Editing Meldreth (section)

==History==
A large [[Bronze Age]] hoard was found near [[Meldreth railway station]] in the nineteenth century that is now in the collections of the [[British Museum]].<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?place=30361&plaA=30361-3-2 British Museum Collection]</ref>
The village of Meldreth grew in Saxon times, and the parish is home to Mettle Hill (formerly known as ''Motlowehyll'') that was probably the original meeting place of [[Hundreds of Cambridgeshire|Armingford Hundred]].

Listed as ''Melrede'' in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086, the village's name means "mill stream", named after the stream that rises at Melbourn Bury and flows north into the [[River Rhee]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O40-Meldreth.html|title=A Dictionary of British Place-Names|year=2003|author=A. D. Mills}}</ref><ref name=victoria>{{cite book|title=A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely|volume=8|year=1982|pages=83–97|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66744|publisher=Victoria County History}}</ref> The Domesday Book has nine entries for Meldreth:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://opendomesday.org/place/TL3746/meldreth/|title = Meldreth &#124; Domesday Book}}</ref>

❧ ENTRY 1 ❧
Tenant-in-chief  and Lord in 1086: Guy of Raimbeaucourt. 
Households: 15 smallholders. 1 slave. 3 cottagers. 
Ploughland: 5 ploughlands (land for). 1 lord's plough teams. 4 men's plough teams. 
Other resources: 0.5 lord's lands. Meadow 5 ploughs. 2 mills, value 0.53.

❧ ENTRY 2 ❧
Tenant-in-chief  and Lord in 1086: Abbey of Ely (St Etheldreda),
Households: 10 smallholders. 3 slaves. 3 cottagers. 
Ploughland: 7 ploughlands (land for). 1.5 lord's plough teams. 0.5 lord's plough teams possible.  3 men's plough teams. 
Other resources: 1.5 lord's lands. Meadow 5 ploughs. 1 mill, value 0.15. 
Phillimore reference: 5,31

❧ ENTRY 3 ❧
Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Earl Roger (of Shrewsbury). Lord in 1086: Abbey of Saint-Evroult.
Households: 5 villagers. 3 smallholders. 2 slaves. 
Ploughland: 5 ploughlands (land for). 2 lord's plough teams. 3 men's plough teams. 
Other resources: Meadow 2 ploughs. 2 mills, value 0.66. 
Phillimore reference: 13,6

❧ ENTRY 4 ❧
Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Hardwin of Scales. Lord in 1086: Hugh {Pedefold}. 
Households: 1 slave. 3 cottagers. 
Ploughland: 2 ploughlands (land for). 
Other resources: Meadow 2 ploughs. 1 mill, value 0.26. 1 church. 
Phillimore reference: 26,30

❧ ENTRY 5 ❧
Tenant-in-chief  and Lord in 1086: Abbey of Ely (St Etheldreda),
Lord in 1086: Hardwin (of Scales). 
Other resources: 1 church. 
Phillimore reference: 5,32

❧ ENTRY 6 ❧
Tenant-in-chief and Lord  in 1086: Hardwin of Scales. 
Ploughland: 0.5 ploughlands (land for). 
Phillimore reference: 26,29

❧ ENTRY 7 ❧
Tenant-in-chief  and Lord in 1086: Abbey of Ely (St Etheldreda),
Lord in 1086: Hardwin (of Scales). 
Phillimore reference: 5,30

❧ ENTRY 8 ❧
Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Count Alan (of Brittany). Lord in 1086: Kolsveinn. 
Households: 2 cottagers. 
Ploughland: 1 ploughland (land for). 
Other resources: Meadow 2 ploughs. 2 mills, value 0.9. . 
Phillimore reference: 14,32

❧ ENTRY 9 ❧
Tenant-in-chief  and Lord in 1086: Abbey of Ely (St Etheldreda), Lord in 1086: Guy of Raimbeaucourt. 
Households: 10 freemen. 
Lord in 1066: Freemen, ten. 
Phillimore reference: 5,33

Due to its proximity to Cambridge, much of the land has at some time been owned by colleges of the [[University of Cambridge]]. In the early 16th century, [[Christ's College, Cambridge|Christ's College]] moved to its Meldreth estate to escape the [[bubonic plague|plague]].<ref name=victoria/>

In 1952, the Royal Train carrying [[George VI of the United Kingdom|King George VI]]'s body passed through the station on its journey from [[Sandringham, Norfolk|Sandringham]] to London. Residents gathered on the platform to pay their last respects to the King.

The village still has a stocks and whipping post, the traditional medieval punishment, last used in the village in 1860.<ref name=meldreth>{{cite web|url=http://www.meldrethhistory.org.uk/|title=Meldreth history}}</ref>