Local government boundaries have varied over the years. At parish level, the boundary followed Devil's Dyke through the neighbouring village of Reach, bisecting it until it was turned into a new parish in 1961. The other boundaries of Burwell parish have also changed slightly over the years, most clearly on the south-eastern edge, where part of it including some of Newmarket Racecourse passed to Newmarket when the boundary was adjusted to follow the A14 bypass in 1993. The boundaries with Newmarket and Exning parishes follow the boundary between the counties of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk.