History
The village of Orwell grew around the well that gave it its name and the Roman road that runs to Cambridge runs alongside the village. Listed in the Domesday Book as Ordeuuella, (Ord Wella, in Old English) the village's name means "spring by a pointed hill".
The hill in question lies behind St. Andrews Church at the top of which there is an old excavation site for clunch, a traditional building material. It is now overgrown with wild flowers and is grazed by rare breeds of sheep. "The Clunch Pit" provides spectacular views into three different counties, as the pit places you a couple hundred feet above the village below. It also contains two caves.
The parish is home to Malton Farm the only remaining part of the former village of Malton which was a separate parish to Orwell until the late 18th century.
The oldest surviving houses in the village date from the 16th century. The parish's main commercial activity has always been agriculture, though a coprolite mine opened for a brief period at the end of the 19th century, and a brewery was run.
Read more about this topic: Orwell, Cambridgeshire
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