Great Shelford

Great Shelford is a village located approximately to the south of Cambridge, in the county of Cambridgeshire, in eastern England. In 1850 Great Shelford parish contained 1900acre intersected by the river Cam. The population in 1841 was 803 people. By 2001, this had grown to 3,949 and by the Census 2011 to 4,233. The suburb was deemed Britain's twenty-second richest suburb by The Daily Telegraph in 2011.Great Shelford is twinned with Verneuil-en-Halatte, in the Oise département of France. Trips to Verneuil-en-Halatte are run by the Shelford Twinning association. President of the United States Barack Obama traced his ancestry to the village in 2009, bringing the village into the national media.Services and cultureGreat Shelford has a range of shops and services, including two public houses, two restaurants, a library, several estate agents, a barber, two banks, a building society, a chemist, a dentist, a solicitor, an accountant, a shoe shop, a delicatessen, a bakery and a garden centre. There is a monthly Farmers' Market. The villages of Great and Little Shelford are served by Shelford railway station on the line from Cambridge to London Liverpool Street. The old Great Shelford library was demolished and replaced by a new building which incorporates affordable housing by Bedfordshire Pilgrims Housing Association.