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Posts tagged Wimpole

CANTAB78 September 2014

CANTAB78 September 2014 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

What’s in a Name?
The Bumpsteads
Steeple Bumpstead and neighbouring Helions Bumpstead, just over the Essex border from Cambs, take their name from reed production (Old English, “bune” and “stede”). The two settlements were distinguished by the Normans, as the village church with a steeple, and the manor belonging to Tihel de Helion. There are few reeds growing today – the parishes are largely arable.

Whilst this magazine has a Cambridge focus, I have started this issue with an item from “over the border” to encourage reports and comments of general interest more widely from elsewhere in East Anglia.

Janet Moreton

New Path in Shudy Camps
Shudy Camps, one of South Cambridgeshire’s more distant parishes, shares a border with the Essex Bumpsteads. We are pleased to receive path news from a local member.

With the kind agreement of the landowner, John Latham, there is now a new, waymarked, permissive path in Shudy Camps. Some 400m long, it starts from the junction of footpaths 4, 5 & 6 at TL 617 452, which is close to the kissing gate and sleeper bridge behind the meadows in Main Street. The new path runs alongside a drainage ditch to New Road at TL 621 451, opposite Footpath 8, which crosses Shudy Camps Park.

Roger Lemon

Wimpole struck by hail!
Yes, but not recently! We received a delightful book last Christmas called “The wrong kind of snow” by Anthony Woodward and Robert Penn (Hodder). It describes what the weather was doing somewhere in Britain for every day of the year, over the course of many centuries. So, for 9 August 1843, we have a report from the then rector of Wimpole, “ The lightning and hail were terrific, the former like sheets of fire filled the air and ran along the ground, the latter as large as pigeons eggs”. He goes on to describe the broken windows of the hall, standing corn threshed out by the hail, limbs torn off trees, sheep struck by lightning , and men washed off their feet.

Perhaps we didn’t have so bad a Summer this year after all!

New Sunday bus from Cambridge to Wimpole and Gamlingay
The National Trust and South Cambs District Council are jointly funding a bus service running 4 times a day on Sundays and Bank Holidays from Cambridge Station. It will operate for a year, and started on 27 July. For example, the 9 am bus from Station Road Cambridge arrives at Wimpole Hall at 9.35, and the 16.07 from Wimpole returns to Cambridge at 16.42. There is also a trailer to carry bicycles. [Ed: This service no longer operates.]

Fulbourn Fen
On 6 August, I took a walk in Fulbourn, and found the meadow in the Nature Reserve closed, and the gate padlocked. A notice said the closure had been implemented following irresponsible behaviour (unspecified). It is possible to reach other parts of the reserve by a round-about route.

Bourn bench
If you go down to the woods today in Bourn, you will find a substantial new bench on Footpath 28, in the angle of Bourn Wood, TL 316 557. This was donated to the parish by Ramblers’ Association Cambridge Group, using funds derived from guidebook sales.

Toft Seat
I have just learnt that the new seat funded by RA Cambridge Group is in position – it looks very good from the picture on e-mail. But where is it! There’s a challenge for readers!

And in Foxton
The Parish Council have accepted Cambridge RA Group’s offer of a bench, to be sited on the path from Caxton Lane to Fowlmere. The bench is to be located over the top of the hill near the gates to the plantations on the Fowlmere side.

Comberton’s new permissive path
I have only just visited Comberton’s useful permissive Diamond Jubilee path. It runs from the churchyard extension, over towards Byway 7 at TL 389 556. To locate the start, go to Comberton Church, and leave the rear of the churchyard, going through a gate onto Church Path. Very shortly, turn right through a new gate, into the burial ground extension. Walk to the back of the hedged enclosure, where there is a display board. There are actually 2 paths. The more direct route to the byway was found mown in August, but the second path, continuing around the edge of the field to reach the byway at TL 389 559, was rather overgrown.

Parish of the Month – Lakenheath
Explorer 228
Lakenheath was originally a hythe or landing place, overlooking the fens. The parish covers 11 000acres (4450ha)

About a third of the parish is occupied by the USAF base. This was originally Lakenheath Warren on Lord Iveagh’s Estate. During WWI it was a training area, and in WWII it was a decoy airfield for RAF Feltwell. It has been occupied by the USAF since 1948. Airfield viewing points for cars are signed off the A11. One of the nature reserves, Maidscross Common, looks down on the USAF airfield, which can be considered either interesting, or a noisy intrusion and eyesore depending on your viewpoint.

