in an extract of a letter from the Privy Council to Sir Thomas Egerton: "Whereas divers of the Justices of the Peace in the countie of Cambridge have certyfied us the lamentable accydent that hath fallen upon the inhabitantes of Gamlingay in the said countie, by casualltie of fire that happned on the 21St daie of Aprill last, whereby the moste parte of the said towne to the nomber of 76 houses with divers barnes and stackes of corne were suddainlie consumed." By 1844, Gamlingay had five inns, including the Cock (dating from at least 1588), the Rose & Crown (1622) and the Blue Ball (1770s). The Sultan was built near the station in 1867. At one time, there were 54 pubs in Gamlingay to serve the coach routes from London. It is claimed that the highwayman Dick Turpin rode through the village on his way north. Gamlingay had a station on the Bedford and Cambridge branch of the London and North Western Railway, which opened in 1862 and shut in 1968 in the Beeching cuts. Governance There are 15 councillors on Gamlingay Parish Council. The parish is represented on South Cambridgeshire District Council by one councillor for the Gamlingay ward and on Cambridgeshire County Council by one councillor for the Gamlingay electoral division. It is in the parliamentary constituency of South Cambridgeshire, represented at the House of Commons by Anthony Browne. Geography Gamlingay is 14 miles (22 km) west of the county town of Cambridge, five miles (9 km) south-east of St Neots and 45 miles (72 km) north of London. It is north of the small town of Potton and south-west of Waresley. The parish ranges from 39 metres (along the Millbridge Brook) to 73 metres (near Potton Wood) above sea level. The village is at around 50 metres. Most of the central parish is on the Lower Greensand; the soil in the eastern part of the parish is clay with gault subsoil. Two nature reserves, Gamlingay Wood and Gamlingay Cinques Common (registered Town and Village Green No. 39) can be found in the parish, the former and the latter being a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a County Wildlife Site respectively. By the 12th century, heathland had developed on the Lower Greensand and the poor drainage of the soil there meant there were two quaking bogs, on Gamlingay Heath (drained in 1855) and Cinques Common. Treeplanting