Orton, Cambridgeshire
Encyclopedia
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. For electoral purposes it comprises Orton Longueville, Orton Waterville and Orton with Hampton
Hampton, Peterborough
Hampton is a newly developing township in Peterborough, England. There are currently two neighbourhoods within Hampton - Hampton Hargate and Hampton Vale, still growing...
wards in North West Cambridgeshire constituency.
History
Orton was designated the second townshipTownship
The word township is used to refer to different kinds of settlements in different countries. Township is generally associated with an urban area. However there are many exceptions to this rule. In Australia, the United States, and Canada, they may be settlements too small to be considered urban...
in the new town
New town
A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or planned city, that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new...
expansion of Peterborough in 1967. It is composed of the ancient villages of Orton Waterville and Orton Longueville, together with the newer developments of Orton Brimbles, Orton Goldhay, Orton Malbourne, Orton Southgate, Orton Wistow and most recently Orton Northgate. All lie south of the River Nene
River Nene
The River Nene is a river in the east of England that rises from three sources in the county of Northamptonshire. The tidal river forms the border between Cambridgeshire and Norfolk for about . It is the tenth longest river in the United Kingdom, and is navigable for from Northampton to The...
and are thus historically
Historic counties of England
The historic counties of England are subdivisions of England established for administration by the Normans and in most cases based on earlier Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and shires...
in Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...
, though not the current local government district of that name.
In common with many New Towns the Ortons are characterised by extensive landscaping and tree planting. The A605
A605 road
The A605 road is a main road in the English counties of Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire.-Route :The A605 strikes north from junction 13 of the trunk A14 road through the eastern parts of Thrapston, skirts the village of Thorpe Waterville, bypasses Oundle to its east, crosses the River Nene,...
runs through the Ortons, connecting Peterborough to the A1(M) which runs from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. There is no church as such in Orton Wistow or Orton Northgate, however these both fall within the parish of St. Andrew's, Alwalton
Alwalton
Alwalton is a village in Huntingdonshire in the United Kingdom, five miles to the west of the city of Peterborough....
.
As the Ortons were established, health centres were constructed initially in Herlington and then at the Orton Centre. There was also, for a brief period of time a small branch surgery in Orton Wistow. Due to the expansion of the area and decay of the premises at Herlington, the latter was replaced by a new surgery at Clayton, Orton Goldhay.
In 2001 Anglia Regional Co-operative Society
Anglia Regional Co-operative Society
Anglia Regional Co-operative Society Limited is the fifth largest consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the merger of the Greater Peterborough Regional and Anglia Co-operative Societies in 1987. The Society has a wide-ranging and extensive portfolio with over 100 stores,...
closed its Rainbow supermarket at Orton Centre, the only supermarket serving the Ortons. This was widely assumed to be due to competition from the Tesco Extra
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
which had opened at nearby Serpentine Green
Serpentine Green
Serpentine Green is a shopping centre, opened February 8, 1999, located in the Hampton Hargate district of Southern Peterborough in England.The Tesco Extra hypermarket is very large, with a floorspace of 27,700 m²...
in Hampton
Hampton, Peterborough
Hampton is a newly developing township in Peterborough, England. There are currently two neighbourhoods within Hampton - Hampton Hargate and Hampton Vale, still growing...
and the ongoing degeneration of the centre. In October 2008 the Co-operative returned to the Ortons with a new store in the regenerated Orton Centre, now renamed Orton Gate.
Orton Brimbles
This is an area of mixed public and private sector housing dating almost entirely from the 1980s. Orton Brimbles contains the Ortons' first and only purpose built solar powered houses at Gostwick. There is also a mainstream primary school called Matley, which has specialist provision for children with physical disabilities and visual impairments.Orton Goldhay
Orton Goldhay was laid out from the mid 1970s by Peterborough Development CorporationPeterborough Development Corporation
The Peterborough Development Corporation was established in February 1968, as a national government initiative, following the city's designation as a third-wave New Town in July 1967...
as part of the second township for the city. The area is largely residential but contains the district shopping centre formerly known as Orton Centre, and one of the Ortons' two secondary schools, Ormiston Bushfield Academy. Much of the housing here was built for the public sector and originally housed overspill population from London
London overspill
London overspill is the term given to the communities created - largely consisting of publicly provided housing - as a result of the Government policy of moving residents out of Greater London, England into other towns around the South East, East Anglia and beyond.-Policy development:The policy...
.
Orton Longueville
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
camp during the Second World War (now a hotel), several thatched cottages, a cricket field and a church. There is still a village green and close by is a half mile long plantation of wellingtonia
Sequoiadendron
Sequoiadendron giganteum is the sole living species in the genus Sequoiadendron, and one of three species of coniferous trees known as redwoods, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae, together with Sequoia sempervirens and...
trees known as the 'Long Walk'.
Orton Malborne
Similar in character to Orton Goldhay, this area was also created from the mid 1970s and lies along the dedicated busBus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
route leading into central Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
. There is a district shopping and community centre here known as Herlington.
Orton Northgate
The latest addition to 'the Ortons' and the fastest growing, Orton Northgate previously formed part of the East of England Showground site. Peterborough Business Park is situated here and contains the headquarters of the Norwich and Peterborough Building SocietyNorwich and Peterborough Building Society
Norwich and Peterborough Building Society is a trading name of Yorkshire Building Society based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. At the time of merger, it was the ninth largest building society in the United Kingdom, with assets in excess of £4.9 billion...
which was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1988.
Orton Northgate's local Anglican church is St. Andrew's, Alwalton http://www.alwaltonandelton.org.uk
Orton Southgate
Is mainly a business area containing offices and factories of NokiaNokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
, Telewest
Telewest
Telewest, formerly Telewest Broadband and Telewest Communications was a cable Internet, broadband internet, telephone supplier and cable television provider in the United Kingdom...
, NCR
NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation is an American technology company specializing in kiosk products for the retail, financial, travel, healthcare, food service, entertainment, gaming and public sector industries. Its main products are self-service kiosks, point-of-sale terminals, automated teller machines, check...
and others. It also contains a housing area with Dunblane Drive as the main artery which was partly built by Persimmon Homes around 1995, and added to by a small group of David Wilson Homes in around 1997.
The East of England Showground sold off some of its land to developers in order to expand the housing towards Alwalton, linking Dunblane Drive with Loch Lomond way. However, there was a moratorium on building in Oct 2008 and as of Feb 2010 the site remains dormant.
Orton Waterville
One of the original 'Ortons', Orton Waterville also retains a village atmosphere and contains many thatched and stone built cottages and the 13th century parish church of St Mary's. It once had its own Orton Waterville railway stationOrton Waterville railway station
Orton Waterville railway station was a station serving the villages of Orton Waterville and Orton Longueville in Cambridgeshire. It was on the London and North Western Railway Northampton to Peterborough line. The station was originally called Overton. The station was closed to regular passenger...
, but both the station and the line it stood on have now closed.
Orton Wistow
Orton Wistow was laid out during the 1980s by private developers, with the last developments being completed circa 1992. This development lies adjacent to the Country Park known as Ferry Meadows and the Nene Valley RailwayNene Valley Railway
The Nene Valley Railway is a preserved railway in Cambridgeshire, England, running between Peterborough Nene Valley and Yarwell Junction. The line is currently seven and a half miles in length...
There is a primary school called Orton Wistow Primary School.