History
In medieval times, Lakenheath was a market town on the line of an ancient droving route skirting the fen edge. Barges sailed from its quays to the River Little Ouse and thence to The Wash. There were pits for chalk, clay, sand, flints and gravel, many of the old workings having been left to grow over, forming attractive nature sites.

The church, St Mary’s, is accounted one of the most beautiful in Suffolk. The headstones and the base of the tower are limestone, and the fabric of the church includes chalk, early Tudor redbrick, and flint. There is a Norman chancel arch, a very fine C13th font, and some striking C14th wall paintings. Some bench-ends are c1483, with carved figures and a wonderful carved roof. Some of the buildings on High Street date from the C17th.

The Present Day
The huge airbase and the residential quarters naturally dominate the parish. On the High Street, the requirements of the visiting American population influence the snackbars etc. Once out of the village, the countryside is dissected by waterways on the lower ground. The massive Cut-off Channel, running parallel to the High Street, was built to control flooding of the River Lark. It joins the River Lark at Barton Mills and allows flood water to flow into the River Ouse at Denver, some 3 miles short of Kings Lynn.

Walking in Lakenheath
Generally the footing is excellent on dry sandy soil. However several of the smaller rights of way shown on the map seem liable to serious overgrowth, and some do not make good connections. I have concentrated on available walking based on nature reserves and points of interest. Wings Road car park gives a good starting point/meeting point, and there are several cafes/food outlets in the village. Insect repellent is recommended on some of these walks in high Summer.

Maidscross Hill Local Nature Reserve and SSSI
This is a valuable and important remnant of Brecks heathland, covering ca 50ha. The Brecks were created by Mesolithic farmers who cut down the forests for agriculture 10, 000 years ago. They farmed areas until the soil was exhausted, and the heathland we see today developed on the residual poor soil, giving a unique variety of wild flowers and insects. In late Summer, look for vipers bugloss, centuary, harebells, wood sage, and great stands of rosebay willowherb. Earlier in the Summer, rarities such as Spanish catchfly are reported.

The common consists of grassland interspersed with scrub and bracken, and interesting old shallow gravel pits, all threaded with paths of short turf. Gravel extraction was practiced for over a century up to WWII, the reserve being opened in 2004.

There is a small carpark off Wings Road, at TL 727 828, and it is possible to include the Common in some circular walks. One can start from the larger, signed carpark in Lakenheath, TL 713 829 (WC), walking over a mile up the residential road to the upper carpark, where there are picnic tables just inside the common, then return to Lakenheath down a public path behind gardens. This route is boring and is not recommended. It is better to park at Maidcross, and take Sandy Drove (track almost opposite the carpark) to explore Pashford Poors Fen, as well as Maidcross Common. Pashford Poors is another Suffolk Wildlife Trust Reserve, a remnant of the vast wetland formerly on the Suffolk-Cambs border.

Lakenheath Fen, RSPB reserve
This is a large wetland reserve, consisting mainly of reedbeds, as well as grazing marsh and poplar woods. The carpark (fee) is not far from Lakenheath station, TL 723 865, off the B1112. (Sadly, few trains stop at this station.) The reserve boasts reed warblers, sedge warblers, reed buntings nesting in quantity; bitterns, storks, hobbies in season, marsh harriers, and waders. There is a visitor centre with WCs and a walk of ca 2 miles around the reserve. Alternatively it is possible to walk from Lakenheath along Stallode Bank, crossing the railway, and then circling the reserve on the bank of the Little Ouse River. Note it is possible to start the walk in Lakenheath, along a path reaching Highbridge Gravel Drove (road) at TL 702 837, crossing the road onto a raised grassy bank, to veer away from the road, NW along Stallode Bank. (7 miles one way). To extend the walk, it is possible to walk along a good bridleway east from Lakenheath station to Brandon. From Brandon, buses towards Mildenhall depart nearly hourly from opposite 18 Manor Road to Lakenheath Post Office, or, of course, the reverse. (Coach services bus 201, see travelinesoutheast.org.uk ), or phone 01842 821509.

The walking route from Lakenheath via the RSPB reserve and Lakenheath Station, then into Brandon along the bridleway is about 11 miles.

