Girton is a village and civil parish of about 1,600 households, and 4,500 people, in Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about to the northwest of Cambridge, and is the home of Girton College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Listed as Grittune in around 1060 and Grittune in the Domesday Book, the village's name is derived from the Old English grēot + tūn meaning "farmstead or village on gravelly ground", as the settlement was formed on a gravel ridge. History Girton has a long history, and has been home to a poor settlement for more than 2000 years. The parish lies on the Via Devana, the Roman road, and a cemetery with at least 225 burials between the 2nd century AD and the early Anglo Saxon period was found near Girton College in 1880. In addition, traces of agriculture from the late Bronze Age and Roman period were found to the north of the village in 1975. A selection of Anglo-Saxon items are stored in the collection of Girton College. Before the 20th century most of the village was devoted to arable farming, following Enclosure in 1808. In 1934 the parish acquired 58 acres (23 hectares) of land from neighbouring Histon and the Cotton manorial estate. Further land was gained from Histon and Impington in 1953, and the village subsumed the small hamlet of Howes into its parish. The parish boundary was further adjusted in 1985 to align with the recently completed M11 motorway, with Girton relinquishing over 100 acres (40 hectares) to Madingley parish. The completion of the motorway created an interchange with the A428, A14 and A1307. Church The parish church has been dedicated to Saint Andrew since at least 1240. Part of the west tower contains stones that were probably part of an earlier 11th-century church on the site, and there are parts of 13th century construction still in evidence, but the present building was largely rebuilt in the 15th and 16th centuries. The church was owned by Ramsey Abbey from the 12th century until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. People buried in the churchyard of St Andrews include botanist Agnes Arber, academic Ellen Wordsworth Darwin, and Elisabeth Hertz, wife of Heinrich Hertz. A Baptist church was built in the village in 1860. Village sign The current village sign, situated on the corner of Redgate Road and Cambridge Road, was erected in 1985 after a fund-raising