Barnack

The Church of St John the Baptist, Barnack is a Church of England parish church in the village of Barnack, now in the City of Peterborough unitary authority area of the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. Barnack was part of the Soke of Peterborough, an historic area that was traditionally part of Northamptonshire. Barnack is 3.5 miles (6 km) south-east of Stamford in Lincolnshire. The church is a Grade I listed building.The church, dedicated to John the Baptist, is noted in particular for its Anglo-Saxon tower to which was added a spire of circa 1200, possibly one of the earliest spires in England.In the north aisle is a large Romanesque sculpture of a seated Christ in Majesty that was discovered under the floor in 1931. Estimates of the date of the Christ vary widely, from the latter part of the 10th century to circa 1200; the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland settles on the late 12th century.Simon Jenkins gives the church four stars in his England's Thousand Best Churches (1999) and highlights as features the tower, the stiff-leaf font and the Christ in Majesty. The height of the surviving Saxon work in the tower is 55 feet (17 metres), topped by an octagon and spire of 59 feet high (18 metres), giving a total height to the base of the weathervane of 114 feet (35 metres).

Barnack railway station was a station in the Soke of Peterborough (now Cambridgeshire) serving the village of Barnack. Despite being located adjacent to the village, the more remote Uffington & Barnack station on the Midland Railway Leicester to Peterborough line was more convenient for many journeys. Barnack station was opened by the Stamford and Essendine Railway (S&ER) on 9 August 1867; it was on the S&ER's branch from Stamford to Wansford. The S&ER was leased to the Great Northern Railway at the end of 1892. The line never really recovered from the 1926 general strike, and the station closed with the line on 1 July 1929. In 2014 the building survives as a private house.

Barnack Hills & Holes is a 23.3-hectare (58-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Barnack in Cambridgeshire. It is also a national nature reserve. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I. In 2002 it was designated as a Special Area of Conservation, to protect the orchid-rich grassland as part of the Natura 2000 network of sites throughout the European Union.Arising from the rubble of a medieval quarry, the Hills and Holes is one of Britain’s most important wildlife sites. Covering an area of just 50 acres (22 ha), the grassy slopes are home to a profusion of wild flowers. This type of meadowland is now all too rare; half of the surviving limestone grassland in Cambridgeshire is found here. In 2002 it was designated as a Special Area of Conservation, to protect the orchid-rich grassland as part of the Natura 2000 network of sites throughout the European Union.The hummocky landscape was created by quarrying for limestone. Barnack stone, was a valuable building stone first exploited by the Romans over 1,500 years ago. Stone from Barnack was used to build Peterborough and Ely Cathedrals. By the year 1500 however, all the useful stone had been removed and the bare heaps of limestone rubble gradually became covered by the rich carpet of wild flowers that can be seen today. The limestone was originally formed in Jurassic times. It is made from the remains of billions of tiny sea-creatures which lived in a warm shallow sea that covered the area 150 million years ago.Barnack’s rich flora supports a wide variety of wildlife, especially insects, and a number of nationally scarce species are found. Limestone grasslands are traditionally grazed with sheep and at Barnack, grazing is carried out in autumn by up to 300 sheep. These remove the summer growth and build-up of leaves, stalks and grass tussocks that would otherwise die back to form a dead layer, or litter, on the ground. Without grazing, the build-up of coarse grasses and litter would rapidly choke the rarer lime-loving plants.

Walcot Hall is a Grade I listed Carolean country house in the hamlet of Southorpe. It lies 2 km (1 mile) south of the village of Barnack, Cambridgeshire, UK. The house is now within the boundary of the Peterborough unitary authority area of the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire but it was part of the Soke of Peterborough, an historic area that was traditionally associated with Northamptonshire. It is constructed of limestone ashlar in 2 storeys with attic with a rectangular floor plan of 9 by 5 bays and a Collyweston stone roof. It stands in some 120 acres of wooded parkland as part of a 1400-acre agricultural estate.

