Bartlow | |
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Bartlow St. Mary |
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Bartlow shown within Cambridgeshire | |
Population | 110 (Including Horseheath.2011 Census) |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | CAMBRIDGE |
Postcode district | CB21 |
Dialling code | 01223 |
EU Parliament | East of England |
Bartlow is a small village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about 12 miles (19 km) south-east of Cambridge and 7 miles (11 km) west of Haverhill in Suffolk. The River Granta runs through the village.
At 385 acres (156 ha) Bartlow is one of the smallest parishes in Cambridgeshire. Its southern border, which was partially straightened on a few successive occasions to follow the former railway line, divides it from Ashdon parish in Essex. It also has borders with the neighbouring parishes of Castle Camps and Shudy Camps to the east, Horseheath to the north, and Linton to the west.
Though the area has been occupied since Roman times, there is no record of Bartlow itself as a village until 1232, largely because the settlement south of the River Granta with its Roman burial mounds was part of Ashdon Parish nearby in Essex.
Recorded as Berkelawe in 1232, the name "Bartlow" means "mounds or tumuli where birch trees grow".
Bartlow is also home to Bartlow Hills, a Roman tumuli cemetery with three remaining mounds, though only one falls into the parish of Bartlow. Originally, all of the Bartlow Hills were in Essex County and were part of the parish of Ashdon, a village in Essex, (1.5 miles south) when the boundary between Cambridgeshire and Essex ran from Steventon End to the River Granta, then along the Granta westwards to Linton, as shown on Ordnance Survey maps including those dated 1805, 1838 and 1882.