OAKINGTON
The ancient parish of Oakington (fn. 31) lies over
6.5 km. (4 miles) north-west of Cambridge, (fn. 32)
stretching for almost 4 km. (21/2 miles) northeastward from the Cambridge-Huntingdon
road, a turnpike between 1745 and 1874. (fn. 33) The
parish formerly covered 1,692 a., forming an
approximate rectangle. (fn. 34) In 1953 a square block
of c. 158 a. south-east of the village was transferred from Histon parish, so that Oakington
thereafter comprised 1,850 a. (749 ha.). (fn. 35) In 1985
the boundary with Long Stanton was straightened, a 12-a. projection being transferred to
Oakington, which was also then united for civil
purposes with Westwick. (fn. 36) Since the late 13th
century Westwick had been attached ecclesiastically to Oakington parish, although remaining
a separate township in Chesterton hundred. (fn. 37)
Oakington is largely flat, only at its southern
end rising above 15 m. (c. 50 ft.). There the soil
lies upon the Lower Greensand, mostly overlaid
with gault which stretches northward almost as
far as the village. The north-western part of the
parish lies on beds of gravel. (fn. 38) Oakington brook,
after rising near the main road, passes southeast of the village into Beck brook, which marks
the eastern boundary. No woodland was recorded in 1086, (fn. 39) no ancient woods remain, nor
are there any modern plantations. The land,
mostly arable, was cultivated under a triennial
rotation by the early 14th century and until
1833. (fn. 40) From 1940 the whole area north of the
village, c. 540 a., was occupied by the runways
of R.A.F. Oakington, transferred to the army in
1975. (fn. 41) The runways were being torn up in 1978
and part of the land was sold. (fn. 42)
Burials from an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery
have been found south of the church. (fn. 43) The
village was relatively populous in the Middle
Ages. There were already c. 55 peasants in
1086, (fn. 44) almost 100 landholders by 1279, (fn. 45) and
84 taxpayers in 1327. (fn. 46) In 1315 the village
allegedly contained 16 men aged 60-85 and 5
who were 90 to 120 years old. (fn. 47) There were still
c. 90 landholders in 1348: of their 55 surnames
31 can be traced back to 1279. (fn. 48) On the largest
manor 17 out of c. 35 tenants perished in 1349. (fn. 49)
Although 174 people paid the poll tax in 1377, (fn. 50)
out of c. 40 dwellings on that manor 7-10 were
reported as wasted and unrepaired in the late
1360s, (fn. 51) and still 6-7 in the 1390s. (fn. 52) Many
villeins quitted both manor and village. (fn. 53) By
1500 the population had perhaps been halved:
there were only 42 taxpayers in 1524, (fn. 54) and 43
households in 1563. (fn. 55) By the 1660s the village
had grown again to comprise 55-60 dwellings, (fn. 56)
perhaps housing 180 adults in 1676. (fn. 57) In 1728
there were said to be 47 families and probably 166
people. (fn. 58) About 1800 c. 55 families comprised c.
285 people. (fn. 59)
From 1811 the population grew rapidly by c.
