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Willingham is a village in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located in the South Cambridgeshire district and sits just outside the border of the Fens, just south of the River Great Ouse. Located approximately 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Cambridge, on the B1050 road, Willingham Parish occupies , and had a population in 2007 of 3,900 people. Although the highest point in the village is only approximately above sea level,Willingham is not generally considered to be at risk from flooding. ==History== The name Willingham probably originated from being the homestead of the family or followers of a man called "Wifel" and was called Vuivlingeham c. 1050 and Wivelingham around 1086. The name Wivelingham was also used to refer to the village until the 18th century.〔 The area at the edge of the fens to the north of the present village was already occupied by the 2nd century, though these were at some point abandoned. The Aldreth causeway, which formed the main route between Cambridge and Ely in medieval times and perhaps dating from the Bronze Age, runs through the east of the parish past Belsar's Hill, and until the opening of the Cambridge-Ely turnpike in 1768, carriage traffic would have run through Willingham.〔 One of the oldest houses in the village dates from the 15th century.〔http://andynhatche8.wix.com/church-farm#!short/c139r〕 Willingham's history is closely associated to its position on the edge of the Fens and it was only with the major efforts to drain the Fens during the 17th century that the parish took its modern structure. During the Middle Ages, the majority of the low-lying land in the parish was inundated annually, and the village had two permanent meres, with the larger of the two growing to at times of highest water level. It was only with the construction of the sluice at Earith in 1650 which diverted the flow of the Ouse from the Old West into the New Bedford River that the parish was able to remain largely unflooded. Additional areas were drained by windmills until replaced by steam pumps in the mid-19th century. Willingham's registered population grew from 23 at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 to 79 in 1251, and in 1377 the poll tax was paid by 287 adults. By 1801 the population was almost 800 inhabitants growing to more than 1,600 in 1851 despite a wave of emigration to America in the 1830s. Numbers then remained generally constant until the 1960s when it grew rapidly again, and passing 2,500 by 1981 and 3,436 in 2001.〔〔(2001 Census )〕 A local man named Jabez Few, who died in the1920s, was regarded by the townspeople of Willingham as a witch. They claimed that the white mice he kept were his familiar spirits, and that they could not be got rid of after his death until they were held over running water. In 1940 a German spy parachuted into Willingham, was eventually captured and turned into a double agent.〔(The Spy Who Turned )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Willingham, Cambridgeshire」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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