A settlement grew up at a fork in the road that skirted the fen between Ramsey and St Ives. It was on a 100 foot high clay ridge above the marsh and because of the clear view across it became known as WARDENBUSC (Saxon) or ‘Lookout woods’ or ‘Warden of the Woods’. By 1150 BUSC had been changed to BOIS – Norman influence, although French, it meant the same. Through time Wardenbois evolved into Warboys.
Warboys
Warboys was given to Ramsey Abbey by the grant of Archbishop Dunstan. In 974, King Edgar’s charter confirms this and it remained in the hands of the Abbey until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540. First mention of a Church is in the Doomsday Book. The Parish of Warboys covers some 8½ thousand acres in all.
Also 350 million years ago, Warboys was the site of an active volcano which existed just south of the old Warboys airfield. Lava from the volcano has been found near Warboys brickyard.
