Stretham
Encyclopedia
Stretham is a small village and civil parish
4 miles (6 km) south-south-west of Ely
in Cambridgeshire
, England, about 74 miles (119.1 km) by road from London. Its main attraction is Stretham Old Engine
, a steam-powered
pump used to drain the fens. The pump is still in use today although converted to electric power. It has open days throughout the year.
were discovered in a 5 feet (1.5 m) deep Kimmeridge Clay pit in the village in 1952 by workers of the Great Ouse River Board. These carnivore
s could reach up to 65 feet (19.8 m) in length and pliosaur teeth are a common fossil; full skeletons are however rare. This particular 23 feet (7 m) example was named Stretosaurus macromerus in honour of the village where it was found.
Ethelwold and Brithnoth left their Stretham estates to Ely
. Stretham means homestead or village on a Roman road
, old English strǣt plus hām; the Domesday book records the village as Stradham: Abbot of Ely. Fisheries.
Site of Royal Observer Corps
(1936–1945) and Cold War
(1962–1968) observation post
.
The Stretham steam pumping engine, built in 1831 by Butterley Company, was one of the largest beam engines in the Fens; at 15 rpm it generated 105 horsepower lifting 30 tons of water per revolution, or 450 tons per minute.
The river floods that began in mid-March 1947 affected over 1000 square miles (2,590 km²) of England. Thirty counties were underwater for nearly two weeks, during the worst flooding for over 200 years. The winter of 1946–1947 had been very severe, with mean average temperatures 4 °C (7 °F) below normal, for that time of year. Snow had been falling continuously since 23 January, with drifts up to 23 feet (7 m) deep in places. As the thaw began in mid-March, the warmer weather brought heavy rains. The rain running off the frozen ground, combined with the thaw, overwhelmed multiple rivers in England and eastern Wales, which flooded. The pumping station at Chear Fen, near Stretham, ran only for a short time during the floods, when one of the boilers broke down completely and the other boiler could not raise pressure. In 1950, a new pumping station was opened.
The ward
of Stretham comprises three civil parishes, Stretham, Thetford
, and Wilburton
, each of which has an elected council. Parish council services include bus shelters
, cemeteries
, shared equity housing, local planning consultation, play areas, village halls, and war memorials. Parish council meetings are held in the village hall
situated in each civil parish.
The area formed part of Ely Rural District
from 1894 until 1974. East Cambridgeshire District Council
(ECDC) was formed in 1974 with administration buildings in Ely. The district council collects council tax
, provides services such as building regulations and local planning, leisure and tourism, handles issues strategic to the district, and many other services. Cambridgeshire County Council
, which has administration buildings in Cambridge, provides county-wide services such as major road infrastructure, fire and rescue, libraries and heritage, and strategic planning. A mobile library visits the village every fortnight.
The parish is represented in the House of Commons
of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
as part of South East Cambridgeshire. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It is also part of the East of England constituency
of the European Parliament
which elects seven MEPs using the d'Hondt method
of party-list proportional representation
.
(middle-Pleistocene
till
) ridge
sitting on a belt of mainly Jurassic
Kimmerigian
clay
s running south-west from The Wash
. To the east is a north-south running belt of geologically more recent Upper-Cretaceous
Lower Greensand capped by Lower-Cretaceous Gault Clay
; the whole area is surrounded by even more recent fen
deposits. A rich layer of phosphate
fossils, known locally as coprolite
and mined
for its fertiliser value, is to be found at the junction of Lower Greensand and Gault Clay. Further east is a north-east—south-west running belt of Cretaceous chalk
. To the west, again running north-east—south-west, is a scarp
belt of middle-Jurassic sedimentary rock
s including limestone
and sandstone
.
