Litlington, Cambridgeshire

Historical Description

Litlington, a village and a parish in Cambridgeshire. The village stands 3 miles N of Icknield Street, at this boundary with Herts, 3 S of the Roman Road to Cambridge, 3 NE of Ashwell station on the G.N.R., and 3½ NW of Eoy-bton. It has a post office under Eoyston; money order and telegraph office, Bassingbourn. The parish comprises 2172 acres; population, 568. A Roman station is supposed to have been in the near vicinity. Upwards of 200 sepulchral urns, and other funereal vessels, were found in 1821 by the side of the Roman Road, at a short distance from Limloe Hill. The most remarkable of these are preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and they form the most numerous and perfect collection of their kind that has ever been discovered in Britain. The spot where they were found had, from time immemorial, been called " Heaven's Walls," and is said to have been regarded with a degree of superstitious dread. It was a rectangular space of 114 feet by 84, enclosed by old walls, which had given rise to its name, and it proved to be a fine example of a Roman cemetery, or " Ustrinum," for burning and burying the dead. At the SE and SW corners were two heaps of wood ashes-as much as would have loaded five carts, and were undoubtedly the remains of funeral piles. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; net value, £250 with residence. Patron, Clare College, Cambridge. The church is Early English, in good condition; consists of nave, aisles, and chance], with porch and tower; and contains an old gravestone, with Norman-French inscription, to the memory of Robert de St Alban. There are Congregational and Primitive Methodi&fc chapels.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Litlington from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Littlington (St. Catherine))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Cambridgeshire is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Litlington are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Cambridgeshire papers online:

• Cambridge Independent Press
• Cambridge Chronicle and Journal
• Huntingdon, Bedford & Peterborough Gazette

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitations of Cambridgeshire 1575 and 1619 is available online.