Wilburton

Coordinates: 52°21′N 0°11′E / 52.35°N 0.18°E / 52.35; 0.18

Wilburton is a small village of just over 1,000 inhabitants, situated in Cambridgeshire, England. It is 6 miles south west of Ely.

While nominally an agricultural village, many of the inhabitants work in Cambridge, Ely or London.

History

Wilburton is a parish of around 800 acres lying on the important medieval route from Earith to Stretham, and extending south to the River Great Ouse. As much of the land in the region is fenland, the village's position on the ridge between Stretham and Haddenham at the southern end of the Isle of Ely was important in its growth and success.

Unusually for the area, the village contains a number of attractive old buildings, and was described in the 19th century as "very neat and contains some excellent houses". These include the Burystead (the former manor house, built c.1600), one of the few surviving half-timbered houses in the region, and the Victoria Place row of cottages.

For the last few hundred years, the Pell family were the prominent local landowners, sponsoring the somewhat optimistic Ely and St Ives Railway in the late 19th century. Wilburton railway station, built in 1866, has been open for goods trains only since 1931.