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Cambridgeshire
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You may view the information for ALL the towns and villages
in Cambridgeshire (the page may be very large)
or...
You can view your
preferred location from the list on the left.
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Gatehouse - Buckden Towers (Bishop's Palace) Photo:
Robert Edwards
CCL |
This picturesque village
was the scene of one of England’s most daring
rebellions.
It happened in the 15th
century when Henry V111 sent his ex-wife, the
Catholic Catherine of Aragon, to live at the local
Bishop’s Palace following their contentious
divorce.
Her servants were ordered to no longer
treat her as the queen, a move which incensed
local people.
Armed with simple farming implements
they staged a public protest, forcing the king to
halt her humiliation. |
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During the 18th and 19th centuries the village became an
important staging post and three coaching inns
from the period still survive. Nearby is the great
reservoir Grafham Water, a paradise for
water-sports enthusiasts and anglers alike.
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This small, tranquil market
town grew up around an ancient abbey and was
originally an island settlement amid the
near-impenetrable marches of the Fens. Today it is
a magnet for both anglers, bird watchers and
nature photographers attracted by the scenery and
local wildlife. |
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Duxford Air Museum - Photo:
Bev Dickinson
CCL |
This village dates back to the
Domesday Book (1086) but most visitors come here
to watch the skies because it is world-famous for
its proximity to Europe's leading aviation museum,
which began life as an aerodrome in the First
World War and played a vital role as an RAF
station in World War Two.
Later it became an
American fighter base. The museum has a fine
collection of tanks, military vehicles and naval
craft and includes the American Air Museum which
houses historic American combat aircraft,
including the B-17 Flying Fortress. Many planes
are suspended from the ceiling as if in flight.
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Nearby is the
Duxford Lodge Hotel which also played its part
during WWII When visiting the Lounge Bar,
decorated with many pictures of aeroplanes and
fighter pilots, you can imagine the frequent
visitors during the last World War which included
Winston Churchill, Douglas Bader and Bing Crosby
in their number.
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The name of this Fenland city
means ‘eel island’, a reference to the staple diet
of its previous inhabitants, the Saxons.
It was
also an island before the Fens were drained in
modern times.
Here, Cambridgeshire’s most famous
local hero, Hereward the Wake, held out against
the Normans.
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Ely Cathedral - Photo:
Bob Jones
CCL |
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The city’s landmark cathedral dominates the
landscape for many miles and was the work of
Simeon, Abbot of Ely, in the 11th
century. In 1322 the building’s main tower
collapsed but was replaced by its present
octagonal lantern tower designed by the monk Alan
de Walsingham. The nave, measuring 248ft long, is
one of the longest in England.
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River at Ely from the Watermeadow -
Photo:
Guy Erwood
CCL |
The Ely Porta, a three-storey
gatehouse, was home to Oliver Cromwell from 1636
to 1647, while King’s School, founded in the late
10th century, is one of Britain’s
oldest school. Its pupil-roll included Edward the
Confessor.
Near the city is Wicken Fen,
the country’s oldest nature reserve. Owned by the
National Trust it gives visitors some idea of what
the Fens were like before they were drained – an
atmospheric cocktail of reeds, waterways, woods
and meadows.
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Picturesque Fulbourn is
particularly noted for its stunning walks and a
photogenic windmill.
A local footpath takes the
visitor to Fleam Dyke, a massive 7th
century earthwork intended to defend the area from
Mercian invaders.
Another path leads to an old
windmill that once played an important role in
local affairs. |
Fulbourn windmill - Photo:
David Gruar
CCL |
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Cottages in Grantchester - Photo:
Glyn Baker
CCL |
A lovely village on the River
Cam with a literary history to match, Grantchester
was immortalised by the poet Rupert Brooke who
lived in the old vicarage well before it was
bought by another famous writer, Jeffrey Archer.
Just beyond the village is Byron’s Pool, a
romantic spot visited over time by some of
Britain’s greatest poets and writers including
Byron, Spenser, Milton, Dryden and even Chaucer.
In the nearby Church of Trumpington is the second
oldest brass in Britain. |
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These ‘sister’ towns have
distinctive Roman origins.
Godmanchester started
out as a settlement on a crucial crossroads - the
Via Devana ran from Colchester to Chester while
Ermine Street linked London with York.
The town
became one of England’s earliest boroughs and was
granted a charter in 1213.
Today it forms part of
Huntingdon and the two are separated only by a
stretch of land crossed by footpaths and channels
of the River Great Ouse. |
Cook's stream - the Ouse
Valley Way -
Photo:
Stuart Buchan
CCL |
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Handsome Huntingdon boasts a beautiful 13th
century road bridge, a number of fine Georgian
properties and a strong association with the
Cromwell family.
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Huntingdon Mill and Bridge -
Photo:
Rog Frost
CCL |
Oliver ‘Lord Protector’
Cromwell was born here and was baptised at All
Saints Church, where his father is buried.
The George Hotel was once owned by his grandfather
while his great-grandfather owned Hinchingbrooke
House which was bought by Sir Sydney Montague in
June 1627 and remained in his family until the
1960's.
Oliver Cromwell and the
diarist Samuel Pepys were both pupils at
Huntingdon’s old grammar school, which is now the
Cromwell museum.
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Once a regional market town,
Kimbolton’s past was marked by both power and
tragedy. Its medieval castle, which is now a
school open to the public at certain times,
was where the ill-fated Catherine of Aragon
spent her last four unhappy years after being
divorced by Henry V111.
In 1620 the castle fell into the hands of Lord
Chief Justice Henry Montagu shortly after he
sent Sir Walter Raleigh to his untimely death.
