WESTWICK
THE small civil parish of Westwick lay between
Oakington and Cottenham 6.5 km. (4 miles)
NNW. of Cambridge. (fn. 13) The hamlet stands on a
minor road between those two places. The
ground falls from 11 m. (36 ft.) on the road and
at the north end is barely 6 m. (20 ft.) above sea
level. It lies on gault in the south, a ridge of
Lower Greensand along the road, and Kimmeridge Clay in the north. (fn. 14) A northward-flowing
brook forms the western and northern boundary.
Most of the eastern boundary follows the medieval road from Cambridge to Ely. (fn. 15) By the 19th
century it was a farm track called Cuckoo Lane, (fn. 16)
in the 20th named Gun's Lane to the south and
Rampton Drift to the north of Lambs' Cross,
where it intersects with the Oakington-Cottenham road. About 3 ha. (7 a.) east of Rampton
Drift, arable land belonging to Westwick in
1315, was transferred to Cottenham in 1985,
reducing the area of Westwick from 135 ha.
(333 a.) to 132 ha. (326 a.). At the same time the
parish was joined with its western neighbour to
form the new civil parish of Oakington with
Westwick. (fn. 17) The Oakington-Cottenham road
crosses the brook by Westwick bridge, recorded
from 1279, (fn. 18) and in the late 14th century repaired
by the villein works of the abbot of Crowland's
manor of Oakington. It was rebuilt c. 1835 in
gault brick. (fn. 19)
Westwick's name implies that it originated as
a daughter settlement of Cottenham, (fn. 20) and in
the late 11th century its main tenurial links were
with that vill. (fn. 21) Westwick was too small and
probably too late a settlement to have its own
church, and the distance from Cottenham led it
in the late 13th century to be drawn by stages
into Oakington parish, whose church lay much
nearer. Westwick people began to be buried at
Oakington in the late 13th century when the
chaplain of Cottenham refused to bury them,
allegedly for fear of death, and by 1315 they
were attending all services at Oakington and
having their children baptized there. Apart from
the lord Robert de Lisle, two thirds of whose
demesne tithes were payable to Barnwell priory,
the inhabitants were by then paying tithes to
Oakington, having presumably withdrawn them
from the rector of Cottenham when they deserted
his church. Crowland abbey's possession of the
tithes as impropriator of Oakington was vindicated in 1316. (fn. 22) Thus, although Westwick remained in the same hundred as Cottenham,
and later in the Middle Ages and occasionally
afterwards was treated as part of Cottenham for
civil purposes, (fn. 23) it was ecclesiastically within
Oakington parish from 1316, the tithes being
commuted in 1838. (fn. 24) The inhabitants disputed
their liability to church rates in 1730 and the
early 19th century. (fn. 25)
In 1086 there were probably four resident
households, including that of the Norman settler
Robert, who had no other recorded estates. (fn. 26) By
1279 the hamlet had grown greatly and included
20 or 21 families. (fn. 27) Depopulation in the later
Middle Ages (fn. 28) and afterwards reduced the number of houses to 10 in 1674, of which 5 had
one hearth, 3 had two hearths, and 1 had five
hearths, besides the manor house. (fn. 29) By 1794
there were only 5 families, comprising 28
people, (fn. 30) but numbers rose steadily to a peak
of 20 families and c. 80 residents in the 1870s, (fn. 31)
then fell to 13 families in 1891. There were
12-15 families in the hamlet from then until
the 1980s, though the number of inhabitants
continued to fall after 1891, standing in 1981 at
only 33. (fn. 32)
Earthworks between Westwick Hall Farm and
the brook are the site of Belbouches manor
house (fn. 33) and perhaps of part of the medieval
hamlet. (fn. 34) None of the surviving dwellings is
earlier than the mid 19th century. Extensive
farm buildings west of the Hall (fn. 35) were removed
when Westwick Hall Farm was built north of
the road in 1868 in gault brick with red and blue
brick decoration and a matching barn. (fn. 36) John
Linton put up a row of eight cottages in 1875 to
house some of his labourers, replacing earlier
dwellings. (fn. 37) Apart from the Hall, (fn. 38) the only other
houses in 1987 were two converted from 19thcentury cottages, a small villa built in 1914, (fn. 39) and a modern detached house. All the dwellings
line the south side of the road, apart from
Westwick Hall Farm and the Hall, which is set
back on the south at the end of an avenue of
trees. A manorial dovecot recorded in 1597
and 1764 (fn. 40) was perhaps the circular dovecot
surviving in 1905 (fn. 41) but later demolished. Shortly
after inclosure in 1856 the Lintons built an
outlying farmstead and cottage at Cuckoo hill in
the north. (fn. 42) Rebuilt after a fire in 1876, (fn. 43) it was
taken down after 1901. (fn. 44)
Westwick never had a public house, though
the New Inn next to Oakington station just
across the boundary was occasionally said to
be in the parish. (fn. 45) Some social activities were
organized in the late 19th century by the Lintons
for the workers on Westwick farm (fn. 46) and in the
20th the inhabitants looked to Oakington as their
village. (fn. 47) No school, nonconformist chapel, or
charity is known.