Toponymy The name "Burwell",
Anglo-Saxon in origin, refers to a fort
(burh-) close to a spring
(-well). The first record of the name dates from 1060. It appears in the 1086
Domesday Book as Burewelle, Burwella and Burwelle. There is a spring in the south of the village, close to remains of the 12th-century Burwell Castle, Old maps sometimes name the village in the plural, "Burwells". which may refer to a pair of parishes: Burwell St Mary and Burwell St Andrew, or to a distinction between the High Town round the churches in the south of the village and the newer North Street and Newnham parts, separated by a causeway. and
Mesolithic have been found on the west side of the village. Other burned and worked flint has been found close to the spring, dating from the late
Neolithic, but most of the activity in the area at the time seemed to have been on the fen to the west of the village, where a large number of flint and stone tools discovered on a raised piece of ground suggest there was already settlement before the onset of the Bronze Age. During the Neolithic,
peat began to form on the fenland round the village, which partly buried the prehistoric sites. as did activity close to the spring but they were joined by increasing activity on the
heath in the south of the parish, where
barrows are known to have existed. The southern part of the parish is also the highest ground within it, and is close to the ancient
Icknield Way. As Burwell entered the
Iron Age, activity on the fens to the west appears to have decreased as the conditions became more marshy. However, ditch systems and enclosures were found there during excavations in 1969 and 1995. Activity near the spring continued, with evidence of a burial in a nearby ditch. Settlement close to the spring continued after
Roman colonisation of Britain. Evidence has been found north of St Mary's Church. Roman archaeological remains have been found round the village, including pottery, vessels and bowls, a lead vat, and coins perhaps relating to a villa in Ness Road, north of the village. Evidence of another villa in the same area comes in roof tiles from the 2nd century CE, although findings here and there cover the 2nd to 4th centuries. Reach Lode on the north-west edge was probably of Roman construction, as was the original Burwell Lode, since been replaced.
Waterway The village is located at the head of
Burwell Lode, a human-made waterway that connects it with the
River Cam. The present course, laid out in the mid-17th century, replaced an older route that was probably Roman in origin. The lode splits in two at the village, each branch serving a series of basins, warehouses and wharves located at the bottom of long strips of land, with merchants' houses at the far end of them. The village and lode gained importance with the opening in the 1850s of the Burwell Chemical Works owned by T. T. Ball. By the 1890s, this had become the Patent Manure Works owned by Colchester and Ball. About 10,000 tons of goods a year were shipped along it, using three steam tugs and a fleet of lighters. Prentice Brothers Ltd built barges in the village until 1920, and continued repairing them there after they bought the fertiliser factory in 1921. The factory was later owned by
Fisons. Boats continued to be used to move the fertiliser to Fenland farms until 1948. Commercial use of the lode ceased in 1963, when the traffic in
sugar beet stopped. whose final wall was knocked down by the Fire Brigade testing a fire hose in the 1930s, but whose dry
moat is still visible. It was built during "
The Anarchy", the mid-12th-century conflict in the reign of
King Stephen. Despite a settlement that the throne would pass to
Henry II on Stephen's death, the Barons took the opportunity to fight their own battles. Of these,
Geoffrey de Mandeville was notably troublesome. After turning against Stephen, he set up an impregnable base around
Ely, from which he attacked towns such as
Cambridge. So the king ordered castles be built to surround him. The few known potential sites of these included
Rampton (Giant's Hill),
Ramsey (Booth's Hill), Burwell, and possibly
Knapwell. At Burwell, the castle was still under construction when Geoffrey attacked and was mortally wounded. His revolt then collapsed and the castle was left unfinished, leaving large spoil heaps from the earthworks. The narrow lane along the side of the church next to Spring Close, where the Castle stood, is named Mandeville.
Barn Fire On 8 September 1727, a travelling
puppet show was filled with onlookers in a Burwell barn in what is now Cuckolds Row, near the centre of the village. The doors were nailed shut to stop further people getting in, an act that led to tragedy. Richard Whittaker, a
hostler employed by the owner of the barn came back to feed the horses. He seems to have expected to be admitted free but was not. He made his way to the stable, clambered over a partition with a
candle lantern and peered in to watch. The candle set fire to the hay within. It was reported that with no way to escape, 80 of the 140 people inside perished in the ensuing blaze. Whittaker was tried at Cambridge Assizes in 1728, but acquitted. The
Newcastle Courant reported on the fire The victims were buried in the
churchyard of St Mary's, at the opposite end of the High Street, beneath a stone engraved with a blazing heart and angels' wings. An inscription on the reverse, added in 1910 when the stone was restored, states: "To the memory of the 78 people who were burnt to death in a barn at Burwell on Sept 8th 1727." Inside the church is a separate memorial to two other victims, John and Ann Palmer. On 8 September 2005, a memorial plaque was unveiled at the site of the fire. The
Ipswich Journal of 26 February 1774 reported how "an old man who died recently near Newmarket who just before his death confessed that he set fire to a barn at Burwell, Cambridgeshire on the 8th of September 1727 when no less than 80 persons lost their lives and that having an antipathy to the puppet showman was the cause of him committing the action." That man was Richard Whittaker. ==Governance==