Histon
Encyclopedia
Histon and Impington are villages in Cambridgeshire
, England
, They are situated just north of Cambridge
with the main bulk of the settlements being separated from the city by the A14 road (Great Britain).
Over the years the two villages have grown and entwined together, to such an extent that many villagers today do not know where one ends and the other begins. They contain a combined total of six pubs
. They have a Nursery, Infants', Junior, and Secondary school. The International Whaling Commission
is based in Impington, whilst the East of England Development Agency
is based in Histon, and the village is also the location of the radio station Heart 103
(formerly Q103), which covers Cambridge, Ely
, Newmarket, Huntingdon
and Royston
and is part of GCap Media
. Impington is also the home of Histon Football Club
, and their Bridge Road ground. The club currently plays in the Football Conference.
/Old English
words hyse and tun – hyse meaning "a young man or warrior", and tun meaning "house or farm". The village name has survived relatively unchanged since the writing of the Domesday Book
when it was recorded as Histone.
, flint tools have been dug up in and around the area and aerial photographs show evidence of ancient settlements including Iron Age
and Roman
. Pieces of Roman pottery have been found in the area.
Possibly the oldest surviving area of interest is Gun’s Lane, which is named after a family who once lived in the lane. Today this is just a bridleway but it was for centuries the Cambridge to Ely causeway, which was the main road into the Fens
and the Isle of Ely
. The Iron Age ringfort
that once stood at Arbury
may well at one time have guarded one end of this road. During the Norman conquest of England
, William the Conqueror
passed this way with his army as he chased a rebel Saxon, Hereward the Wake
, into the Fens.
Early settlement appears to have been centred around what is now Church End. Originally there were two churches here - St Etheldreda's
and St Andrew's - but only St Andrew's remains today, with each church belonging to a separate manor
. Before the Reformation
these manors were owned by the abbeys of Denny
and Eynsham
. The Crown
sold the manor of St Etheldreda to Sir Thomas Elyot
and the manor of St Andrew to Edward Elrington in 1539.
Close by is Histon Manor House. Originally this was on a site with a moat
which is still visible today, but at some point the house was moved to higher ground nearby, possibly to avoid flooding.
The churches, manor house
and grounds prevented expansion to the west so the village slowly moved towards its current centre which is The Green. The Green many times the size it is currently, all of what is today the High Street would have at one time been the green.
Histon was recorded in the Domesday Book as answering for 26½ hide
s – a hide was recorded in the book as being 120 fiscal acre
s.
Included on the Histon Village Sign is a man in a stove hat holding a large rock. This represents Moses Carter
(1801–1860) a local strongman who lived in the village in the nineteenth century. Carter was alleged to be over seven feet tall, and famously carried a large stone from a building site to The Boot public house. The stone is still in the pub's garden. Carter is affectionately known locally as 'The Histon Giant'.
The first area of settlement in the village was to the extreme south of the current village, close to current road junction of the Cambridge and Kings Hedges Road (once called Arbury camp this land is currently being developed as part of the large Orchard Park housing development). There was a large Iron Age fort here that was built by the Iceni
to defend against the invading Celts this was taken over by the Romans later on, the main evidence left today of the Roman occupation is the Roman road, Akeman Street
(known locally as the Mereway), this cuts though the edge of Impington and heads for The Fens, this route had fallen into disuse by the 11th century.
The first mention of Impington by name was in the year 991 when the Duke of Brithnoth, who then owned Impington, left the village in the charge of the abbot
of Ely, when he went off to fight the Viking
s who had invaded the region, he was killed at the Battle of Maldon
in Essex
. After Brithnoth’s death Impington became the property of the abbey
at Ely, during the Reformation the Abbey at Ely
was more fortunate and was turned into a cathedral
church, with a dean and chapter
Impington’s lands were protected and they then became it’s "patrons of living" it was not until 1870 that they handed the patronage to the owner of Impington Hall in exchange for the living of Pirton
in Hertfordshire
.
In the Domesday Book, Impington was said to answer for 6½ hides (780 acre (3.2 km²)). Just before this time, Picot
, the Norman
sheriff of Cambridge, was ordered by a writ of William I to hand back 3 hides of Impington that had been stolen, by now the main centre of the village appears to have been around the church area present day Burgoynes Road.
