"Gamlingay is a parish and station on the Bedford and Cambridge branch of the London and North-Western railway, 50 miles from London and 6 south-east from St. Neots, in the hundred of Longstow, union of Caxton and Arrington, rural deanary of Bourn, archdeaconry and diocese of Ely, having Bedfordshire on the west and south sides of the parish, and Hunts on the north."

"The soil is stiff clay; subsoil, gault. The chief crops are wheat, oats, barley and beans. The area is 4,143 acres; rateable value, £8,163; the population in 1871 was 2,063, including the hadlet of Woodbury, one mile west from Gamlingay Sinks. Tetworth is a mile and half west."
[Kelly's Directory - Cambridgeshire - 1872]

"The church of St. Mary is a handsome building, in the Early English style; it is cruciform, and consists of chancel, nave with five pointed arches on either side, aisles, north and south porches, square embattled tower with 5 bells, and small tapering spire; there is a carved oak screen separating the nave from the chancel: it had a new roof in 1843, at a cost of about £200, defrayed by a church rate: monuments of the Lane family, the dates are 1717 and 1754, others much earlier, but the dates are defaced: the structure requires a large outlay to put the exterior in good condition: the alter-piece was brought from Ely House, in London. The register dates from the year 1530."

"The Baptists, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists have places of worship here."
[Kelly's Directory - Cambridgeshire - 1872]