Lakenheath Poors Fen & circular walk
Once the poor could cut peat for fuel and reeds for thatching and floor coverings. The last peat was cut in the 1920s, and the site (entrance at TL 702 827) is now an SSSI. The fenced reserve is marshy and tussocky and not easy to walk, but the surrounding droves are rich in wild flowers.

The following walk is recommended. Park at the carpark in Wings Road near the church, TL 713 828. Go through the churchyard, and visit the church if open.

On High Street, 100m past the church, cross the road opposite a Chinese restaurant, and take a signed path between fences, crossing Undley Bridge over the flood relief channel. Continue ahead over a junction of 4 tracks, and under a bank hiding a waste-paper works. Turn right on Furthest Drove (a stony track). Pass Lakenheath Poors Fen (information board, and derelict stile). Follow the attractive tracks of Broadcorner Drove and Millmarsh Drove (both permissive routes) to the road, Highbridge Gravel Drove. All along this route are very good flowers, especially by the drains, and at their best in High Summer, but continuing into September. Where a footpath leaves Highbridge Gravel Drove, TL 702 837, follow it, and turning up to the road in Lakenheath, to return to the church or carpark. Alternatively, follow the track back to Undley Bridge. (4 miles).

Shakers Road
This is an attractive old track, which finishes abruptly on the A11. The name of the track indicates it was once a sheep run, “Shakland” denoting a sheep pasture in East Anglia.

The Shakers’ Road from Mayday Farm , (TL 795 834, on the B1106 south of Brandon) is crossed by a broad track. If one continues south, one emerges on the A11, to the west of the tall memorial dominating Weather Heath, and commemorating the men of the Elvedon Estate who perished in WW1. A part of Shakers Road lies within Lakenheath parish. The path to the west at TL 776 799 goes across heathland to emerge on Brandon Road in Eriswell parish south of Lakenheath airfield.

“Alert 5” Alarm system
Many walkers now carry a mobile phone, and/or a GPS, both of which can be helpful in emergency. A friend was sent details of some new equipment, “Alert 5”, which can ask up to 5 people for assistance, giving details of one’s exact location. It is said to be simple to set up and use, by simply tapping the help button on the opening screen.   I have not seen or used this equipment, but further details may be obtained by visiting www.alert5.co.uk [ed. this link no longer works, 23 Mar 2015]

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post
Cantab now appears every three months. A large number of you receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 20p is appreciated towards the cost of paper and ink. If you would like to receive an issue by post, please send a large SAE. Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item.

Janet Moreton 01223 356889
e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net
Cantab78 © Janet Moreton, 2014

CANTAB76 March 2014

CANTAB76 March 2014 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

Editorial
Could this happen now?

On 12 July 1993, the Lowland Counties Action Day was held at Metheringham, Lincs. Brett Collier, the then RA Lincolnshire Area President, spoke of the parish having arguably the worst paths in the worst county for public rights of way. Standing in the station yard, Stan Knaffler, the Ramblers’ Area Footpath Secretary, was able to point out a problem just over the fence!

The invited speaker, Cath MacKay of Sheffield Group spoke compellingly of the continuing problems of lack of reinstatement and crop obstruction on field paths. She stressed the need for local authorities to use the 1990 Rights of Way Act effectively; for landowners and farmers to recognise their responsibilities under the law; and for ramblers to continue to use difficult paths and to report every problem encountered to the local authority.

We had a press photographer standing by to rush the pictures to the local paper for a major article, and it was difficult to decide whether the unobtrusive police presence was to sort out traffic problems, prevent a riot, or to protect us from incensed landowners. In fact, none of these things seemed likely, as we crossed a couple of unbridged ditches, climbed some obstructing barbed wire fences, and walked in single field across unreinstated paths in fields either ploughed, or under sugarbeet or cereal. We were a sober lot, standing in the sun listening to the history of each sad case of obstruction, before walking carefully and quietly through the garden of a property illegally built across the line of a path, under the anguished eye of the householder, and the detatched gaze of a couple of policemen.

Roger and I were present on behalf of RA Cambridge Group, and I base the above on a report we made for our committee. We had not enjoyed going 100 miles to climb barbed wire fences, and walk through a private garden, but we felt this needed to be done, in the public eye, as a statement of the serious intent of East Anglian ramblers to see our rights upheld. In general, I have always agreed that the pen is mightier than the sword. The same year, there were a couple of walks on the local Cambridge programme, specifically designed to show members problem paths. These walks were not well attended – our members clearly did not want a route that was deliberately difficult, although they were ready enough to report problems to be passed to the County Council.