In 1580 John Pepys begun the building of Impington Hall but died before it was completed, it was finished by his executors for Talbot Pepys, his six year old son, uncle to the famous diarist, Samuel Pepys
, who visited the hall regularly. The hall was demolished after a fire in 1953 by the then owners Chivers & Sons Ltd.
The opening of the Cambridge & St. Ives Branch by the Eastern Counties Railway Company
on August 17, 1847 fuelled the growth of the villages and the expansion of companies within. Steven Chivers was one of the first to seize the new opportunity that this brought. In 1850 he bought an orchard
next to the line giving him access to London
and the north of England and in 1870 he sent his sons to open a fruit distribution centre in Bradford
. Their customers were mainly jam makers and this was quickly noted by the boys. Following an extra good harvest of fruit in 1873 they got their father to let them make their first jam in a barn off Milton Road, Impington. This proved a successful venture, and within two years the Victoria Works jam factory had opened on the orchard site. By 1895 Chivers had diversified into many other areas including lemonade
, marmalade
and dessert jellies, and were the first large scale commercial canners
in Europe
. By 1939 the company owned most of the large farms and estates in Histon and Impington, Impington windmill
and 8000 acre (32.4 km²) of land around East Anglia
, and the factory employed up to 3,000 people. The factory and farms were sold to Schweppes in 1959, though the farms were bought back by the family in 1961.
In the 1960s eighty trains a day were scheduled at Histon railway station
. This caused many delays for road users and prompted the building of the bridge road bypass
, opened by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
in 1963. The road was originally scheduled to be constructed in the 1930s but was delayed because of World War II
. However, fewer than ten years after it opened, on October 5, 1970, passenger services were withdrawn from the line, though seasonal deliveries of fruit continued to be delivered by rail to Chivers factory until 1983. The 1980s saw an end to the old factory. In a management buyout
the site was sold to developers and a new five million pound factory was built at the rear of the property by new owners by Premier Foods
, for the production of Sun-Pat
peanut butter and Smash
instant mashed potatoes, as well as jams. Vision Park, a business park
, was built on the old site and all rail services stopped in 1992. Following removal of the rail lines, the route of the railway through Histon and Impington became the route for the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway
.
churches, both dedicated to Saint Andrew
, a Methodist
Church, a Baptist
Church, and a Salvation Army
Church. In addition, a charismatic
, evangelical
congregation called New Life Church, formed in Easter 2004, now meets on Sunday afternoons in the Baptist Church building. All the congregations work closely together through the Histon and Impington Council of Churches.
The first recorded reference to the church was in 1217, but in about 1270 it was modernised, turning it into a cruciform-style church. Much of the building work was carried out in the 13th and 14th centuries, but extensive restoration work and alterations took place in the 19th and 20th centuries. There have been bells in the church since at least 1553; the oldest surviving bell in the tower is dated at 1556 and was made by Austen Bracker of Islington, Norfolk. The bell is listed for preservation by the central council as it is Bracker’s only dated bell.
The original building was constructed about 1130 and appears to have been dedicated originally to St Etheldreda. Its first use was not as a church for the parish but to transcribe books for the prior
of Ely. The first vicar was not appointed until the 13th century and since then it has been mainly rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries. The church was built of field stones and masonry rubble and the stones from the original building can still be seen. The original churchyard wall was built in 1614 but this crumbling wall was replaced in 2005 after a £50,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund
. The tower contains three bells at least two of which date from the 15th century.
' pharmacy
. In 1896 the building was sold and they moved to their current site in Histon High Street. This building was constructed in 1896 as the Matthews' Memorial Church, in memory of Richard Matthews.
This has also occupied two sites. The first chapel was built in 1858 and closed in 1899, the building having now been converted into flat
s. The current chapel was built in 1899 with the money and land being donated by Steven Chivers, but by 1908 this was no longer big enough and an extension was opened on the south side.