100 in each decade to 333 in 1821 and a peak
of 610 in 1851. (fn. 60) Poverty and unemployment,
however, provoked heavy emigration in the early
1850s, largely, through force of example, to
Adelaide (South Australia). Rather than stay to
be 'starved to death', some 90 people left in
1851, 11 families in 1852, 9 families in 1853, (fn. 61)
and 43 people in 1854, when it was said that the
population had fallen by a third in three years. (fn. 62)
In the 1860s, however, there were c. 515 inhabitants. Thereafter numbers declined sharply, stabilizing at c. 425 only in the 1890s, then recovered
to c. 450 in the 1910s and c. 500 in 1931
and 1951. (fn. 63) New building permitted the civil
population to rise sharply to 698 by 1961, 911
in 1971, and 1,128 in 1981. (fn. 64)
The village stands in the northern half of the
parish, (fn. 65) beside a road, partly called Jumblatt
Way by the 1420s, (fn. 66) whose course was little
changed at inclosure. It runs north-east from
the turnpike to cross Beck brook by Westwick
bridge, recorded by 1315, (fn. 67) and rebuilt in a new
position after inclosure in 1834. (fn. 68) At the south
end of the village the road was crossed by one
running north-westward from Girton into Long
Stanton. At inclosure the Oakington landowners
prevented the making of a new and more direct
road to the St. Michael's end of Long Stanton. (fn. 69)
The older road thither was blocked by the
construction of the airfield in 1940, and in
the 1970s the people of Oakington resolutely
opposed its reopening to motor traffic. (fn. 70) The
Cambridge-Huntingdon line of the Great Eastern Railway, opened in 1847, ran just inside
the parish's north-eastern boundary. (fn. 71) A station
built just west of Westwick bridge, opened in
1848, (fn. 72) was closed to traffic in 1970. (fn. 73)
The village stood by 1800 among some 190 a. of
ancient closes, (fn. 74) along a street running north-east
from Alehouse Green (Broad Green c. 1520), (fn. 75)
by the Girton road, which until inclosure
covered 41/2 a. The street forks half way along its
length. The parallel Water Lane to its southeast may have been the original main street
before a rise in the water table in the 14th
century drove settlement to higher ground. Medieval house platforms are still traceable along
that lane. (fn. 76) The church and principal manor
house faced one another at the north end of the
modern street's western branch, called Church
Lane in the late 14th century. (fn. 77) Immediately to
the north were Town End close, so named
by 1498, (fn. 78) and the 4-a. Camping close. Other
dwellings lay around Sheep's Green, 2 a. c. 1830,
off a lane curving northwards from Alehouse
Green. There was no settlement elsewhere in
the parish until two farmsteads were built to the
south after inclosure. Oakington contains few old
buildings, only two or three thatched cottages,
mostly on the high street, surviving from before
1750. Its streets are lined with 19th-century
farmhouses and cottages, usually in grey brick,
interspersed with 20th-century infilling, including many bungalows.
About 1800 there were c. 42 houses, (fn. 79) and in
1834 22 houses and 27 cottages. (fn. 80) In the mid
19th century there were probably c. 60 dwellings
in the southern half of the village around the
two greens and the roads running off them,
another 60-70 in the northern half, including
Church End. (fn. 81) Later the numbers shrank
slightly: 15 houses were empty in 1891, (fn. 82) and in
1910 there were 36 houses and 80 cottages. (fn. 83)
The number occupied grew again only slowly in
the early 20th century, there being only 132
houses in the parish in 1931 and 156 in 1951, (fn. 84)
but more rapidly from the late 1950s. Estates of
25-30 houses were put up on closes off the old
streets, especially at the northern end of the
village and off the Girton road. In each decade
after 1951 80-90 houses were added, until there
were 405 altogether by 1981. (fn. 85) They included c.
50 council houses, mostly in two large estates,
some consisting of 1940s prefabs. (fn. 86)
Of Oakington's public houses the White Horse
at Alehouse Green, recorded from the 1760s (fn. 87)
and rebuilt after a fire in 1805, (fn. 88) was still open
in the 1980s, when a restaurant had been lately
added to it. (fn. 89) Of six others usually recorded from
the 1850s, two of which also stood at Alehouse
Green in 1861, one closed c. 1900, several were
still open in the 1930s, but only the New Inn, started near the station by 1858, (fn. 90) was still open in the 1980s. (fn. 91) In 1852, after a man sold his wife
to a farmer, she was followed to her new spouse
by the village boys, making 'derisive rough
music'. (fn. 92)
Figure 12:
Long Stanton and Oakington
Before inclosure (1816, 1834)
The village Feast was held in the 1860s and
1890s on the last Sunday in May. (fn. 93) It was
perhaps superseded by the shows held in mid
July by the village horticultural society founded
in 1892. (fn. 94) A village festival was started in August
1969, but expired c. 1973 through lack of public
support. (fn. 95) It was revived in the mid 1980s. (fn. 96)
From c. 1906 the parish council hired a field as
a recreation ground, (fn. 97) and bought one after 1945
out of war memorial funds, which were also used
to build a village hall and sports pavilion between
1965 and 1970. The hall was also used by the
Women's Institute (fn. 98) set up by 1927 in a wooden
hut built on parish land. (fn. 99)