Local History

Gamlingay is one of the largest villages in Cambridgeshire. It is also one of the best recorded. Before the conquest the village is thought to have been centred on the Station road area as Saxon bones from the burial ground were found in the 1980's.

In 1260 Merton college in Oxford was founded by Walton de Merton who gave the college land in and around Gamlingay, much of which it still owns today.

The village was divided into three manors, Merton, Avenalls and Woodbury to the west. The mediaeval village was situated mostly alone the Cambridge to Bedford road. In 1600 there was a great fire which destroyed the vicarage and many other buildings in the village. In late Stuart times the Sir John Jacobs Almshouses were built for "the poor widows of good character resident in the village of Gamlingay". These remain in use today and the adjoining chapel now serves as the parish council office. In the 1840's the First school was built and further terraces in Church St.

In the last 25 years further considerable expansion has taken place with the development of modern housing estates.