. Hinde did not however completely demolish the church: in 1728 the chancel was said to be still standing. The churchyard survived until 1757 but was then taken into Abbey Farm. It is possible that the reduced population of Histon following the Black Death
encouraged Hinde to demolish the church. Today the church site is not visible and is still shut off on the land of Abbey Farm.
School teachers are not just a recent occurrence in the villages; licensed schoolmasters appear on records as early as 1580.
for both villages. In 1939 Impington Village College opened, the infants were moved to New School Road and this school closed. The old school's foundation stone found a resting place in Impington churchyard; in 2005 it was built into the new churchyard wall.
for children of women on war work. This remained until 1962 when it was demolished in order to make way for Bridge Road, The county council
decided to build a new nursery school. It was opened in 1963 and at the time was the only purpose-built nursery school in the county.
, on the green.
, who had to cycle from school to school every day
The new junior school was built on the village green and was at first just four classrooms, two for each of years 3 and 4 (ages 9-11), when the first pupils attended. It was opened in January 1972. Pupils first went to the old junior school in the morning, packed a box of their things from their desks and then were walked up to the new junior school.
Impington Village College was opened in 1939, two weeks after the outbreak of World War II
, making it the fourth Village College
to be opened in Cambridgeshire. As a village college, it was originally intended to encompass all aspects of learning in the village, and included prominent space for adult education and 1st Histon Scouts. Henry Morris
, founder of the Village College system, saw to it that prominent architects were employed to design these colleges. The college was designed by Walter Gropius
, founder of The Bauhaus School of Architecture
, and his partner Maxwell Fry
. This is the only example of Gropius’s work in Britain
and the building is now Grade I listed building.
In 1998 it was awarded the Sportsmark
by Sport England
and was also granted international school status by the British Council
's central bureau for education visits and exchanges, the first of eleven schools to be designated that way. In September 1999 it built on this with a successful application to the Department of Education to become a specialist
Language College
.
Impington Village College has an international sixth form
, educating pupils from a mix of nations and cultures. The sixth form offers both A Levels as well as the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
.
The school is currently run by principal or king CampBell who has made many contraversial decisions to ban shorts that made the school get shown in an episode of BBC program 'Have I Got News For You'.
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, They are situated just north of Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
with the main bulk of the settlements being separated from the city by the A14 road (Great Britain).
Over the years the two villages have grown and entwined together, to such an extent that many villagers today do not know where one ends and the other begins. They contain a combined total of six pubs
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
. They have a Nursery, Infants', Junior, and Secondary school. The International Whaling Commission
International Whaling Commission
The International Whaling Commission is an international body set up by the terms of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling , which was signed in Washington, D.C...
is based in Impington, whilst the East of England Development Agency
East of England Development Agency
The East of England Development Agency is a non-departmental public body and the regional development agency for the East of England region of England....
is based in Histon, and the village is also the location of the radio station Heart 103
Heart 103
Heart 103 was an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to Cambridge on 103.0 MHz and DAB Digital Radio. Heart also broadcast in Newmarket and Haverhill on 97.4 MHz.-History:...
(formerly Q103), which covers Cambridge, Ely
Ely, Cambridgeshire
Ely is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, England, 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about by road from London. It is built on a Lower Greensand island, which at a maximum elevation of is the highest land in the Fens...
, Newmarket, Huntingdon
Huntingdon
Huntingdon is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was chartered by King John in 1205. It is the traditional county town of Huntingdonshire, and is currently the seat of the Huntingdonshire district council. It is known as the birthplace in 1599 of Oliver Cromwell.-History:Huntingdon...
and Royston
Royston, Hertfordshire
Royston is a town and civil parish in the District of North Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England.It is situated on the Greenwich Meridian, which brushes the towns western boundary, and at the northernmost apex of the county on the same latitude of towns such as Milton Keynes and...
and is part of GCap Media
GCap Media
GCap Media was a British commercial radio company formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group. The merger was completed in May 2005. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. On 31 March 2008 the company agreed a takeover by...
. Impington is also the home of Histon Football Club
Histon F.C.
Histon Football Club is an English football club based in the twin villages of Histon and Impington, approximately north of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. From the 2007–08 season they competed in the Conference National, the highest level that the club has ever reached in the English football league...
