Westley Waterless is a small village and civil parish in East

East Cambridgeshire

East Cambridgeshire is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England. Its council is based in Ely....

 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...

, 5 miles south west of Newmarket.

History

The parish of Westley Waterless is long and thin covering 1150 acres between the ancient Icknield Way

Icknield Way

The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern England. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills.-Background:...

 at its north west end (now the A1304), to the village of Burrough Green

Burrough Green

Burrough Green is a village and parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Described in Kelly's Directory as a "village and parish 2½ miles south-east from Dullingham station on the Cambridge and Bury branch of the London and North Eastern Railway and 6 south from Newmarket, in the hundred of Radfield,...

 at the south east. It is wedged between the parishes of Burrough Green to the north and east (with the border following Westley Bottom Road), from which it was apparently carved, and Brinkley

Brinkley, Cambridgeshire

Brinkley is a small village in Cambridgeshire, England. It is situated about 15 miles east of Cambridge and 5 miles south of Newmarket, the horse racing centre. It features a pub, The Red Lion, but its Post Office closed down in the 1990s. Children go to school in the neighbouring village, Burrough...

 to the south. It has a short border with Bottisham

Bottisham

Bottisham is a village and civil parish in the East Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about east of Cambridge, halfway to Newmarket. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,983.-Church:...

 at its north west tip.

The site of the present village seems to have been occupied since the 10th century. A leaden vessel filled with tools dating from prior to the Norman Conquest has been found. Thirteen inhabitants were recorded at the time of the Domesday Book. The population reached its peak of 214 in 1851.

Listed as Westle in around 1045, Weslai in 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...

and Westle Waterles in 1285, the name "Westley" means "westerly wood or clearing", and the "waterless" comes from the Old English "water + leas" meaning "wet clearings".

Church

A church was recorded in the village in the 12th century. The oldest part of the present flint building, dedicated to St Mary, is the chancel dating from the 13th century. The chancel arch and three-bay nave date from the 14th century. The church formerly had a round west tower, the oldest part of the church until it fell in 1855.

The church contains a notable early brass dating from 1324 commemorating Sir John de Creke and his first wife Alyne Clopton.

Village life

The village no longer contains a pub. The one former pub was the Trace-horse, which opened in the early 20th century, and was renamed the White Horse by 1937, but had closed by 1976.