West Wickham is a village and civil parish in South

South Cambridgeshire

South Cambridgeshire is a mostly rural local government district of Cambridgeshire, England. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Chesterton Rural District and South Cambridgeshire Rural District. It surrounds the city of Cambridge, which is administered separately from the district by...

 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...

, 10 miles south-east 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...

 on the border with Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

.

History

The parish of West Wickham is approximately rectangular and covers an area of 2,931 acres. Its straight southern border follows the ancient track of Wool Street that divide it from the parishes of Linton

Linton, Cambridgeshire

Linton is a village in rural Cambridgeshire, England, on the border with Essex. It has been expanded much since the 1960s and is now one of many dormitory villages around Cambridge. The railway station was on the Stour Valley Railway between Cambridge and Colchester, now closed. The Rivey Hill...

 and Horseheath

Horseheath

Horseheath is a hamlet in Cambridgeshire, England, situated a few miles south-east of Cambridge, between Linton and Haverhill, on the A1307 road....

. Field boundaries separate it from West Wratting

West Wratting

West Wratting is a village and civil parish 10 miles southeast of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire. At above sea level, it can claim to be the highest village in Cambridgeshire, although the Gog Magog Hills are a little higher....

 to the north, and Balsham

Balsham

Balsham is a rural village and civil parish in the county of Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom which has much expanded since the 1960s and is now one of several dormitory settlements of Cambridge...

 to the west. Its eastern boundary follows the border with Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

.

At the time of 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...

 the parish contained three settlements: Wickham at the centre, plus the hamlets of Enhale (now Yen Hall) and Streetly (now Streetly End). Streetly End still has a number of houses, but Yen Hall consisted only of a farmhouse by the 18th century. By the 14th century a hamlet had appeared at "Bovetoun", and still exists as Burton End.

The village was known as Wickham until the 14th century, at which time the prefix "West" was added, presumably to distinguish it from the Wickhams in Suffolk (now known as Wickham Market

Wickham Market

Wickham Market is a large village situated in the River Deben valley of Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coastal heritage area.It is on the A12 trunk road thirteen miles north-east of the county town of Ipswich, five miles north-east of Woodbridge. Its railway station is located approximately...

 and Wickham Skeith

Wickham Skeith

Wickham Skeith, Suffolk seems at first like two villages, one on the high ground based mainly around the village green and one on the lower part along The Street which runs parallel to the River Dove...

). The name "Wickham" means "homestead associated with a vicus, an earlier Romano-British settlement".

Church

The village was listed as having a church in 1200, but nothing survives of the building from that time. The present parish church, dedicated to Saint Mary consists of a chancel, nave with north chapel and south porch, and west tower. The oldest part of the church appears to be the tower, which may date from the 13th century. The nave and chancel were built in the 14th century.

Village life

The village has little in the way of amenities. It has one public house, the White Horse, that opened in the early 19th century. Former pubs included the White Hart at Burton End, certainly open by the mid-18th century but closed by 1933, and the Chequers at Streetly End, which opened in the early 19th century. The Chequers closed after a fire destroyed its thatched roof in 1985.

A National school replaced a Sunday School in the village in 1878. After 1937 older children attended Linton village college, and the school closed in 1971 with primary children instead attending Balsham

Balsham

Balsham is a rural village and civil parish in the county of Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom which has much expanded since the 1960s and is now one of several dormitory settlements of Cambridge...

.