, and their Bridge Road ground. The club currently plays in the Football Conference.
Histon
Suggestions for meanings of this name include: "farmstead of the young warriors" or "landing place". However, the latter of these is unlikely as Histon is situated above the floodline. The likely origin of the name is from the two SaxonAnglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
/Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
words hyse and tun – hyse meaning "a young man or warrior", and tun meaning "house or farm". The village name has survived relatively unchanged since the writing of the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
when it was recorded as Histone.
Impington
This is most likely to mean "farmstead or place of the Empings"; the Empings were a 6th century Saxon tribe that lived in the area, Its name has been recorded in various guises throughout its history, in the Domesday Book it was recorded as Epintone, but it has also been recorded as Empinton, Ympiton, Impinton, Hinpinton and Impynton, before it became known as we know it today.Early history
Some of the track ways that pass though these villages are believed to be prehistoricPrehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
, flint tools have been dug up in and around the area and aerial photographs show evidence of ancient settlements including Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
and Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
. Pieces of Roman pottery have been found in the area.
Histon
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
and the Isle of Ely
Isle of Ely
The Isle of Ely is a historic region around the city of Ely now in Cambridgeshire, England but previously a county in its own right.-Etymology:...
. The Iron Age ringfort
Ringfort
Ringforts are circular fortified settlements that were mostly built during the Iron Age , although some were built as late as the Early Middle Ages . They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland...
that once stood at Arbury
Arbury
Arbury is a district and electoral ward of the city of Cambridge, England. The ward borders the following other wards : Histon, King's Hedges, West Chesterton, Market and Castle.-History:...
may well at one time have guarded one end of this road. During the Norman conquest of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
, William the Conqueror
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
passed this way with his army as he chased a rebel Saxon, Hereward the Wake
Hereward the Wake
Hereward the Wake , known in his own times as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile, was an 11th-century leader of local resistance to the Norman conquest of England....
, into the Fens.
Early settlement appears to have been centred around what is now Church End. Originally there were two churches here - St Etheldreda's
Æthelthryth
Æthelthryth is the proper name for the popular Anglo-Saxon saint often known, particularly in a religious context, as Etheldreda or by the pet form of Audrey...
and St Andrew's - but only St Andrew's remains today, with each church belonging to a separate manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
. Before the Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....
these manors were owned by the abbeys of Denny
Denny Abbey
Denny Abbey is a former abbey near Waterbeach, six miles north of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire, England which was inhabited by a succession of three different religious orders during its history serving as a monastery....
and Eynsham
Eynsham
Eynsham is a village and civil parish about east of Witney in Oxfordshire, England.-History:Eynsham grew up near the historically important ford of Swinford on the River Thames flood plain...
. The Crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
sold the manor of St Etheldreda to Sir Thomas Elyot
Thomas Elyot
Sir Thomas Elyot was an English diplomat and scholar.-Early Life:Thomas was the child of Sir Richard Elyot's first marriage with Alice De la Mare, but neither the date nor place of his birth is accurately known...
and the manor of St Andrew to Edward Elrington in 1539.
Close by is Histon Manor House. Originally this was on a site with a moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
which is still visible today, but at some point the house was moved to higher ground nearby, possibly to avoid flooding.
The churches, manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
and grounds prevented expansion to the west so the village slowly moved towards its current centre which is The Green. The Green many times the size it is currently, all of what is today the High Street would have at one time been the green.
Histon was recorded in the Domesday Book as answering for 26½ hide
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...
s – a hide was recorded in the book as being 120 fiscal acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s.
Included on the Histon Village Sign is a man in a stove hat holding a large rock. This represents Moses Carter
Moses Carter
Moses Carter , known as 'The Histon Giant', was a strongman who lived in the village of Histon, near Cambridge in the United Kingdom....
(1801–1860) a local strongman who lived in the village in the nineteenth century. Carter was alleged to be over seven feet tall, and famously carried a large stone from a building site to The Boot public house. The stone is still in the pub's garden. Carter is affectionately known locally as 'The Histon Giant'.
