts, but it has sluices for making flushes of water to enable boats to pass the shallows." |