Abbots Ripton railway station

The Abbots Ripton rail disaster occurred on 21 January 1876 at Abbots Ripton, then in the county of Huntingdonshire, England, on the Great Northern Railway main line, previously thought to be exemplary for railway safety. In the accident, the Special Scotch Express train from Edinburgh to London was involved in a collision, during a blizzard, with a coal train. An express travelling in the other direction then ran into the wreckage. The initial accident was caused by: over-reliance on signals and block working as allowing high-speed running even in adverse conditions systematic signal failure in the adverse conditions of that day due to a vulnerability to accumulation of snow and iceThe accident (and the subsequent inquiry into it) led to fundamental changes in British railway signalling practice.

Abbots Ripton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Abbots Ripton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being an historic county of England. Abbots Ripton lies approximately 4 miles (6 km) north of Huntingdon on the B1090. The parish occupied some 4,191 acres (1,696 ha) of land in 1801, which had reduced to 4,080 acres (1,651 ha) by 2011. The parish of Abbots Ripton is home to 305 residents (2011 census). The village is also notable as the location of the Abbots Ripton railway disaster in 1876 in which a Flying Scotsman train was wrecked during a blizzard. The disaster led to important safety improvements in railway signalling. The civil parish includes the nearby hamlet of Wennington, which lies one mile north of Abbots Ripton. Wennington has a population of about 60 people.

Wood Walton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Wood Walton lies approximately 6 miles (10 km) north of Huntingdon and just east of the A1. Wood Walton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England. The civil parish of Wood Walton is spread over a wide area, the main village dissected by the East Coast Main Line. To the north of the village in the area known as "Church End" stands the (now redundant) parish church of St Andrew, clearly visible from passing trains. The church was listed as one of Songs of Praise's favourite churches. The church dates from around 1200 and is layered in history: the south aisle was added in 1250, a clerestory was added in the 16th century, and it received a major remodelling in the 1850s. It is now in the keeping of the Friends of Friendless Churches.Further north are the earthworks of Woodwalton Castle, a motte-and-bailey castle which formerly held the manor of the parish. In 1886 a hoard of Roman coins was dug up in the parish. The village stands at the edge of Woodwalton Fen, an area of special scientific interest.

Gamsey Wood is a 4 hectare nature reserve north-east of Woodwalton in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.The main trees in this wood are ash and field maple, but there are also several wild service trees. Spring flowers include bluebells, wood anemones and yellow archangels, and there are birds such as fieldfares and nightingales.There is access from Raveley Road by a track through Keeler farm to the reserve entrance at the north-east corner of the site.

Woodwalton Marsh is a 0.8-hectare (2.0-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-east of Woodwalton in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.This grassland on calcareous clay has diverse flora, including red fescue, quaking grass, knapweed, cowslip, pepper saxifrage, green-winged orchid and the rare sulphur clover. There is also a wide variety of butterflies.There is access from New Road.

Little Stukeley is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of The Stukeleys, in Cambridgeshire, England. Little Stukeley lies approximately 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Huntingdon. Little Stukeley is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England. In 1931 the parish had a population of 209.The Alconbury Weald development is taking place near Little Stukeley.

Alconbury High School is a public high school located in Alconbury, England, operated by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). It is a U.S. publicly funded school, and all schools within DoDEA are fully accredited by U.S. accreditation agencies. It is not funded by the HM Government's Department for Education and is not open to British Citizens and British Nationals. It mainly serves families of USAF personnel based at RAF Alconbury and RAF Molesworth. It is one of three DoDEA school communities that still exist for families stationed in the United Kingdom. The other two are located at RAF Lakenheath and RAF Croughton, and all three of these communities are districted as part of the West District of DoDEA Europe. There used to be other American schools in England to support families and their students, but some have closed down, and those students are bussed to nearby school communities. For example, London Central Elementary High School, which officially closed in 2007, had its students transferred to Alconbury Middle High School in the following school year (2007-2008).

Royal Air Force Alconbury, or more simply RAF Alconbury, is an active Royal Air Force station near Huntingdon, England. The airfield is in the civil parish of The Stukeleys, close to the villages of Great Stukeley, Little Stukeley, and Alconbury. Flying operations are no longer based at the site, with most of the land, including the runway, having been sold in 2009 to become the new settlement of Alconbury Weald.

The Stukeleys is a civil parish in the district of Huntingdonshire, in Cambridgeshire, England, consisting of the villages of Great Stukeley and Little Stukeley, and the new settlement of Alconbury Weald being built on the old RAF Alconbury site. The parish lies just north-west of Huntingdon. As well as the two villages, the parish also includes Huntingdon racecourse. The East Coast Main Line runs across the eastern edge of the parish. The A14 road runs south-east to north-west across the western half of the parish and has junction with the A1 road just outside the western border of the parish. Cambridgeshire County Council has its headquarters at New Shire Hall on the Alconbury Weald development in the parish.

St Andrew's Church is a redundant Anglican church standing in an isolated position in fields about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the north of the village of Woodwalton (often Wood Walton) in Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, England. It is about 200 metres (219 yd) to the east of the East Coast Main Line and is visible from the passing trains. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches. As of 2010 it is not regularly open to visitors because its foundations are moving and it is unsafe.

New Shire Hall is a municipal building on Emery Crescent, Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire, England, built in 2019–2020. It is the headquarters of Cambridgeshire County Council.

Great Stukeley Railway Cutting is a 34.7-hectare (86-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.The site is on the verges of a stretch of the East Coast Main Line north of Huntingdon railway station. It is calcareous clay grassland which has plants which were formerly common on the Huntingdonshire claylands, but are now scarce due to agricultural use. Rabbit grazing and occasional burning maintain the habitat.There is no public access but the site can be viewed from bridges.