Longstanton is a village in South Cambridgeshire, England, northwest of Cambridge city centre.

History

For most of its history Longstanton was split into two parishes: the larger Long Stanton All Saints to the north and the smaller Long Stanton St. Michael to the south. The two may have been seen as distinct by 1086, when the Domesday Book referred to a "Stantone" and a "Stantune", and were certainly so by 1240, distinguished in Liber Memorandorum Ecclesie de Bernewelle as "Stanton" and "the other Stanton". The two villages were not formally amalgamated until 1953.

The first known reference to the village, dating back to 1070 AD, calls the village "Stantonia" and describes it as "an enclosed settlement of stoney ground."

By the time of the Domesday Book "Stantone" was one of the most populous villages in the area, with 67 peasant tenants being recorded. By 1563 this had dwindled to 42 families, and the settlement had been overtaken in size by other nearby villages such as Chesterton. The population fluctuated between 400 and 600 for several centuries, until the village was transformed by the opening of RAF Oakington in 1940, resulting in the building of three new housing estates in the village and a trebling of the population. The airbase became an army barracks in 1975; on its closure in 1999 most of the housing was sold to private owners.

The population of the village was recorded as 1700 by the 2001 census.

Churches

Longstanton is unusual among English villages in having two mediaeval churches - a reminder of its history as two parishes. The larger of the two churches, All Saints Church, is in the centre of the modern village and dates from the mid-14th Century, when it replaced an earlier church which was destroyed by a fire. It closed in 2003 due to a collapse of the ceiling, but reopened in 2007 after £10,000 was raised for repairs. It is a Grade I listed building.

St Michael's Church, situated towards the south of the village, is the smaller and older of the two churches, having been built around 1230. It is notable as a rare example of a church with a thatched roof (one of only two surviving in Cambridgeshire), and is a Grade II* listed building. It has not been used for regular worship since the amalgamation of the parishes, and is now maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust. Churches modelled after its architecture have been built as far away as Philadelphia (see Church of St. James the Less) and South Dakota.

Transport

Long Stanton railway station operated between 1847 and 1970. A part of the Cambridge and Huntingdon railway the station was immortalised in the Flanders and Swann song, "Slow Train". Despite surviving the Beeching Axe, passenger services to Long Stanton were ended in 1970.

Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, set to be the world's longest guided busway, is under construction and will stop at Longstanton. The scheme, budgeted at £116.2 million, is scheduled to open in early 2009. The scheme has been heavily criticised by campaigners who believe that the route would be better served by a rail link.

Other facilities

The village has a recently built primary school, a Village Institute, a Doctor's and an Immigration Centre nearby. The Black Bull pub is over 300 years old.

Longstanton will border the new town of Northstowe, which is expected to become England's first "eco-town".

References

1. [1] Secretary Of State Celebrates Start Of Works On Guided Busway
2. [2] Guided Busway leaflet
3. BBC Action Network Cambridge’s guided bus plans