Papworth Everard is a village in Cambridgeshire, England. It lies ten miles west of Cambridge and six miles south of Huntingdon, having along its centre Ermine Street, the old North Road, the Roman highway that for centuries served as a major artery from London to York, which is now the A1198. A bypass now means that most traffic can avoid Ermine Street, and it is comprehensively traffic-calmed.
Today, Papworth Everard is a large village with a thriving community, home to substantial light industry and local business. It is also the centre for the Papworth Trust, a charity which offers housing and training to the disabled, and Papworth Hospital, renowned in the field of cardiology.
Recent archaeological work in the area of the Papworth Business Park has shown that there was some Bronze Age activity in the area. But by the Roman period, when Ermine Street was built in the first century AD, it is unlikely that there was as yet anything we would now recognise as a village there. However the same archaeological work shows signs of Romano-British activity, as well as the road, in the area. Roman rule collapsed in Britain in 410 AD. It was at least another two or three centuries before a Saxon leader, probably called 'Papa', established a small settlement about a quarter of a mile to the west of Ermine Street around the site of the present parish church.
Indeed Papworth means "the enclosure of Papa's people": they were also involved in establishing Papworth St Agnes and Papley Grove. Following the Norman conquest of 1066 the village and land of Papworth were granted by the new king to a Norman knight, Everard De Beche, from whose name the second element of the village's name is derived. A moated area in the village is the remains of his castle.
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