It used to be thought that the clay soils around Papworth were too heavy for prehistoric people to cultivate and that they therefore avoided living here. However, recent archaeological research, prompted by the development of the Papworth Business Park and the bypass proposals, using aerial photographs and excavations, has shown that there was at least some human activity within the current parish of Papworth Everard during the Bronze Age - between three and four thousand years ago. More details will be known following an archaeological excavation that will take place between Fir Tree Farm and the B1040 before by-pass construction begins.
When the Romans built Ermine Street from London to York in the 1st century AD, it is very unlikely that there was any settlement that we would now recognise as a village. But the recent archaeological work mentioned above has shown that as well as the route of the road, there is some other evidence of Romano-British activity in the vicinity. Roman rule in Britain collapsed around the year 410 AD.
It was at least another two or three centuries before a Saxon immigrant 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 (at the top of Church Lane) and beyond, in the valley of a small spring which became known as the Cow Brook. Papa's people were also involved in establishing other settlements nearby - at Papworth St Agnes and Papley Grove. ('Papworth' means "the enclosure of Papa's people"). The first Saxon village probably consisted of no more than a group of small rectangular thatched huts, with, perhaps, a small timber-built church.
Following the Norman Conquest (1066 AD) the village and land of Papworth was granted by the new king to a Norman knight - Everard De Beche, from whose name the second element of our village's name is derived.
Little detail is known of the village for the next few centuries, but it was no doubt much like other medieval villages in this area. It would have consisted of a largely self-sufficient agricultural community that farmed land in large open fields in the parish that were centred around the cluster of cottages now known as Papworth Everard.
In the later middle ages it seems the village and farmland was divided between two 'manors' (small agricultural estates). Neither of the manors seems to have been greatly valued by its owner ('lord of the manor'). The manors changed hands several times and the owners generally did not to live here, preferring to rent them out.
Throughout the Middle Ages Ermine Street remained a long-distance route, but the villagers rarely used it, having developed a separate system of trackways for local journeys between Papworth Everard and neighbouring villages.
Eventually, as the local and national economy expanded, particularly from the 18th century, the main road became important as a major trade route between London and the north of England. Three inns - The Red Lion, The Chequers and The Six Horseshoes (now Kisby's Hut) - provided refreshments and accommodation for weary travellers.
By the early 1800s the Cheere family, who owned the Papworth estate, was becoming wealthy enough - through rents from farms and village property (and a family inheritance) - to contemplate building a new mansion house. They built Papworth Hall (now a Grade II* listed building) in 1810 in the popular 'classical' style on a rise to the east of Ermine Street.
Even so, by around 1900, Papworth Everard was still a relatively small village - probably no larger than it had been a thousand years earlier. It was a typical 'estate village' serving the needs of the owner of the Hall and supplying labour for the local farms. However, the original site of the medieval village around the parish church had been largely abandoned (except for one or two cottages, the rectory and a farm). As the main road had grown in importance, the village had been gradually relocated along Ermine Street and in the early years of the Twentieth Century, consisted of an elongated scatter of cottages, farms and inns.
Despite the confidence shown by the Cheere family at the beginning of the 1800s in building Papworth Hall, with the death of Miss Frances Cheere, in 1891, the family died out - their were no heirs to inherit the Hall and the, by now, large Papworth estate. About a year after Miss Cheere's death, her Trustees sold the property to Sir James Musker, who was the owner of Home and Colonial Stores.
In 1895 Musker, in turn, sold the Hall and estate to Ernest Hooley for £70,000. Hooley was a well-known industrial financier and multi-millionaire at a time when such wealth was rare. Papworth Hall and village became his country playground, being nearer to London than his Nottinghamshire home. Hooley had played a major role in the embryonic British motor car industry and at various times also owned such famous firms as Dunlop, Bovril, Raleigh, Schweppes and Singer. In addition he was a friend of the Prince of Wales (later, Edward VII), from whom he bought the Royal yacht Britannia - but Queen Victoria complained and he had to give it back! Although a colourful character, Hooley had a darker side and was twice convicted of fraud. However, he did a great deal of good for Papworth Everard by modernising many buildings in the village, replacing the roof of the parish church and building new cottages for farm and estate workers. In 1900 he provided a new village school for 80 pupils. As a result of the court cases and eventual bankruptcy, Hooley left Papworth in 1909.
In 1918, the Cambridgeshire Tuberculosis Colony, consisting of 17 patients, moved from the nearby village of Bourn into Papworth Hall, which was vacant following Ernest Hooley's departure. This event was to have a profound effect on the future of the village. With the Hall went the village and most of the land in the parish. Under the energetic and capable management of Dr (later, Sir) Pendrill Varrier-Jones the Papworth Colony rapidly expanded. (In the early twentieth century, before effective drug treatments became available, TB was not only a potential killer for the victim but also had devastating consequences for the whole family who were often evicted from their home, sacked from their employment and generally ostracised from friends, family and community).
Although there were still many deaths among tuberculosis patients, even at Papworth, the aim was to rehabilitate sufferers by arresting their disease, by giving them appropriate work, and by allowing their families to come and live in the village with them. Papworth ultimately offered free medical care, excellent housing, schools, recreation and a chance for the TB patient to rebuild their life.
The Hall soon became too small and a new hospital was built in the grounds. In all, about 300 new houses were built for TB patients and their families, first along Ermine Street and then on the Pendragon Hill/Ridgeway Estate. Baron's Way, to the East of the playing fields, was built in the early 1950's. Factory buildings were constructed in the 1930's - replacing earlier workshops - and a shop was provided.
Sir Pendrill Varrier-Jones died in 1945. Around the same time TB became curable by the use of antibiotics. In the late 1940's, the hospital passed to the newly formed National Health Service and became the East Anglian centre for chest and heart medicine and much pioneering work has been done. Papworth was one of the very first hospitals in the country to undertake open-heart surgery and in 1978 Sir Terrance English undertook the first of the current series of successful heart transplants in Britain. Later, the first combined heart and lung transplant in Europe was carried out at Papworth.
With the Hospital taken from their control, and TB having become less common, the charity that ran the village (the Papworth Village Settlement) faced an identity crisis, but found a new role in the housing and rehabilitation of disabled people.
The 1950s to the early 1980s was a period of relative stagnation in the development of the village. New building was largely confined to the redevelopment of the hostels for disabled residents, and provision of wardened housing for elderly people (many of whom were former TB patients).