Gamlingay History

Occupation of the area of Gamlingay covers many centuries. Neolithic stone tools have been found here.

In more recent times the village has had an unusual history in that it has been owned and administered by one Oxford college, Merton, and two Cambridge colleges, Downing and Clare, in almost continuous succession since 1599.

It was substantially a farming community with few communal buildings. Its thatched cottages have given way slowly to tiles and brick, and the absence of a resident landlord protected the village from substantial change until the 1960s and has resulted in a series of records of village activity almost complete and in archives since 1290.

A devastating fire in 1600 did not change the village layout, but Merton College did make changes in the late medieval period, when they created Merton Manor Farm and finally cut out the north east corner of the triangular village green and allowed erosion of the corner of that green, giving the village core its present form.