Bartlow is a small village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, almost 12 miles south-east of Cambridge city centre as the crow flies. The parish lies on the county boundary with Essex. Its neighbouring parishes are Linton, Horseheath, Shudy Camps and Castle Camps in Cambridgeshire, and Ashdon across the boundary in Essex.
The village sits in the west of the parish, beside the crossroads of the road from Linton to the Camps and the road from Ashdon to West Wratting. Census 2021 figures put the population at just over 100. The Bartlow Conservation Area was designated in 1978, and the parish church of St Mary, with its round tower, is listed Grade I.
Just south of the village stand the Bartlow Hills, a Roman barrow cemetery dating from the late first to the early second century AD. Historic England describes it as including some of the best preserved Roman barrows in Britain and on the continent. The barrows form two parallel rows running roughly north to south. Four survive as steep conical mounds and two have been largely levelled. The largest is 46 metres across and 12.3 metres high.
The hills sit close to the county boundary, and for a long time most of them lay in Essex. In 1978 the Victoria County History noted that only one of the four surviving mounds stood inside Bartlow parish. In 1989 a county boundary order transferred part of Ashdon parish, Essex, to Bartlow. Historic England now records the scheduled monument as lying in Bartlow parish, Cambridgeshire.
The mounds were once thought to hold the dead of the battle of Ashingdon in 1016, but excavation showed them to be the graves of a wealthy family. Finds from digs in 1815, 1832 and 1840 included a bronze patera (a shallow bowl used at banquets), wooden chests holding human bones and a green glass cinerary bottle. When the railway was built through the barrow group in 1864, 15 skeletons were uncovered.
Bartlow is one of the smallest parishes in Cambridgeshire. A small Roman villa north of the mounds, occupied into the later fourth century, was excavated in 1852. At the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, Bartlow was probably part of Aubrey de Vere's estate based on Castle Camps.
The village has always been small. The rector counted 88 inhabitants in 1782, and the population was 70 in 1971. A National school was built in 1875 and closed in 1939, when only nine children were attending. Bartlow House burned down in 1947, and a large new house, Bartlow Park, was built east of its site after 1962.
The railway from Shelford to Haverhill opened in 1865, and an extension to Saffron Walden, branching off at Bartlow, followed in 1866. Bartlow station, at the railway bridge over the Ashdon road, closed in 1967 with the line to Haverhill and the station building is now a private house.
The Bartlow Conservation Area was designated in July 1978 and takes in the church and the Bartlow Hills. The council publishes a boundary map for it; no conservation area appraisal is listed for Bartlow.
St Mary's Church is listed Grade I. Historic England dates it to the 12th, 14th and 15th centuries, with a restoration in 1879, and records walls of flint and fieldstone with clunch and limestone dressings. Its round west tower is one of only two round church towers in Cambridgeshire. The nave has 15th-century wall paintings, including St Michael weighing souls and St Christopher on the south side.
The Three Hills pub is listed Grade II. Historic England describes it as timber-framed and rendered, of 17th to 18th-century origin.
The Old Hall is listed Grade II. It is a timber-framed, plaster-rendered house of the late 16th century, extended on its south side in the 18th century.
The village post office closed some years ago. In 2014 the council's Services and Facilities Study also recorded no shop, village hall or GP surgery in Bartlow, so check locally for current facilities.
Bartlow has had no school of its own since the village school closed in 1939. The council's 2014 study placed the village in the catchment area for Linton Heights in Linton (now Linton Heights Junior School, ages 7 to 11) for primary education, and for Linton Village College for secondary education. Catchment areas can change, so families should confirm current catchment, including for infant-age children, with Cambridgeshire County Council admissions.
Check National Rail for current train times before you travel.
Bartlow is a very small village, so homes come up for sale only occasionally.
HM Land Registry recorded four standard residential sales in Bartlow from October 2024 onwards, the most recent in October 2025. Three were detached houses and one was terraced, with prices ranging from £395,000 to £935,000. With so few sales, and 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 Bartlow? Book a free valuation or browse property for sale with our team.
Bartlow is almost 12 miles south-east of Cambridge city centre in a straight line.
Today they are in Cambridgeshire. In 1978 only one of the four surviving mounds lay inside Bartlow parish, with the rest across the boundary in Essex. Part of Ashdon parish was transferred to Bartlow in 1989, and Historic England now records the monument as being in Bartlow parish.
Not any more. Bartlow station closed in 1967. The nearest station is Great Chesterford, just over five miles away, with Greater Anglia trains to Cambridge and London Liverpool Street.
Yes. The Bartlow Conservation Area was designated in July 1978 and includes St Mary's Church and the Bartlow Hills.