I suspect that an unwillingness to demonstrate would still be the case today, and, more important, it would be increasingly difficult (though not impossible) to find pockets of bad, obstructed or neglected paths. But especially in a climate of County Council cutbacks, we need to be vigilant, and, even if we don’t line up with placards and demonstrate, we need to keep the reports rolling in.

Your comments are invited.
Janet Moreton

The effect on the local landscape of Roman and Medieval Roads
In the April 2013 issue, we looked at the history of Wimpole parish, mostly in terms of site occupation from medieval times to the present day. Since then, the Ramblers’ Association has been consulted by the National Trust regarding a fairly large scale path rationalisation scheme, involving paths across Trust–owned pasture and arable land surrounding the core parkland.

RA Cambridge Group has commented on the proposals, and we await a further consultation. This has prompted me to look at the early history of roads and paths around Wimpole, and elsewhere, and to consider what factors from long ago have caused a road or path to develop or remain in the position we find it today.  An inspection of parish boundaries on the OS Explorer 209 will show that Ermine Street forms a boundary of several parishes. So, going N from Royston, to the W of Ermine Street, we have Bassingbourn, Shingay cum Wendy, Arrington & Longstowe, all with a boundary on the road. Similarly, to the E are in turn, Whaddon, Wimpole & Bourn.

With the exception of Wimpole, whose settlement pattern was destroyed by incoming landowners, the layout of most of the parishes and villages hereabouts were determined by at least the medieval period, and often much earlier. The continuing influence of Roman roads through the medieval period and later is manifest.  By medieval times, there remained in England at least 10 000 miles of Roman roads, built mostly by 150AD, but which had not been well maintained over the intervening 600 years. Many of these roads continued in use, providing a basic network. But elsewhere, many of the new medieval towns e.g. Oxford, were not on Roman Roads and new roads were needed to serve these and many new villages.

These new medieval roads were not a thin strip of land with definite boundaries, but rather a right of way, an “easement” with both legal and customary status. If the route was heavily used it became a physical track, but with provisos. If the road became obstructed, or founderous in wet weather, then the traveller had the right to diverge from it, even if this involved trampling crops. This was enshrined in the Statute of Winchester in 1285. Where the road climbed a steep hill or bank, multiple tracks would develop, the traveller taking the most convenient strand available at the time of use. Users of the modern footpath and bridleway network are often restrained from achieving such manoeuvres by restricting boundaries!

Most surviving sections of medieval road come into this “multiple track” category, where roads left cultivated land and tracks have not been ploughed out or otherwise destroyed.

A few new roads were built in the medieval period. Several royal statutes made requirements regarding road widths, or clearance to be made on both sides, for fear of highwaymen. The three causeways to Ely across fenland may constitute the largest medieval road-building works. The four great highways: Watling Street; Ermine Street; Fosse Way; and The Icknield Way were always regarded as being under the king’s special protection, which supports the idea that Roman roads remained in comprehensive use in the medieval period.

Janet Moreton

See also :Medieval Roads and Tracks by Paul Hindle (Shire, 2002).

On the Web…
If you have not looked recently, please try the Cambridge Ramblers website at https://cambridgeramblers.org/

I re-organised it last Autumn and am hoping it will be useful for ramblers to look up forthcoming Walks
and items of local news, events and other information.

Back copies of CANTAB Rambler are now on the website, together with an index to all issues, including
“Parish of the Month” – see https://cambridgeramblers.org/cantab-rambler/

Paul Cutmore

Arrington calling…
This parish is sorely missing the path worker who cared for their paths for many years, and who has now retired. No one else has come forward to fill the voluntary position, and I have been asked to advertise the vacancy.

It would be hoped that the successful applicant would be able to do some “hands on” work (e.g. cutting back overgrowth around stiles) as well as liaising over more serious problems with the County Council.

If interested, please contact avrilgroom@gmail.com

The Drainage of Fens in The Wilbrahams, Fulbourn and Teversham
The very wet winter, and flooding of low lying land and footpaths in the Cambridge area, has prompted me to read again a very scholarly study by T D Hawkins, published by the author in1990, ISBN 0-9516533-DX.

