The Village

Castle Camps is situated 15 miles S.E. of Cambridge, and borders on to Suffolk and Essex. It is one of the highest villages in the county, being 415 feet above sea level and on the watershed between the Cam and Colne valleys.

It is shewn as part of the Chilford Hundred on a map dated 1845. Until the 14th century, it was known as Great Camps, the name of "Camps" probably deriving from the early English encampments or fields formed in clearings made in the great forests which still covered the area in 1086.

In the Middle Ages, a group of cottages stood N.W. of the Castle, one or two surviving to 1618, and earth works still mark the site.

The villagers of Castle Camps suffered badly at the time of the Black Death and the survivors fled to Camps Green, which was not so badly affected. In time, Camps Green became known as Castle Camps, although it was shewn as Camps Green on some road maps till comparatively recently. Now only the Church remains to mark the site of the old village.

The population of Castle Camps was 713 in 1901 and 442 in 1971.

Situated within the present Parish boundaries is a Triangulation Pillar, marking the highest point in Cambridgeshire - 415' above sea level.

Before the Norman conquest, the Manor belonged to a King's Thegn named Ulwin, one of the larger landowners in the county. When William the Conqueror confiscated the lands of the English in 1068, the whole of Ulwin's land was given to Aubrey De Vere, First Earl of Oxford, and it remained in the family until 1584.

It was then sold to Sir Thomas Skynner, a wealthy merchant and son of the Lord Mayor of London. Later it passed to Thomas Sutton, who endowed it to Charterhouse, who in 1919 sold all the Estate except Castle Farm and Manor.

The Park surrounding the Castle and Manor was 4 miles round, and it is not unlikely that the boundary would be from Wigmore Pond (which was used to supply water to the Castle), along Hart's Lane, past the Rectory, and by Pound Lane and Broad Street, to the village, and then on to the Bumpstead bounds beyond Moat Farm.

Park Street is mentioned in 1450.

This List was last updated on 17th November 2000.

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