Wendens Ambo

Wendens Ambo is a small rural village rising from the western banks of the River Cam/Granta, 23km south of Cambridge and 15km north of Bishops Stortford. It sits between 55m and 70m OD on a bedrock of chalk with superficial deposits of both river terrace sands and gravels as well as silts and clays. The village was effectively cut in two when the Eastern Counties Railway was completed by 1845 and the construction of the M11 immediately west of the village also affected the village in more recent times.

The name Wendens likely derives from the Old English of wende and denu to mean 'winding valley', and was recorded as Wendena in the Domesday Book of AD1086. The word Ambo refers to the union of the two parishes called Great and Little Wenden in 1662. Known Iron Age and Romano-British settlement has been excavated nearby and the church of St Mary the Virgin dates from the 11th century that also most likely replaced an earlier wooden church on the same site.