Dr Hawkins carried out a field survey of local watercourses following two years of heavy rainfall, in the winter of 1987/8. With all ditches full of water the direction of flow was clear. Subsequent studies of the history of the drainage of the area, gave an insight into the very complex drainage system in these parishes. In other fen-edge parishes in Cambridgeshire, such as Rampton, Cottenham, Willingham, the watercourses have similar complex histories, which repay study, especially when (or before) problems threaten. This subject is of more than academic interest to the walker. Many of our rights of way run along the banks of ditches and drains. In low-lying areas, those paths that are not elevated may well be regularly unusable for a few weeks every winter, and in a wet winter, like the one just past, may be out of bounds for months.

The ancient lines of watercourses in the Fulbourn fens before drainage are marked by peat-filled channels in the gravels. Land levels overlying the peat before artificial drainage were higher than at present, and especially before the extensive works of the C18th and C19th. Improved drainage leads to shrinkage of the peat from dehydration, oxidation, and wind erosion.

Early changes to watercourses were promoted by watermills, some of which are mentioned in the Domesday survey. Streams were diverted to serve the mills which significantly altered the local drainage, creating 3 different water levels.

From medieval times until the middle of the C17th, there were growing pressures to reclaim fen for farmland. Manipulation of water levels by dams, sluices and drainage, and piecemeal reclamation of fen edges already occurred. In absence of co-ordinated effort, drainage in one place led to problems elsewhere, leading to conflict and the need for arbitration. In 1367, for example, “It was found by jurors that the Prior of Ely did obstruct the course of the water at Wilburgeham Magna …such as the Commons belonging in the town of Fulbourne were overflowed to the damage of the whole country”.

There is some documentation of changes to the courses of the Great Wilbraham River, the Little Wilbraham River and Black Ditch. Parliamentary Inclosure occurred in these parishes between 1797 and 1810, at which time capital investment in drainage was found to be financially rewarding, and a drainage system was devised by the Parliamentary Commissioners.

For example, in Little Wilbraham, 4 public drains were constructed along the newly created Short and Long Droves. A tunnel (made of a hollowed tree) was made under the bed of the embanked Wilbraham River, to take water from a drainage ditch to a new drain running to the west of Quy Water south of the Turnpike. New Cut was dug, and a new public drain was made to by-pass Hawk Millrace.

Fulbourn parish had 13 miles (1070 chains) of new public drains, following Inclosure in 1808, and Teversham had 6 miles of new public drains. Great Wilbraham had 3 miles of new public drains, also tunnels and bridges.

Further improvements in the drainage were made piecemeal until the 1920s, and may be traced by observation on large scale Ordnance Survey maps, especially those published after 1896. Cambridge Water Co. built a pumping station in 1891 to extract water from a bore adjacent to Poor’s Well, Fulbourn. (A display board on Cow Lane Fulbourn, gives the history of the site, and the adjacent pumping station is now called Telford House, the premises of consulting engineers). The pumping station was progressively upgraded and finally closed in 1988, but meanwhile in 1921, a new pumping station had opened adjacent to Fleam Dyke, in the same water catchment area. The lowering of the water-table due to extraction greatly reduced the flow of water from the springs feeding Great and Little Wilbraham rivers.

From the end of the C19th onwards, the drainage system had begun to deteriorate, due to inadequate maintenance, and the long-term effects of WWI. In 1931, the Drainage Committee of the Rural District Council responded to complaints of all-year flooding due to the poor state of repair of the river banks, over the lower courses of the Great & Little Wilbraham rivers. In spite of the setting up of an Internal Drainage Board, and site works, no very effective improvements were made until 1960s, when a more co-ordinated programme was gradually introduced.

Folded into my copy of Dr Hawkin’s book is a pamphlet, “Managing Water Resources” produced by the Anglian Region of the National Rivers Authority (NRA), following the Water Act of 1989.  The NRA has since been superseded by the Environment Agency (EA) whose continuing efforts, hopefully, will be fuelled by the Government’s recent pledge for further funds to defeat flooding.

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post
Cantab now is scheduled approximately every three months. A large number of you now receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 20p is appreciated towards the cost of paper and ink. If you would like to receive an issue by post, please send a large SAE, and a stamp.

Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item. Janet Moreton 01223 356889

e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net

Cantab 76 © Janet Moreton, 2014.