Ufford Bridge railway station was a station serving the villages of Ufford and Southorpe in the Soke of Peterborough (now part of Cambridgeshire). The station was situated where the road from Ufford crosses the railway, at the point where it meets the Barnack to Southorpe road. The platform was under and to the north of the bridge and the goods siding to the south. A waiting room was built utilising the road bridge as its roof. The train guard combined the duties of station master, porter, booking clerk and ticket collector at Ufford Bridge. The station was on the Stamford and Essendine Railway line from Stamford to Wansford line which never really recovered from the 1926 general strike, and the station closed with the line on 1 July 1929.

Uffington and Barnack was a railway station in the Soke of Peterborough (now Cambridgeshire) serving the villages of Uffington, Barnack and Bainton.

Southorpe Meadow is a 2 hectares (4.9 acres) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Southorpe in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.This is one of the few surviving areas of neutral grassland in the county, where ridge and furrow from medieval ploughing can be seen. There is a rich variety of species, such as red fescue in drier areas, and salad burnet in damper ones.There is access from Main Street.

Pilsgate is a hamlet and former civil parish, now in the parish of Barnack, in the Peterborough district, in the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. Pilsgate is close to the county boundary and 3 miles (5 km) south-east of Stamford, Lincolnshire. In 1881 the parish had a population of 125.

Southorpe Roughs is a 9.8-hectare (24-acre) Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Southorpe in Cambridgeshire.This is a disused quarry which has grassland on Jurassic limestone. The main grasses are tor-grass and sheep's fescue, and there are the nationally rare plants spotted cat's ear and pasque flower.The site is private land with no public access.

Ufford Hall is a Georgian country house in the village of Ufford, now in the Peterborough unitary authority area of the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. Ufford was part of the Soke of Peterborough, which was associated with Northamptonshire but had its own county council from 1888 until 1965, and then formed part of Huntingdon and Peterborough until 1974. The nearest town is Stamford, Lincolnshire. The Hall is a Grade I listed building. The house is built of ashlar, the central five bays of three storeys with two-bay flanking wings on both sides, each of two storeys. At the front is a central pedimented porch with Tuscan columns. The Hall stands in a gravelled courtyard with the entrance façade facing the village street and with parkland to the rear.

Barnack was a rural district in the Soke of Peterborough and later Huntingdon and Peterborough from 1894 to 1974. It was created in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894, from that part of the Stamford rural sanitary district which was in the Soke (the rest formed either Ketton Rural District in Rutland, Easton on the Hill Rural District in Northamptonshire proper, or Uffington Rural District in Lincolnshire, Parts of Kesteven). It included the parishes of Bainton, Barnack, Southorpe, Stamford Baron, St Martins Without, Thornhaugh, Ufford, Wansford, Wittering and Wothorpe in the Soke. It also had administrative responsibility for the parish of Sibson cum Stibbington, which was over the border in Huntingdonshire. This was made part of the Norman Cross Rural District in 1935.It was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, becoming part of the larger Peterborough district in the new non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire.

Ufford is a village and civil parish, now in the Peterborough unitary authority of the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. It was historically part of the Soke of Peterborough, which was associated with Northamptonshire but had its own County Council from 1888 until 1974. For electoral purposes it forms part of Barnack ward and is in the North West Cambridgeshire constituency. St Andrew's Church is a Grade I listed medieval building that is closed and has passed into the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. Most of the church dates from the 14th century. It consists of a nave without a clerestory, aisles, and a chancel. There is also a west tower, and a rood turret near the junction of the nave and chancel, both of which are embattled. The church contains a series of 20th-century Arts and Crafts stained glass by Mary Lowndes.Ufford Hall is also a Grade I listed building. The Hall was built in 1734 for Lord Charles Manners, a younger son of the Duke of Rutland. Until his death in 1996 it was lived in by Oliver Kitson, 4th Baron Airedale.