Hail Weston is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England.
In 1085 William the Conqueror ordered that a survey should be carried out across his kingdom to discover who owned which parts and what it was worth.
[5] The Domesday Book does not explicitly detail the population of a place but it records that there were 12 households at Hail Weston.
The Domesday Book uses a number of units of measure for areas of land that are now unfamiliar terms, such as hides and ploughlands.
[5] The tax assessment in the Domesday Book was known as geld or danegeld and was a type of land-tax based on the hide or ploughland.
In 1086 the land in Hail Weston was owned by Robert, son of Fafiton, and by Eustace the sheriff.
Two fresh water springs in the parish were used for medicinal purposes in the 16th and 17th centuries but later fell into disuse.
A parish council is responsible for providing and maintaining a variety of local services including allotments and a cemetery; grass cutting and tree planting within public open spaces such as a village green or playing fields.
For Hail Weston the highest tier of local government is Cambridgeshire County Council which has administration buildings in Cambridge.
[12] Hail Weston is part of the electoral division of Brampton and Kimbolton[10] and is represented on the county council by one councillor.
The River Kym marks the eastern boundary of the parish and there is a ford on the road between Hail Weston and Little Paxton.
The five major industry sectors of the economically active residents of Hail Weston are shown in the table below:[16] Hail Weston is in the Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) called "Huntingdonshire 015C", which in 2015, was ranked 24,141 out of 32,844 LSOAs in England against the index of multiple deprivation.
The 1881 UK census listed a number of shops, a bakery and a post office in the village but these have all closed.
[26] The poem "The Holy Wells of Hailweston" written by Michael Drayton in 1622 celebrates the healing powers of the spring water from Hail Weston.
It is 1.7 miles (2.7 km) from Hail Weston to the nearest railway station at St Neots which is on the East Coast Main Line where regular services run south to London and run north to Huntingdon, Peterborough and beyond.
The church at Hail Weston is a Grade II* listed building that is dedicated to St Nicolas and consists of a chancel, nave, west tower and south porch.
[7] Hail Weston is part of the same ecclesiastical parish as neighbouring Southoe and is in the deanery of St Neots within the diocese of Ely.