CANTAB73 April 2013

CANTAB73 April 2013 published on

** Please note that this is an archive of the CANTAB publication and contains out-of-date information **

CANTAB RAMBLER

Thurstan Shaw, 1914 – 2013
Professor Charles Thurstan Shaw died on 8 March, aged almost 99. Probably the most distinguished of Cambridge walkers, he was first involved as a member of Cambridge RA Group Committee in the mid-1970s. Following on from this, he was the pioneer of the Icknield Way Long Distance Path, being Chairman of the Icknield Way Association for many years from its inception in 1984, and personally responsible for treading out many miles of track, before an attractive and feasible route was identified.

The first edition of the walkers’ guide to the path, running from Ivinghoe Beacon to Knettishall Heath, appeared in late1984, and Thurstan lived long enough to know of the recently published 6th edition. The route passes through six counties, and joins two National Trails, the Peddars Way in the east, and The Ridgeway Path in the west. It was Thurstan’s ambition to see The Icknield Way also as a National Trail, resolving this anomaly, but up to the present it has only the lower status of a regional route, though as such it still receives preferential treatment in terms of waymarking and maintenance from the relevant county councils.

Thurstan’s work for East Anglian rights of way was a labour of love in retirement. Members of the Icknield Way Association Committee, meeting in Thurstan’s study among ranks of archaeological tomes and journals, were very aware of his distinguished background in studies of prehistory in West Africa, principally in Nigeria and Ghana. Such was the fame and respect accorded in the localities where he worked, that he was made an Ibo tribal chief, and close connections were maintained until the end of his life.

At the Quaker meeting celebrating Thurstan’s life on 17 March were several representatives of the Ibo tribe, amongst his numerous family and friends, who overflowed from the large meeting room, sat on the stairs, and stood in the doorways. In an hour of tributes, very many of us wanted to stand and pay our respects to Thurstan, and to thank him for his kindness and wisdom. I feel privileged to have known him.

Thurstan is survived by his second wife, Pamela, and family of 5 children by his first wife, Ione, and their many descendants.

There is to be an archaeological memorial meeting at Sidney Sussex College in the Autumn. See also the “Times” obituary of 13 March.
Janet Moreton

Parish of the Month, Wimpole.
Explorer 209
Speak of Wimpole, and most of us think of the National Trust property – the hall, the stable block, the restaurant, the gardens and orchards, The Belts, The Park, giving scope for many days of interest and exercise. But Wimpole is also a parish of over 1000ha, bounded by The River Rhee, Ermine Street (or Old North Road) and the Cambridge-Arrington Bridge Road. In 1086, the population was 57, gradually growing to 583 in 1831, before declining steadily to 160 in 1996.

Let us consider the parish before the National Trust took control of the Hall, buildings, and 1200ha of land in 1976.

History
When a gas compressor station was sited by the A603, as part of the gas pipeline laid across East Anglia in 1994, pottery of the late Iron Age (ca 100BC to 100AD) was found. An archaeological dig revealed 3 circular Iron Age huts of 12 – 13m diameter.

There is evidence of much more Roman occupation. The junction of two major Roman roads at Arrington Bridge, TL 334 486 was the site of a posting station. Construction of a swimming pool at Wimpole Lodge, TL 334 487, revealed foundations of stone and clunch, with much Roman pottery and coins. This is clearly part of an extensive site, for similar finds are known from Wendy, Arrington and Whaddon, meeting at the same cross-roads. Excavations to the N of this site revealed cobbled yards and ditched enclosures that had been paddocks, garden plots and residential sites, used from the late C2nd., and being reorganised three times before the C5th. There was evidence for blacksmithing and leather and bone working, with large numbers of artefacts (hob-nails, two iron heel-plates; door hinges and key; linch-pins; reaping hook; spear; chisel; brooch, pins, knives, buckle, razor, glass and coins). In addition, Roman cremation urns were reported during WWII at TL 342 498, near Cambridge Road Farm.

An unexpected discovery during excavations at Wimpole Lodge, was a C6th Anglo Saxon cemetery. A middle-aged woman was buried with a necklace of amber beads, a bronze brooch and wrist-clasps. Bones of seven other skeletons were recovered, including new-born infants. The Roman site had been abandoned for over a century, but ditches, ruined buildings and Roman roads would still have been in use.

