Burwell is a village and civil parish in East Cambridgeshire, about ten miles north-east of Cambridge city centre as the crow flies and almost four miles north-west of Newmarket. The parish lies by the Cambridgeshire and Suffolk boundary. It borders Exning and Newmarket, both in Suffolk, to the east and south-east, Swaffham Prior and Reach to the south-west, Wicken to the north-west and Fordham to the north-east. Its south-western boundary follows the Devil's Ditch, which appears to date from the 6th century.
The 2021 Census recorded about 6,400 people living in the parish. Burwell is a long village on the edge of the Fens, with two historic centres: High Town around St Mary's Church at the southern end, and North Street to the north, linked by the Causeway. Both centres are conservation areas.
In 1144 King Stephen began building a castle at Burwell, one of a chain of forts intended to contain the rebel Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, who was raiding the area from Ramsey Abbey. That August Geoffrey came to attack the newly built castle and was mortally wounded by an archer while inspecting it without his helmet. The castle was left unfinished.
Its earthworks, a rectangular platform surrounded by a moat that was never completed, lie immediately west of St Mary's Church and are a scheduled monument. The parish council bought the surrounding open space, Spring Close, in 1983, and it is maintained as an amenity for local residents.
North Street was probably developed from the 13th century to give villagers access by boat to the fen waterways, and from the early 14th century to the mid 15th century corn from Ramsey Abbey's Burwell manor was carried to the abbey by water. Many of the older houses on North Street stand at the street end of long, narrow plots that run down to private landing places on the Weirs, the stream that runs parallel to the street.
The modern Burwell Lode was cut from the mid 17th century. It joins Reach Lode and runs into the River Cam south of Upware. The fen itself was not effectively drained until about 1850.
The name Burwell is thought to mean "spring by the burh", after an Anglo-Saxon fort, and is recorded from the late 10th century. In 1071 Hereward's men from the Isle of Ely burnt the village. At the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, Burwell was home to about 50 peasants and 10 servi (slaves).
Burwell's quarries produced clunch, a hard chalk building stone, which was used at Cambridge Castle in 1295 and later at several Cambridge colleges. The clunch pits were worked until 1962. Burwell's most important 19th-century industries were based in the fen: turf (peat) digging, coprolites dug for fertiliser, a chemical manure works on Burwell Lode, and the making of Burwell white bricks, from which many of the village's late 19th and 20th-century houses are built. By the 1960s the brickworks was producing up to 10 million bricks a year.
In September 1727 a fire broke out in a barn where about 140 villagers had gathered to watch a travelling puppet show. The remains of about 80 victims, two thirds of them children, were buried in a common grave in the churchyard, still marked by a stone carved with a winged and flaming heart.
The population was about 1,250 in 1801 and 2,040 in 1851. Extensive building in the 1960s took it to 4,032 by 1971, and it reached 4,628 by 1991.
Burwell has two conservation areas, High Town and North Street, both first designated on 12 July 1974 and extended in December 2006. East Cambridgeshire District Council published appraisals for both in February 2008. The earlier houses in High Town are mostly built of locally cut clunch, while the west side of North Street has a long line of originally 17th-century houses, many still thatched.
St Mary's Church is listed Grade I. The lower stages of its west tower date from the 12th century, and the rest of the church was rebuilt in about 1450 to 1470. Historic England's listing describes it as "very fine, Perpendicular" and believed to be the work of Reginald Ely, master mason of King's College Chapel, Cambridge. An inscription over the chancel arch records 1464 for the completion of the nave roof.
Stevens' Mill, an early 19th-century tower mill of clunch, is listed Grade II*. A preservation trust formed in 1975 restored it between 1979 and 1981, and a museum of local crafts and domestic life opened next to it in 1992. The windmill is now part of Burwell Museum.
All three of the village's pubs are listed Grade II: the Five Bells on High Street, a mid 18th-century inn; the Anchor on North Street, an inn built to a 17th-century plan and partly rebuilt in the early 19th century; and the Fox at 2 North Street, a late 16th or early 17th-century inn.
Burwell Village College (Primary) on The Causeway takes children aged 4 to 11. Ofsted last inspected the school in March 2024, and the full report is available on the Ofsted website.
There is no secondary school in Burwell. Bottisham Village College lists Burwell's primary school among the feeder schools within its catchment in its 2026/27 admission arrangements. Families should confirm the catchment school for a specific address with Cambridgeshire County Council admissions.
Burwell's own station opened in the 1880s on the Cambridge to Mildenhall line. It closed to passengers in 1962 and to goods in 1965, and was demolished in 1967. Check National Rail for current train times before you travel.
Burwell's housing ranges from 17th-century clunch-built houses in High Town and thatched houses along North Street to the many homes built from the 1950s onwards, with the fastest growth in the 1960s.
HM Land Registry recorded 166 standard residential sales in Burwell between October 2024 and July 2026. The median price was £360,000. Of those sales, 84 were detached houses, 36 semi-detached, 31 terraced and 15 flats or maisonettes, with prices ranging from £59,201 to £890,000. Because the mix of homes sold varies from year to year, these figures give a general picture rather than a precise valuation.
Thinking of moving to or from Burwell? Book a free valuation or browse property for sale with our team.
Burwell is about ten miles north-east of Cambridge city centre in a straight line, and almost four miles north-west of Newmarket.
Not any more. The village station closed to passengers in 1962. The nearest stations are Soham, about four miles north, and Newmarket, about four miles south-east, both served by Greater Anglia.
Burwell has two conservation areas, High Town and North Street, first designated in 1974. East Cambridgeshire District Council published appraisals of both in February 2008.
Burwell Village College (Primary) serves children aged 4 to 11. There is no secondary school in the village. Bottisham Village College lists Burwell among the primary schools within its catchment; please confirm the catchment school for a specific address with Cambridgeshire County Council.
