Parish
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"ORTON LONGUEVILLE, the present parish of Orton Longueville includes the old parish of Botolphbridge, with which it became united in 1702. The civil parish is known as Orton Longueville; the ecclesiastical parish is known as Orton Longueville with Botolphbridge. In 1728 an Act of Parliament was passed for confirmation of the inclosure of Orton Longueville and Botolphbridge. The parish lies on the borders of Northamptonshire, from which it is separated by the River Nene. The sub-soil is mainly Oxford clay, with Cornbrash near the river. The land is undulating and varies from 22 ft. to 65 ft. above sea-level. The village, lying at about 55 ft. above sea-level, lies just off the main road from Peterborough to Oundle. The church and village are just outside a large park which surrounded Orton Longueville Hall (now occupied by a school). In the gravel pits in the Park are the remains of a Romano-British hut village. The early history of the formation of the two parishes of Orton Longueville and Orton Waterville is obscure. In the Domesday Book of 1086, no distinction of name is made, and the different holdings are all called 'Overton', and only one church is mentioned. Originally it seems to have been King's land and in his Soke, but a portion was alienated, probably by King Edgar, to the Abbey of Peterborough, and formed during the reign of King Edward the Confessor as a berewick of the Abbey Manor of Alwalton. In 1066, the remainder of Overton was still in the King's Soke, but by 1086 the Abbey had increased its holding by a grant of three and a half hides made in the time of Wiliam the Conqueror, and the other holdings were in the hands of Eustace, the Sheriff. It seems impossible to fix a date for the separation of the parish of Orton Waterville, but before 1086, the Abbey of Peterborough had been forced to subinfeudate many of its lands to military tenants, and its holdings in Orton were, then, both in the hands of an ancestor of the Waterville family, and who were hereditary marshals of the Abbot's Hall at Peterborough. One of the descendants probably built the 12th century church which still exists on Orton Waterville, and the parishes were presumably separated before 1185. The Sheriff's land consisted of a manor on which there was a church, and this seems to have formed the nucleus of the parish of Orton Longueville, but some parts of the remainder were acquired by the de Watervilles, and became part of Orton Waterville. There were some further changes to the civil boundary in 1956. Orton Longueville is now part of Peterborough Urban area."