In Medieval Times, Wimpole was a village originally comprising a group of hamlets. The main village was adjacent to the church, but was removed in the mid C17th, when the hall was rebuilt by Sir Francis Chicherley. Two hamlets once existed to the SW (Benhall End, site of the original hall, cleared in the 1730s, when Charles Bridgeman laid out the park), and to the S (Thresham End, cleared C18th). A section of village N of the hall disappeared in the 1750s when Capability Brown extended the grounds. Wratsworth hamlet, was once located in the NE of the parish, near Cobbs Wood Farm, but was cleared in the C19th. during a further landscaping phase.

Thus, preserved in the grassland around the park are the remains of 3 parts of the old village, with streets, house-sites and gardens visible as low banks. The strategic importance of Ermine Street makes it likely that the large mound in the park, 500yd NW of the house was a C12th castle motte. A post-mill stood on it in the C17th. Old roads still survive as slight hollow ways, as do considerable areas of ridge & furrow (although some were inadvertently ploughed up by the National Trust over a decade ago, to great public complaint). There is no Inclosure Award for Wimpole because its open fields had been gradually enclosed by successive owners of the hall before the C19th.

In 1730 two hamlets were displaced to plant a 2mile long avenue of elms (lost to Dutch Elm disease, and replanted in the 1970s with limes) leading to the front of the hall. In 1850, the then owner, Admiral Sir Charles Philip Yorke erected the estate village of New Wimpole on the A603, consisting of 12 semi-detached houses in a Tudoresque style. The village church remains on its original site. Rebuilt by Flitcroft in 1749, but much Victorianised, it retains a C14th N chapel as a mausoleum. One original c14th window was kept. Contents include alabaster tombs, brasses, and a monument to the Earl of Hardwick.

Family histories
From C16th onwards, successive owners had the enthusiasm and capability to buy land at great expense for status and pleasure, rather than agriculture, and in the process depopulating the countryside. Wimpole’s estate started with a manor house, church and settlement around the later site of Wimpole Hall, which was given to Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury in the C15th. His descendant, Sir Thomas Chicheley, rebuilt the hall in brick, and replaced the village around the church with gardens. Subsequent owners were the Earl of Radnor and the Duke of Newcastle. The Duke’s daughter married Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, who employed Charles Bridgeman to change the formal gardens into park land, and include an octagonal water-filled basin near Whaddon. The scholarly Harley collected books and manuscripts, which became the core of the British Library. In debt, in 1739 he sold Wimpole to the Earl of Hardwicke who employed Capability Brown for more enlargement and landscaping, removing another medieval hamlet, and joining Bridgeman’s ponds into a curving lake. These, with his medieval-style folly, remain major landmarks today. In the early C19th. Humphrey Repton introduced newer garden fashions, and in 1850 the then owner, Admiral Yorke, erected New Wimpole Estate Village on the A603. Foreclosure on a mortgage in the late C19th left the estate with the Agar-Robartes family from Llanhydrock in Cornwall, whence much of the Hall’s furnishings were removed. In the 1930s Wimpole was sold to Captain Bembridge, whose widow Elsie, daughter of Rudyard Kipling, was a recluse, and the park sank into benign neglect. In 1976 she left the Hall and 1200ha acres of the park to the National Trust.

The paths in Wimpole
The parish has 9 public rights of way. In addition, there are at least 8 other permissive paths within the Wimpole Estate, and other approved routes or open access across grassland. This makes possible a great variety of walks, within the park and the parish, and onwards into adjacent parishes. It is believed that the NT is about to propose diversions of some of these RoW. RA Cambridge Group will examine such proposals very carefully when it is consulted.

Of the definitive paths, Wimpole Bp 1 starts from TL 339 526, from the corner of the Old Cambridge Road above The Belts, and runs E along the hilltop as part of Mare Way. Beyond the water tanks at the top of the Wimpole Road, TL 352 524, Mare Way continues on both sides of a shallow ditch. On the N side it is Eversden Bp 11, leading to walks in Eversden, and on the S side it is Orwell Bp3, a dead-end which, however, has a side branch, Orwell Fp2 leading down into Orwell village.

Wimpole Fp2 is a short path starting from much the same place as Bp1, passing through a tree belt, and crossing an arable field, to join well-waymarked but muddy paths in Eversden Wood. In late Spring, the woodland rides have bluebells, oxlips, and early purple orchids.

