It’s had unrivalled opportunities for
water-based activities and is the perfect destination for
those who prefer to travel on foot or by bicycle.
The story of Cambridgeshire, like much of
East Anglia, goes back to the days when the area was largely
an impenetrable region of marsh and swamp.
The Romans were the first to try to tame
these inhospitable fens, building causeways above the
waterlogged ground and installing drainage channels to divert
the water, motivated by the need to transport food to troops
in military garrisons further north.
When they eventually left Britain their
ingenious system fell into disrepair and it was several
hundred years before windmills were built to once again turn
back the tide.
But it was not until the 19th
century that steam-power gradually replaced the sails of the
windmills and real progress was made in transforming the
quagmire into useful farmland.
In modern times the freshly uncovered, rich
peaty soil helped to turn Cambridgeshire into one of Britain’s
leading food-producing regions; its products include cereals
and root crops, fruit, flowers and bulbs. It also provides
rare habitats for a host of wildlife.
While the county is blessed with large and
important waterways – including the Great Ouse and the
fish-filled rivers of the Welland and Nene – it also has
possesses relics from the long-dead past. The Devil’s Dyke,
for example, is an ancient military earthwork near Newmarket
Heath. Constructed by the East Anglians in the 6th
century, it reaches 18ft high in places.
The county was originally occupied by the
Iberians who were overrun by the British tribes of the Iceni
in the north and the Cantvellauni elsewhere.
The Romans later built a camp on a small hill
beside the River Cam. This spot, Cambridge, became a Saxon
town and a Viking military base.
The Normans eventually conquered the region
but not before they were forced to confront the guerrilla
tactics employed by the legendary Hereward the Wake, who used
the impassable fens as his personal hideaway.
At the centre of the warrior’s old heartland
lies the city of Ely (‘eel island’), which is dwarfed by a
giant cathedral. The magnificent Norman building is one of the
largest in England and was built in the 12th
century on top of the remains of a 7th century
abbey. It boasts a nave measuring 248ft in length and a
glorious wooden ceiling that rises 72 feet.
Nearby is one of the few remaining parcels of
un-drained land, Wicken Fen – one of the oldest nature reserves
in Britain. Donated to the National Trust by a group of
entomologists in 1899, it is noted for its wildlife and rare
flowers such as the southern marsh orchid.
A key town is Huntingdon. Lying on the Great
Ouse it was founded by the Anglo Saxons and quickly became an
important crossing point over the river. It was the birthplace
of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1659) who was educated at the same
local grammar school as the diarist Samuel Pepys.
Meanwhile, the bustling city of Peterborough
has an historical vitality of its own, with Bronze Age
excavations at Flag Fen and a modern ancestry that dates back
to AD 650.
Its first major building was a monastery that
was destroyed by Vikings in 869. Within 300 years a cathedral
had been built by the Normans. It contains the tomb of
Catherine of Aragon.
Market towns like St Ives, which grew up
around a priory in the 10th century, typify the way
in which many places in Cambridgeshire came into being. It
still has a 15th century bridge containing a chapel
and a statue of the great Oliver Cromwell who owned a farm
nearby.
Another market town, St Neots is close to
both Buckden Palace and Kimbolton Castle which were the homes
of Catherine of Aragon.
Outside the village of Grafham is the third
largest man-made reservoir in Britain, Grafham Water, which
was created in the 1960s. An important sanctuary for water
birds, it is also the county’s focal point for numerous
water-based sports, including sailing, wind-surfing and
angling.
One of the county’s must-see attractions is
the Imperial War Museum at Duxford which holds a collection of
planes from both world wars. It was born from a former Battle
of Britain RAF station and one of its most memorable fliers
was Douglas Bader.
