The history of Barnwell effectively began with the creation of the house of Canons Regular in 1092 by Picot, Lord of Bourn and Madingley and sheriff of Cambridgeshire at the time of the Domesday Book. The house was originally near Cambridge Castle but moved to Barnwell in around 1119 and became Barnwell Priory. By the 14th century the city of Cambridge was divided into seven wards, of which the smallest was Barnwell Ward, believed to cover the few houses along the Newmarket Road that fell outside the city's Barnwell Gate. In 1835 the city comprised five wards: East Barnwell, West Barnwell, Market, Trinity, and St. Andrew's, demonstrating the development in the area. Of the city's current fourteen wards, the Barnwell area is covered by the Abbey Ward, which itself takes its name from Barnwell Priory. By the mid-19th century, Barnwell was a rough area inhabited predominantly by railway workers and manual labourers such as those mining fossil beds. Ion Keith-Falconer opened a mission in a local theatre in 1875 in an attempt to reduce poverty in the area. The astronomer William Scott also worked in the slums in the 1850s as a curate. Barnwell Junction railway station opened in 1884 as the first station on the Cambridge to Mildenhall railway. It closed in 1962 but the station buildling including an old passenger car and about a hundred yards of track still exist and are privately owned. The name "Barnwell" is believed to derive from Bairn Well - and refers to a well where children would gather for amusements at the midsummer festival. This etymology was recorded in the 17th Century by William Dugdale in the Monasticon. An alternative etymology posits that the name derives from Beornewelle, the name Barnwell means "well of Beorna", where Beorna is a name meaning "warrior". This etymology is however largely speculative - since no references to a "well of beorna" exist in the historic record for the area.
Barnwell today
Barnwell has long since ceased to exist as a separate entity, having been absorbed into the city of Cambridge. Now part of Abbey Ward, there is no official geographical entity bearing the name and it no longer appears on Ordnance Survey maps of Cambridge. The name lives on as the name of streets, geographical features, public services and organisations. Also the former station building still bears the sign "Barnwell Junction".