Wimpole Fp3 leaves the minor road opposite Home Farm at TL 342 514, and follows the farm track past Cobbs Wood Farm and uphill past woodland to the multiway junction at the top of the Wimpole Road, joining Orwell Fp4 for the last few metres. Branching off Fp3, just before the bridge, is Wimpole Fp4, waymarked through the yard of a deserted house, over a bridge, and through fields to cross Victoria Drive, then over more fields to reach Orwell., via Orwell Fp1. This is a good all-weather route, and the “Bull in field” sign on stiles is left there whether the bull is present or not.

Wimpole Fp5 is the Wimpole Drive, leading to Arrington, and routes beyond. It is the start of The Clopton Way, going to Gamlingay Cinques. As the path emerges through the decorative gates onto Ermine Street, note that you have already entered Arrington parish. Note, too, the display board, recalling that this part of the park was a hospital in WWII.

On Ermine Street, A 1198, a sign shows the start of Wimpole Fp 6, starting at TL 329 500, a little way beyond The Hardwick Arms. This path crosses arable fields, and the Wimpole Avenue, then another arable field, finally to emerge down the drive of Cambridge Road Farm onto the A603. As far as the Wimpole Avenue, it is part of the Harcamlow Way. In wet conditions, this is a very sticky route.

Wimpole Fp7 leaves Fp6 at TL 337 497, to run S down the Wimpole Avenue, crossing the A603, to reach the Whaddon parish boundary at a bridge over the River Rhee, TL 337 485. From here paths lead to Whaddon, Wendy, or a WWII display board by the A1198 at TL 339 469. Sadly, there is no public path leaving the road opposite this point. However one may walk 600m north along the verge, to pick up Shingay cum Wendy Fp 8 near Road Farm at TL 329 500. This path uses mostly field edges to zig-zag to the hamlet of Wendy.

Note that in damp conditions, it is pleasanter to start this walk in the park, through a gate in the railings at ca TL 338 509, rather than going round by Fp6.

Wimpole Fp8 forms two short sections of footpath within Eversden Wood, where the parishes of Wimpole, Kingston and Eversden form an elaborate patchwork.

From Old Wimpole Road, opposite Kingston Pastures Farm at TL 329 529, Wimpole Fp9 runs S across fields to the A1198. Half-way across, there is a strip of pasture field. This pasture may be accessed from The Belts via a stile at ca TL 331 517, which is not obvious from the path.

The Permissive Paths
The best-known of these is The Belts, a track running in the woodland to the W and N of Wimpole, and part of the County Council’s promoted route, The Wimpole Way. Reaching the Old Wimpole Road at TL 339 524, it is possible to continue immediately opposite in woodland, to join FP 3 above Cobbs Wood Farm, at TL 350521.

The National Trust promotes a route across pasture, and by the Chinese Bridge over lakes to visit The Folly, and emerging on The Old Wimpole Road, a little way N of Home Farm. Alternatively, a return may be made across another portion of the lakes on a causeway. It is a pity that The Folly itself is fenced off, due to safety considerations, and that there are no seats on the hill top, where otherwise a good view could be appreciated in comfort. From The Folly, however, one can go N to follow a ditch to TL 336 524, and join The Belts, not far from the exit onto The Old Wimpole Road.

Users of Wimpole Fp4 as the route to Orwell and beyond, may wish to return another way, using the very attractive Victoria Drive, the old carriageway route, which starts in Orwell on the A603 at TL 359 507, and emerges on The Old Wimpole Road, just opposite the NT drive. It is possible to turn off Victoria Drive at TL 358 508, and follow a path by a hedge to join Orwell Fp2 up Thorn Hill, and onto Mare Way.

Almost opposite the drive to Cobbs Wood Farm (Fp 3), a kissing-gate gives access to a short-cut path across the park, to the carpark and stable block. This path is shown clearly on the 1902 1: 10 000 OS sheet, and again on the First Series 1:25 000 OS sheet as a black dotted line, but it was never registered as a public right of way.

The National Trust promotes these routes, and several other short walks around the grasslands of the park in a leaflet available for a charge.

Cantab Rambler by E-Mail & Post
Cantab usually appears every two months. A large number of you now receive Cantab by e-mail. By hand, 20p is appreciated towards the cost of paper and ink. Offers of brief articles will be gratefully received.

This is a privately produced magazine, and the views expressed are solely those of the editor, or of the author of an individual item. Janet Moreton 01223 356889

e-mail roger.janet@care4free.net

Cantab 73   Price 20 pence where sold

© Janet Moreton, 2013

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