Impington
Iceni
The Iceni or Eceni were a British tribe who inhabited an area of East Anglia corresponding roughly to the modern-day county of Norfolk between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD...
to defend against the invading Celts this was taken over by the Romans later on, the main evidence left today of the Roman occupation is the Roman road, Akeman Street
Akeman Street
Akeman Street was a major Roman road in England that linked Watling Street with the Fosse Way. Its junction with Watling Steet was just north of Verulamium and that with the Fosse Way was at Corinium Dobunnorum...
(known locally as the Mereway), this cuts though the edge of Impington and heads for The Fens, this route had fallen into disuse by the 11th century.
The first mention of Impington by name was in the year 991 when the Duke of Brithnoth, who then owned Impington, left the village in the charge of the abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
of Ely, when he went off to fight the Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
s who had invaded the region, he was killed at the Battle of Maldon
Battle of Maldon
The Battle of Maldon took place on 10 August 991 near Maldon beside the River Blackwater in Essex, England, during the reign of Aethelred the Unready. Earl Byrhtnoth and his thegns led the English against a Viking invasion. The battle ended in an Anglo-Saxon defeat...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. After Brithnoth’s death Impington became the property of the abbey
Abbey
An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...
at Ely, during the Reformation the Abbey at Ely
Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral is the principal church of the Diocese of Ely, in Cambridgeshire, England, and is the seat of the Bishop of Ely and a suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon...
was more fortunate and was turned into a cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
church, with a dean and chapter
Dean (religion)
A dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.-Anglican Communion:...
Impington’s lands were protected and they then became it’s "patrons of living" it was not until 1870 that they handed the patronage to the owner of Impington Hall in exchange for the living of Pirton
Pirton, Hertfordshire
Pirton is a small village and civil parish three miles north-east of Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England. The church, rebuilt in 1877, but with the remains of its 12th-century tower, is built within the bailey of a former castle...
in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
.
In the Domesday Book, Impington was said to answer for 6½ hides (780 acre (3.2 km²)). Just before this time, Picot
Picot of Cambridge
Picot of Cambridge was a Norman landowner and Sheriff of Cambridgeshire.Born in Saye, Normandy, he rose from obscurity to become Sheriff of Cambridgeshire aa early as 1071 until at least 1090...
, the Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
sheriff of Cambridge, was ordered by a writ of William I to hand back 3 hides of Impington that had been stolen, by now the main centre of the village appears to have been around the church area present day Burgoynes Road.
In 1580 John Pepys begun the building of Impington Hall but died before it was completed, it was finished by his executors for Talbot Pepys, his six year old son, uncle to the famous diarist, Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
, who visited the hall regularly. The hall was demolished after a fire in 1953 by the then owners Chivers & Sons Ltd.
The Railway and Chivers factory
Eastern Counties Railway
The Eastern Counties Railway was an early English railway company incorporated in 1836. It was intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then on to Norwich and Yarmouth. Construction began in late March 1837 on the first nine miles, at the London end of the line.Construction was...
on August 17, 1847 fuelled the growth of the villages and the expansion of companies within. Steven Chivers was one of the first to seize the new opportunity that this brought. In 1850 he bought an orchard
Orchard
An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...
next to the line giving him access to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and the north of England and in 1870 he sent his sons to open a fruit distribution centre in Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
. Their customers were mainly jam makers and this was quickly noted by the boys. Following an extra good harvest of fruit in 1873 they got their father to let them make their first jam in a barn off Milton Road, Impington. This proved a successful venture, and within two years the Victoria Works jam factory had opened on the orchard site. By 1895 Chivers had diversified into many other areas including lemonade
Lemonade
Lemonade is a lemon-flavored drink, typically made from lemons, water and sugar.The term can refer to three different types of beverage:...
, marmalade
Marmalade
Marmalade is a fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits, boiled with sugar and water. The benchmark citrus fruit for marmalade production in Britain is the "Seville orange" from Spain, Citrus aurantium var...
and dessert jellies, and were the first large scale commercial canners
Canning
Canning is a method of preserving food in which the food contents are processed and sealed in an airtight container. Canning provides a typical shelf life ranging from one to five years, although under specific circumstances a freeze-dried canned product, such as canned, dried lentils, can last as...
in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. By 1939 the company owned most of the large farms and estates in Histon and Impington, Impington windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
and 8000 acre (32.4 km²) of land around East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
, and the factory employed up to 3,000 people. The factory and farms were sold to Schweppes in 1959, though the farms were bought back by the family in 1961.
