nationally recognised two-tier system from September 2017. Gamlingay children aged 4–11 years are now educated at Gamlingay Village Primary, part of the Cam Academy Trust. (As Gamlingay Village College it was previously a Middle school and admitted pupils aged from 9–13). Secondary education follows at Comberton Village College (also a Cam Academy Trust school), Ofsted rated Outstanding, with free school bus provided for 11 - 16 year olds. The nearest secondary schools are Sandy Secondary School and Stratton Upper School, Biggleswade. Religious sites Gamlingay parish church the Church of St Mary is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. It was built around the 12th century in the Early English style with a square tower (now containing eight bells) from field stones and local ironstone. A church existed in the parish before 1120. Gamlingay is part of the ecclesiastical parish of Gamlingay with Hatley St George and East Hatley. The village's first Baptist church was formed in 1670. Its first recorded minister was John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim's Progress. In the beginning the church, which was originally known as Gamlingay Old Meeting, was a daughter congregation of Bunyan Meeting at Bedford, becoming independent in 1710. The meeting house was also built in 1710. It was rebuilt in 1840 and restored in 1881. The church was renamed Gamlingay Baptist Church in the 1990s and they continue to meet at 10.45 every Sunday. There was also an Anglican mission church at Gamlingay Heath dedicated to St Sylvester, originally constructed in iron in 1879, which closed in the 1980s. A congregation of Particular Baptists worshipped at a chapel known as Zoar, built around 1800 at Gamlingay Cinques; it was demolished in the mid-1960s. A Primitive Methodist chapel was built at Green End in 1855. Community amenities Local amenities include a gym, two pubs, shops, two hairdressers, sports fields, a community centre, clubs and societies, cinema, nursery schools and a Grade II listed telephone box. Gamlingay is also home to Gamlingay Eco Hub and has its own community music charity, Gamlingay Records. Notable people Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet (1623–1684), politician and builder of Downing Street Sir George Downing, 3rd Baronet (1685–1749), politician and founder of Downing College Jeremy Irvine Actor, raised in Gamlingay Dick Turpin Infamous Highwayman, supposedly rode through Gamlingay while escaping the law See also List of places in Cambridgeshire References Further reading James Brown, Gamlingay: Six Hundred Years of