Orwell, United Kingdom

History

The village of Orwell grew around the well that gave it its name and the Roman road that runs to Cambridge runs alongside the village. Listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Ordeuuella, (Ord Wella, in Old English) the village's name means "spring by a pointed hill".

The hill in question may be the natural one which lies behind St Andrew's Church. However, it is anything but pointed. There was once a man-made hill near to where the Church now stands, and an old map shows it as being pointed and that a spring emerged from its foot. The date of this hill is not known, but if it was made for a religious purpose then it may well pre-date the Church. There is an old excavation site for clunch, a traditional building material, in the side of the hill. It is now overgrown with wild flowers and is grazed by rare breeds of sheep. "The Clunch Pit" has views into three different counties, as the pit places visitors a couple hundred feet above the village below. It also contains a very small cave.

The parish is home to Malton Farm, the only remaining part of the former village of Malton which was a separate parish to Orwell until the late 18th century.

The oldest surviving houses in the village date from the 16th century. The parish's main commercial activity has always been agriculture, though a coprolite mine opened for a brief period at the end of the 19th century, and a brewery was run.

From the History section of Orwell, Cambridgeshire on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.