Little Gidding
| Little Gidding | |
|---|---|
 Little Gidding
|
|
| Little Gidding shown within Cambridgeshire | |
| Population | 362 (with Great Gidding and Steeple Gidding) |
| OS grid reference | TL131819 |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | HUNTINGDON |
| Postcode district | PE28 |
| Dialling code | 01832 |
| Police | Cambridgeshire |
| Fire | Cambridgeshire |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| EU Parliament | East of England |
Little Gidding is a small village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. It lies approximately 9 miles (14 km) north-west of Huntingdon, near Sawtry, within Huntingdonshire, which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county. A small parish of 724 acres (293 hectares), Little Gidding recorded a population of 22 in the 1991 British Census. With the neighbouring villages of Great Gidding(where the population was in 2011 included) and Steeple Gidding, the total population was 362 in 2001. Two miles away is Leighton Bromswold, where the poet George Herbert served as a prebend and restored the Church of St Mary. The driving distance between Little Gidding and Cambridge, to the south-east, is 30 miles.
Little Gidding was the home of a small Anglican religious community established in 1626 by Nicholas Ferrar, two of his siblings and their extended families. It was founded around strict adherence to Christian worship in accordance the Book of Common Prayer and the High Church (or Catholic) heritage of the Church of England. Charles I visited Little Gidding three times. The community continued for 20 years after Ferrar's death, until after the deaths of his brother and sister in 1657.
William Hopkinson bought the 700 acres estate in 1848 and became Lord of the Manor of Little Gidding and is buried in the graveyard.
In the 20th century, the poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) was inspired by the legacy of the religious community at Little Gidding. He incorporated historical elements and symbols of it into his long poem, Little Gidding, as part of his collection Four Quartets (1945).
...
Wikipedia