Rampton, Cambridgeshire
Encyclopedia
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Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Situated on the edge of The Fens
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
six miles to the north of Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, it is a relatively small village of only around 400 people but has a thriving community.
History
The edge of the Fens were well-populated during Roman times and Rampton was no exception. The settlement apparently vanished after the Roman era and reappeared around the area of the present church in Anglo Saxon times. It is believed that a castle was built just to the east of the village in around 1140.Rampton has always been one of the smallest of the area's villages along the edge of the Fens. The Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
listed 19 tenants, and there were only 31 families in 1563 and 39 households in 1664. At the time of the first census in 1801 there were 162 inhabitants, rising to 220 in 1821 and 250 in 1871 but dropping to under 180 in 1901. After slow growth to 221 by 1951, its growth mirrored that of neighbouring villages in rising to 355 in 1981 and 440 in 2001.
The origin of the name is unclear but may well simply come from "ram tun" or "village of the ram".
Church
The parish Church of All Saints is noted as one of a very few English churches with a thatched roof and one of only two in Cambridgeshire (together with St Michael's Church, LongstantonSt Michael's Church, Longstanton
St Michael's Church, Longstanton, is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Longstanton, Cambridgeshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church stands at the south end of...
). It consists of a chancel, nave with south aisle and porch and north vestry, and west tower. The present building apparently incorporates parts of a previous 12th century building and the majority of the stonework dates from the 13th and 14th century.
The nave includes a 13th-century marble grave commemorating Nicholas of Huntingdon, and there is an effigy of a knight in the chancel dating from the late 13th-century. There is a sundial on the tower.
A third bell was added to the two medieval bells in 1713. Three further bells were added in the 20th century making one of the lightest peal
Peal
A peal is the name given to a specific type of performance of change ringing. The precise definition of a peal has changed considerably over the years...
s in the country.
Village life
The village is home to an annual horse show (first Saturday in September), which is celebrated locally as an authentic traditional style show, with Gymkhana and all. Other village events include an annual Fete on the village green in the summer, village revue/pantomime with dinner provided free by the Rampton '77 Committee for all villagers over the age of sixty.For centuries an annual Rampton Feast was held on the Sunday before 15 July, moving to the Sunday after Trinity
Trinity Sunday
Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Western Christian liturgical calendar, and the Sunday of Pentecost in Eastern Christianity...
by the start of the 20th century, but dying away until revived in 1977.
Rampton has one public house, The Black Horse, that opened around 1850. Former pubs include The Chequers that was open by 1765 and closed in 1917, and The Fox and Hounds by the Willingham road close to the parish boundary that was open for little more than a decade from around 1880.