Waterbeach is on the Car Dyke, a Roman waterway whose course can be traced as far as Lincoln. Recent archaeological investigations have found extensive evidence of Roman settlement at the south end of the village. Waterbeach appears in the 1086 Domesday Book as Utbech. In the 12th century, the Knights Templar occupied Denny Abbey to the north of the village, one of several Scheduled Ancient Monuments, which houses the Farmland Museum. Also scheduled are the site of Waterbeach Abbey, to the south of the present church, and a stretch of the Car Dyke. The lawyer/politician John Yaxley acquired an estate at Waterbeach by 1610 and lived there. He and Edward Aungier of Cambridge purchased the manors of Waterbeach and Causeway from the Crown for £900 in 1614.
Waterbeach has expanded in recent years along with the economic growth in the region. It has increasingly become a dormitory for Cambridge. The village has several shops and businesses. There is a small industrial estate at the edge of the village and several small companies have premises in the village itself. Waterbeach Community Primary School has some 300 pupils. Adjacent to it is Waterbeach Independent Lending Library. An AnglicanChurch of St John the Evangelist, a Baptist church famous for its ties with Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and a corps of the Salvation Army are present in the village. Active community groups include Scouts and Girl Guides, the Army Cadet Force, playgroups and a play scheme, and a Community Association. The Denny End industrial estate and Cambridge Innovation Park accommodate businesses such as the Milton Brewery and A&R Cambridge Ltd. To the south-east is a Woodland Trust nature area called Cow Hollow Wood, created in 2000 to mark the Millennium.
Transport
is on the Fen Line between Cambridge and Kings Lynn. The village lies close to the busy London–King's Lynn A10 road. The village has a bus service linking it to Cambridge and to the towns of March, Wisbech and Littleport and the city ofEly. A proposal to move the railway station closer to the development at the Barracks was approved by the local planning committee in 2018. An Ordnance Survey map of the 1920s shows an agricultural tramway running north from Clay's Farm on Joist Fen to Middle Farm, between the railway and the River Cam, opposite the ferry to Upware.
Notable people
In birth order:
Richard Jugge, the Royal Printer generally credited with inventing the footnote, was probably born in Waterbeach.
Robert Masters, a writer, historian and cleric, served as Rector of Waterbeach in 1775–1784.
William Keatinge Clay, an antiquary and cleric, served as Rector of Waterbeach from 1854 until his death in 1867.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the eventual Baptist Pastor of London's Metropolitan Tabernacle, served first at Waterbeach Baptist Church, when he was 17 years old.
David Stafford-Clark, a psychiatrist, poet and author, served with the RAF Bomber Command at Waterbeach during World War II.
