Spaldwick’s story begins long before its surviving houses, inns and church. Archaeological discoveries reveal prehistoric activity, Iron Age farming and Saxon settlement, while medieval records describe an estate with links to Ely Abbey and the bishops of Lincoln.
This page brings together our existing early-history research and some of the evidence behind it. It follows the story from traces beneath the ground to features that still help shape the village today.
Prehistory: The Earliest Traces
Excavations in 2010 at 33 Thrapston Road, on land backing towards St James’ Church, revealed evidence spanning several periods. Worked flint and small pottery fragments point to activity in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. These are slight traces, rather than proof of a village with the layout we know today.
Iron Age Farming
The clearer Iron Age evidence included a trackway, boundary ditches and small enclosures. The excavators interpreted these as part of a landscape used for mixed farming. This gives us a glimpse of people organising land for crops and animals before written records describe Spaldwick.
Saxon Settlement
The excavated site appears to have fallen out of use during the Romano-British period, then been occupied again in the early or middle Saxon period. Later Saxon changes created defined plots, known as tofts, with rectangular timber buildings. In medieval times the excavated land became part of a field system.
These findings concern the excavated plot; they do not establish continuous occupation across the whole village. Read the Thrapston Road excavation account for the detailed evidence.
Spaldwick & Ely Abbey
The village’s written history reaches back before Domesday. The Victoria County History, drawing on the Liber Eliensis, records a gift of Spaldwick to Ely Abbey by Byrhtnoth, the East Saxon ealdorman who died at the Battle of Maldon in 991. That year is often attached to the story locally; it should not be treated as the date when Spaldwick was founded.
This connection places the settlement within the history of a much larger religious estate. Domesday later recorded Ely Abbey as its lord both before and after the Norman Conquest.
Spaldwick in Domesday Book
The survey of 1086 gives a detailed snapshot of the estate. Open Domesday’s Spaldwick entry records 60 households: 50 villagers and 10 smallholders. These are household entries, not a headcount of everyone who lived here.
Its resources included meadow, woodland and a mill. The recorded annual value rose from £16 in 1066 to £22 in 1086. Together, these details describe a substantial agricultural community and the income it provided to its lord.
The wider estate extended beyond today’s village. Medieval administrative boundaries and land assessments do not translate neatly into the area of the modern settlement.
Early spellings recorded in the Victoria County History include Spalduuic, Spaldewick and Spaldewic. The meaning and development of the name deserve further work; we have not adopted one of the competing explanations here.
Bury Close & the Bishops of Lincoln
In 1109, Spaldwick passed from Ely to the bishopric of Lincoln as part of the arrangements accompanying the creation of the new diocese of Ely. The bishops became central figures in the village’s medieval history.
Beside St James’ Church, Bury Close contains the remains of an enclosure and earthworks. Archaeologist C. C. Taylor interpreted the combined evidence as a medieval palace and estate centre for the bishops. “Palace” here refers to an episcopal residence and its associated buildings; their exact layout remains uncertain. See Taylor’s study of Spaldwick.
Taylor also drew attention to Bishop Oliver Sutton’s repeated stays: ten visits between 1286 and 1299, ranging from a day to almost eight weeks. These records help bring the earthworks to life as a place used by a travelling bishop and his household.
Was Spaldwick a Planned Village?
Taylor suggested that much of Spaldwick’s street layout resulted from deliberate planning in the twelfth century. It is an interpretation of the roads, plots and earthworks, rather than a documented date for the village’s creation.
A separate excavation reported in 1996 found traces of at least two timber buildings, with ditches and pits, dating to the late Saxon–Norman or early medieval period. Their alignment helped researchers investigate changes to the village around the bishop’s enclosure. The pottery could not provide a precise date for that reorganisation. Read Saxon and Medieval Structural Remains at Thrapston Road.
The Medieval Church
No church is mentioned in Spaldwick’s Domesday entry. That silence does not, by itself, prove that there was no earlier place of worship. The surviving building provides firmer evidence: Historic England identifies twelfth-century fabric in the nave wall, north doorway and part of the east wall.
The church was enlarged and altered over the centuries, including the fourteenth-century tower and spire. Explore the History of Spaldwick Church for the fuller story.
Markets, Fairs & the Village Green
A royal grant dated 17 December 1441 authorised a Wednesday market and two annual fairs at Spaldwick for the Bishop of Lincoln. The fairs were associated with the feasts of Philip and James on 1 May and Hugh of Lincoln on 17 November. The Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs identifies the underlying charter record.
The Victoria County History suggests that the widened western end of High Street provided the setting for the market and possibly the fairs. This is a useful way to look at the village green: an open space with a history of trade as well as village gatherings.
The Crossing Over Ellington Brook
The stone bridge at the western end of the village is another surviving part of this medieval landscape. Its three medieval arches and later widening are described on Spaldwick’s Medieval Bridge. For the houses and other landmarks that followed, explore Spaldwick’s Historic Buildings.
Sources & Further Reading
This overview draws on the earlier village history, the St James’ Church Research Master and the published sources below. The research master provides a fuller account of the evidence already assembled; original reports distinguish excavated findings from later interpretation.
Visit the Research Library for the church research and our approach to developing these histories.
Susan Clelland and Lorraine Mepham: Thrapston Road excavation account — Wessex Archaeology’s author-uploaded account of the 2010 work. Its publications list records the final article as An Anglo-Saxon site at Thrapston Road, Spaldwick, Cambridgeshire, Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 103 (2014), pp. 117–131.
C. C. Taylor: Spaldwick, Cambridgeshire — Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 78, pp. 71–75; the 1989 volume, published in 1990.
Duncan Schlee: Saxon and Medieval Structural Remains at Thrapston Road — archaeological report, 1996.
Open Domesday: Spaldwick — a searchable presentation of the 1086 estate record.
Victoria County History: Parishes — Spaldwick — manor, settlement and church history, with references to earlier records.
Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs: Huntingdonshire — see the Spaldwick entry for the 1441 grant.
Historic England: St James’ Church — the surviving building’s designation and architectural account.
A Note on Earlier Accounts
Earlier village material described Bronze Age pits and ditches dating to about 1000 BC. The excavation account supports prehistoric activity, but does not substantiate that precise description and date. This page therefore uses the archaeological periods and findings rather than repeating the claim as established fact.
The old history also described Domesday Spaldwick as about 450 acres. We have retained the Domesday story but have not repeated that figure: the estate included dependent settlements, and its land assessments need careful interpretation before conversion to a modern acreage.
Some older accounts call the enclosure near the church a lost settlement of Danesfield. Its relationship to the village’s earlier settlement and the bishops’ estate needs further investigation. We do not yet present that name as proof of a separate village or a Danish foundation.
A Developing Page
We will add further research, maps and illustrations as the evidence becomes available. If you can help with a source, photograph or correction, email info@spaldwick.com.
Continue exploring the History of Spaldwick or visit the Photography Archive.