Histon railway station
Histon was the name of a railway station in Impington, Cambridgeshire on the Cambridge–St Ives branch of the Great Eastern Railway. The station was closed as part of the Beeching Axe in 1970; the line through the station remained open until the early 1990s...
. This caused many delays for road users and prompted the building of the bridge road bypass
Bypass (road)
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....
, opened by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
in 1963. The road was originally scheduled to be constructed in the 1930s but was delayed because of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. However, fewer than ten years after it opened, on October 5, 1970, passenger services were withdrawn from the line, though seasonal deliveries of fruit continued to be delivered by rail to Chivers factory until 1983. The 1980s saw an end to the old factory. In a management buyout
Management buyout
A management buyout is a form of acquisition where a company's existing managers acquire a large part or all of the company.- Overview :Management buyouts are similar in all major legal aspects to any other acquisition of a company...
the site was sold to developers and a new five million pound factory was built at the rear of the property by new owners by Premier Foods
Premier Foods
Premier Foods plc is a British food manufacturer headquartered in St Albans, Hertfordshire. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
, for the production of Sun-Pat
Sun-Pat
Sun-Pat is a brand of peanut butter in the United Kingdom. Even though American peanut butter had been sold in the UK since the 1930s, Sun-Pat was not launched until the 1960s, initially produced as a by-product of a nut-packing operation in Hadfield, Derbyshire...
peanut butter and Smash
Smash (instant mashed potato)
Smash is a brand of instant mashed potato in the United Kingdom. The preparation of Smash is extremely simple - the granules are placed in a bowl and boiling water is added and stirred producing a mashed potato substitute....
instant mashed potatoes, as well as jams. Vision Park, a business park
Business park
A business park or office park is an area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. All of the work that goes on is commercial, not industrial or residential....
, was built on the old site and all rail services stopped in 1992. Following removal of the rail lines, the route of the railway through Histon and Impington became the route for the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway
Cambridgeshire Guided Busway
The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway , branded the busway , is a public transport scheme connecting the population centres of Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives in the English county of Cambridgeshire...
.
Churches
The villages have five places of worship with six congregations. There are two AnglicanAnglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
churches, both dedicated to Saint Andrew
Saint Andrew
Saint Andrew , called in the Orthodox tradition Prōtoklētos, or the First-called, is a Christian Apostle and the brother of Saint Peter. The name "Andrew" , like other Greek names, appears to have been common among the Jews from the 3rd or 2nd century BC. No Hebrew or Aramaic name is recorded for him...
, a Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
Church, a Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
Church, and a Salvation Army
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
Church. In addition, a charismatic
Charismatic movement
The term charismatic movement is used in varying senses to describe 20th century developments in various Christian denominations. It describes an ongoing international, cross-denominational/non-denominational Christian movement in which individual, historically mainstream congregations adopt...
, evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
congregation called New Life Church, formed in Easter 2004, now meets on Sunday afternoons in the Baptist Church building. All the congregations work closely together through the Histon and Impington Council of Churches.
St Andrew's, Histon
St Andrew's, Impington
Prior
Prior is an ecclesiastical title, derived from the Latin adjective for 'earlier, first', with several notable uses.-Monastic superiors:A Prior is a monastic superior, usually lower in rank than an Abbot. In the Rule of St...
of Ely. The first vicar was not appointed until the 13th century and since then it has been mainly rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries. The church was built of field stones and masonry rubble and the stones from the original building can still be seen. The original churchyard wall was built in 1614 but this crumbling wall was replaced in 2005 after a £50,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
. The tower contains three bells at least two of which date from the 15th century.
Histon Methodist
There have been two Methodist chapels in the village; the first, built in 1822, was opposite the green. This building is currently the Co-operative storesThe Co-operative brand
The Co-operative is a common branding used by a variety of co-operatives based in the United Kingdom.Many in the UK mistakenly consider the Co-op to be a single national business, however each Co-operative is actually a franchise selling branded goods produced by the Co-operative Group The...
' pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
. In 1896 the building was sold and they moved to their current site in Histon High Street. This building was constructed in 1896 as the Matthews' Memorial Church, in memory of Richard Matthews.
Histon Baptist
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s. The current chapel was built in 1899 with the money and land being donated by Steven Chivers, but by 1908 this was no longer big enough and an extension was opened on the south side.
Salvation Army
In 1896 the Salvation Army rented the old Methodist chapel, but when the building was bought by the Co-Op in 1903 they built a temporary building next door and remained there for some time. This building was also later sold to the Co-Op, who then extended their store to its current size, and at some point the Salvation Army moved to their current site on the Impington Lane, then called Dog Kennel Lane.St Etheldreda, Histon (demolished 1595)
This larger church stood close to St Andrews church, Histon. It was mainly demolished in about 1595 by Sir Francis Hinde to raise money and to provide building materials for a new wing at Madingley HallMadingley
Madingley is a village near Coton and Dry Drayton on the western outskirts of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.Known as Madingelei in the Domesday Book, the village's name means "Woodland clearing of the family or followers of a man called Mada"....
. Hinde did not however completely demolish the church: in 1728 the chancel was said to be still standing. The churchyard survived until 1757 but was then taken into Abbey Farm. It is possible that the reduced population of Histon following the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
encouraged Hinde to demolish the church. Today the church site is not visible and is still shut off on the land of Abbey Farm.
Education
| Schools Today | |
|---|---|
| Histon Early Years Centre | |
| Headteacher: | Mrs Carole Faulkner |
| No. of Children: | 80 (Jan 2006) |
| Phase of Education: | Nursery school Nursery school A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare... |
| Histon and Impington Infant School | |
| Headteacher: | Mrs Joy Walker |
| No. of Children: | 268 (Jan 2006) |
| Phase of Education: | Infant school Infant school An Infant school is a term used primarily in the United Kingdom for school for children between the ages of four and seven years. It is usually a small school serving a particular locality.... |
| Histon and Impington Junior School | |
| Headteacher: | Mrs Lesley Birch |
| No. of Children: | 337 (Jan 2006) |
| Phase of Education: | Junior school Junior school A junior school is a type of school which caters for children, often between the ages of 7 and 11.-Australia:In Australia, a junior school is usually a part of a private school that educates children between the ages of 5 and 12.... |
| Impington Village College | |
| Principal: | Mr Robert Campbell |
| No. of Children: | 1,339 (Jan 2006) |
| Phase of Education: | Secondary school Secondary school Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place... |
| information from Dept. of Education Website | |
School teachers are not just a recent occurrence in the villages; licensed schoolmasters appear on records as early as 1580.
Histon School
Histon School was started in 1722; in 1729 it gained funding from the foundation of Elizabeth March - a board over one of the doors to Histon church records this bequest. Histon’s share of this income was £14 a year. Until 1840 the school was held in the parish church, but then a purpose-built school was erected to hold up to 70 children in what is now called School Hill. In 1872 the school was enlarged; it was then held up as a model school for the whole county. On being taken over by the school board in 1893 it was enlarged still further with the addition of a new south wing, built over the Histon brook. In 1913 the school moved to its current site and the building was then handed back to the church and is now the church hall.Impington National School
Impington National School was built opposite Impington church in 1846. This school room was 15 by and was meant to hold 48 pupils but by 1880 it was too small to accommodate the rapidly-growing population so the school house was sold and the money raised was used to buy land on Broad Close (later called School Lane). A new school was built, with two classrooms to hold 72 pupils. When Histon and Impington school opened in New School Road in 1913 this school became the infants schoolInfant school
An Infant school is a term used primarily in the United Kingdom for school for children between the ages of four and seven years. It is usually a small school serving a particular locality....
for both villages. In 1939 Impington Village College opened, the infants were moved to New School Road and this school closed. The old school's foundation stone found a resting place in Impington churchyard; in 2005 it was built into the new churchyard wall.
