Description
Burwell, a village and a parish in Cambridgeshire. The village stands 4 miles ESE of the river Cam, 5 NW of Newmarket, consists chiefly of one irregular street, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Cambridge, with a station on the Cambridge and Mildenhall branch of the G.E.R. Traces of a castle are here, built before the Conquest, and besieged in the war between Stephen and the Empress Matilda. Seventy-eight persons were accidentally burnt to death in a barn here in 1727. The parish includes also part of the hamlet of Reach. Acreage, 7446; population, 1998. About one half of the land is fen. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely; net yearly value, £272 with residence. Patron, the University of Cambridge. The church is fine Perpendicular English, was partly restored in 1861, and has a pinnacled tower. There is a mission church of 1863, besides Baptist, Congregational, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels. There are also an endowed school, and an estate worth about £100 yearly, the income from which is devoted to the repair of the church and the endowed school.