Montagu became the first Earl of Manchester
and 13th century St Andrew’s Church contains
monuments to his family as well as a 16th century
screen containing numerous paintings of kings and
aristocrats. |
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Previously part of the
Isle of Ely, March has become a major rail
junction along the River Nene but history
buffs will head for the 15th century Church of St. Wendreda.
This delightful building has a double hammerbeam
roof replete with almost 200 angels carved in oak.
Unusually, their wings are open as if they are in
flight. |
Church of St. Wendreda -
Photo:
MYM
CCL |
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All Saints Church - Photo:
MYM
CCL |
This beautiful and rather
sleepy spot is known as one of the ‘necklace
villages’, so called because they form a circle
around the great city of Cambridge.
It was the
site of a Roman camp and Saxon settlement and John
Bunyan is said to have preached at the village
cross.
It possesses a number of old, thatched
cottages. |
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An Unchanged Gem, a village pub that has had
just 18 landlords since 1729.
The traditional
public bar has wooden benches, tiled floor and
the comforting tick of a large old clock.
It
has been listed in every edition of "The
Good Beer Guide" |
The Queen's Head, Newton -
Photo:
David Lamkin
CCL |
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Peterborough Cathedral -
Photo:
Mark Anderson
CCL |
A curious mixture of the old
and new, the modern heart of the manufacturing and
commercial centre of Peterborough is dominated by
a magnificent Norman cathedral which sits uneasily
amongst tower blocks, factories and retail
outlets. The glorious building with its
triple-arched west front was constructed on top of
an earlier abbey church in the 12th century.
Its predecessor was sacked by an unholy alliance
involving Hereward the Wake and a band of Danes.
Its high wooden roof is decorated with paintings
dating back to the 13th
century. Other structures of note include a 17th
century Butter Cross, a 13th century tower
containing the best preserved examples of English
medieval wall paintings and the Church of St John
the Baptist, built in the early 15th century with
stone taken from Canterbury’s Chapel of St. Thomas.
The city itself has a
remarkable and turbulent history. The Romans
created the first major settlement here by
creating a large fortress but archaeologists have
found the remains of a thatched ‘hut’ dating from
3,700BC.
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A typical Fenland market town
near Huntingdon, Ramsey started life as a small
settlement with a Benedictine abbey, founded in
969 by Duke Allwyn, which had impassable fens on
three sides. It was only in the 13th century
that it expanded and became a town with a
weekly market. The abbey’s remains include a
restored 15th century gatehouse and the
parish church. One of the town’s widest streets,
Great Whyte, was originally a waterway. |
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The Bell Inn - Photo:
Toby Speight
CCL |
You can be forgiven for
thinking that this was where the famous blue
Stilton cheese was invented. The origins of
this legend lie in the town’s 17th century
Bell Inn, an important staging post on the Great
North Road. The cheese was originally made at Quenby Hall in Leicestershire and taken to the inn
to be collected by coach for delivery to customers
in London. Naturally, the produce gradually became
known as ‘Stilton’. The name was protected as a
trademark in the 1960's. |
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This market town sits happily
on the banks of the Great Ouse and is typical of
Cambridgeshire. It started life as a priory
dedicated to St. Ivo in the 11th century
but gradually spread out.
Oliver Cromwell owned a farm nearby and there’s a
statue of him in the market place.
But the town’s real claim to fame is its early
15th century six-arched bridge
over the river. At its centre is a chapel, which
is one of only four of its kind to have survived
in Britain.
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Great Ouse Bridge at St. Ives -
Photo:
Gordon Brown
CCL |
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A picturesque market town
on the Great Ouse, St Neots owes its existence
to a priory built by a group of Benedictine
monks in the 10th century. They named it after
a diminutive Saxon hermit – said to have been
mentor of Alfred the Great – and brought his
bones from Cornwall for burial. The building
survived until Henry V111 ordered the
destruction of monasteries and only its
foundations remain to be seen today. The town
still has a large square and a 15th
century church noted for its elaborate roof
carvings. |
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This pretty village in the
Fens is noted for possessing two old churches,
which share a churchyard.
One of them, St Mary’s,
has been beautifully restored, while the other, St. Cyriac’s,
lies derelict and dormant.
Nearby is superb Anglesey Abbey, a 13th
century Augustinian building which was
transformed into a country house in the 17th century.
Now
run by the National Trust, the property has many
interesting features as well as splendid gardens. |
St. Mary's Church - Photo:
MYM
CCL |
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Turningtree Bridge, Whittlesey -
Photo:
Julian Dowes
CCL |
This small market town
shows how draining the fens with steam-power
in the 19th
century changed the lives of local people.
A pump
was brought in to remove the water from Whittlesey
Mere, a vast lake.
Although it created land it
also drove away wildlife and halted one of
Cambridgeshire’s great sports – winter
ice-skating!
Nearby Holme Fen is still the lowest
point in Britain. |
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Nurtured by multi-coloured
fields full of flowers and fruit trees, Wisbech is
both elegant and fascinating.
At its heart are two
rows of houses said to be among the finest
examples of Georgian architecture anywhere in
Britain.
Although the town lies several miles from the
sea it is still a port thanks to its
association with the River Nene. |
River Nene, Wisbech -
Photo:
Dr. Charles Nelson
CCL |
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Peckover House - Photo:
Kokai
CCL |
Its most imposing building is 18th century
Peckover House which was donated to the National
Trust in the 1940's.
Near the town are marshland churches at Walsoken
and West Walton.
Wisbech’s most famous daughter
was Octavia Hill who helped to create the National
Trust.
Its most famous son was Nicholas Breakspear,
the only Englishman to have become Pope (Adrian
1V).
He was a curate at the church in Tydd St.
Giles in the 12th century. |
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