Histon Nursery School
In 1943 the Impington national school building was reopened as a nursery schoolNursery school
A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
for children of women on war work. This remained until 1962 when it was demolished in order to make way for Bridge Road, The county council
County council
A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.-United Kingdom:...
decided to build a new nursery school. It was opened in 1963 and at the time was the only purpose-built nursery school in the county.
Histon and Impington Infants School
This was built in 1912 with the land and money being given by John Chivers and was opened in 1913 for all children of the villages from eight to fourteen. It became a primary school in 1939 with the opening of Impington college, and an infants a while after the opening of the junior schoolJunior school
A junior school is a type of school which caters for children, often between the ages of 7 and 11.-Australia:In Australia, a junior school is usually a part of a private school that educates children between the ages of 5 and 12....
, on the green.
Histon and Impington Junior School
This school was opened in 1970 but it was not until mid-to-late 1970s that it was enlarged to become the junior school. Until then, the two Histon and Impington schools had the same head teacherHead teacher
A head teacher or school principal is the most senior teacher, leader and manager of a school....
, who had to cycle from school to school every day
The new junior school was built on the village green and was at first just four classrooms, two for each of years 3 and 4 (ages 9-11), when the first pupils attended. It was opened in January 1972. Pupils first went to the old junior school in the morning, packed a box of their things from their desks and then were walked up to the new junior school.
Impington Village College
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, making it the fourth Village College
Village College
The village college is an institution specific to Cambridgeshire, England . It caters for the education of 11 to 16 year olds during the day,...
to be opened in Cambridgeshire. As a village college, it was originally intended to encompass all aspects of learning in the village, and included prominent space for adult education and 1st Histon Scouts. Henry Morris
Henry Morris (education)
Henry Morris is known primarily as the founder of Village Colleges. He was the Chief Education Officer for Cambridgeshire for over thirty years, taking up the post in 1922 during a time of depression in the United Kingdom following the First World War.-Early life:Morris was born in Southport in...
, founder of the Village College system, saw to it that prominent architects were employed to design these colleges. The college was designed by Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
, founder of The Bauhaus School of Architecture
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
, and his partner Maxwell Fry
Maxwell Fry
Edwin Maxwell Fry, CBE, RA, FRIBA, FRTPI, known as Maxwell Fry , was an English modernist architect of the middle and late 20th century, known for his buildings in Britain, Africa and India....
. This is the only example of Gropius’s work in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the building is now Grade I listed building.
In 1998 it was awarded the Sportsmark
Sportsmark
Sportsmark is Sport England's accreditation scheme for secondary schools. The scheme recognises a school's out of hours sports provision.Sportsmark awards are given to secondary schools for provision for sport and physical education. They are currently being reviewed along with Activemark awards...
by Sport England
Sport England
Sport England is the brand name for the English Sports Council and is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
and was also granted international school status by the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
's central bureau for education visits and exchanges, the first of eleven schools to be designated that way. In September 1999 it built on this with a successful application to the Department of Education to become a specialist
Specialist school
The specialist schools programme was a UK government initiative which encouraged secondary schools in England to specialise in certain areas of the curriculum to boost achievement. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust was responsible for the delivery of the programme...
Language College
Language College
Language Colleges were introduced in 1995 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enables secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, modern foreign languages...
.
Impington Village College has an international sixth form
Sixth form
In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...
, educating pupils from a mix of nations and cultures. The sixth form offers both A Levels as well as the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
IB Diploma Programme
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is a two-year educational programme for students aged 16–19that provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry into higher education, and is recognised by universities worldwide. It was developed in the early to mid-1960s in Geneva by...
.
The school is currently run by principal or king CampBell who has made many contraversial decisions to ban shorts that made the school get shown in an episode of BBC program 'Have I Got News For You'.
External links
- Histon and Impington on-line
- Histon and Impington on-line - history page
- Disused stations of the UK - Histon Station
- British History Online - Histon and Impington Pages
- Histon Football Club
- St Andrew's church, Histon
- St Andrew's church, Impington
- Histon Baptist church
- Histon Salvation Army
- New Life Church
- 1st Histon Scouts