The flat fenland countryside around the village, typical for this part of the region, lies about 16 feet (5 m) above sea-level. The highest point in the village is 53 feet (16 m) above sea-level and the highest point in the area is 85 feet (26 m) at Ely, three-mile (4 miles (6 km)) north-north-east. In contrast, the highest point in Cambridgeshire, 479 feet (146 m) above sea-level, is at Great Chishill
, 23 miles (37 km) almost due south. Holme
at nine feet (9.02 ft (2.75 m)) below sea-level is East Cambridgeshire's (and the United Kingdom's) lowest point, and is 23 miles (37 km) north-west.
. Protected from the cool onshore coastal breezes east of the region, Cambridgeshire is warm in summer and cold and frosty in winter. Regional weather forecasting
and historical summaries are available from the UK Met Office
. The nearest Met Office weather station
is Cambridge.
stands an early 15th century cross "...the most perfect surviving example in the country."; it was restored in 1910. Parts of St James's Church are 14th century though it was heavily restored
in the 19th century. Monuments include a tomb lid with an inscription which refers to Nicholas de Kyngestone, rector late 13th century; a brass to Joan Swan, 1497; a black marble slab for Anne Brunsell, 1667, wife of a rector, and sister of Sir Christopher Wren
. The church is part of the Ely team ministry along with the nearby St George's Church, Little Thetford
.
Also a pub called the Red Lion and a village store with Post Office.
on the Ely and St Ives Railway
. The line between Ely station
and Sutton
was opened 16 April 1866 under Great Eastern Railway (GER)
operation. On 10 May 1878 the line was completed when the Needingworth
junction, on the St Ives
to March
line, was linked to the Ely–St Ives branch. Although passenger traffic was always poor; the line closed to passengers 22 February 1931, seasonal freight traffic of sugar-beet
and fruit kept the line going until it finally closed 5 October 1964. The new bridge for the A10 at Stretham Ferry was constructed in 1975 diverting the road over the River Great Ouse at Chear Lode.
Images of England
buildings not mentioned in the text
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
4 miles (6 km) south-south-west of 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...
in Cambridgeshire
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, about 74 miles (119.1 km) by road from London. Its main attraction is Stretham Old Engine
Stretham old engine
Stretham Old Engine is a steam-powered engine just south of Stretham in Cambridgeshire, England, that was used to pump water from flood-affected areas of The Fens back into the River Great Ouse. It is one of only three surviving drainage engines in East Anglia.During the seventeenth century, large...
, a steam-powered
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
pump used to drain the fens. The pump is still in use today although converted to electric power. It has open days throughout the year.
History
The skeletal remains of a 130 million year old Upper Jurassic PliosaurPliosaur
Pliosauroidea is an extinct clade of marine reptiles. Pliosauroids, also commonly known as pliosaurs, are known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. The pliosauroids were short-necked plesiosaurs with large heads and massive toothed jaws. These swimming reptiles were not dinosaurs but distant...
were discovered in a 5 feet (1.5 m) deep Kimmeridge Clay pit in the village in 1952 by workers of the Great Ouse River Board. These carnivore
Carnivore
A carnivore meaning 'meat eater' is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging...
s could reach up to 65 feet (19.8 m) in length and pliosaur teeth are a common fossil; full skeletons are however rare. This particular 23 feet (7 m) example was named Stretosaurus macromerus in honour of the village where it was found.
Ethelwold and Brithnoth left their Stretham estates to 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...
. Stretham means homestead or village on a Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
, old English strǣt plus hām; the Domesday book records the village as Stradham: Abbot of Ely. Fisheries.
Site of Royal Observer Corps
Royal Observer Corps
The Royal Observer Corps was a civil defence organisation operating in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December 1995, when the Corps' civilian volunteers were stood down....
(1936–1945) and Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
(1962–1968) observation post
Observation post
An observation post, temporary or fixed, is a position from which soldiers can watch enemy movements, to warn of approaching soldiers , or to direct artillery fire...
.
The Stretham steam pumping engine, built in 1831 by Butterley Company, was one of the largest beam engines in the Fens; at 15 rpm it generated 105 horsepower lifting 30 tons of water per revolution, or 450 tons per minute.
The river floods that began in mid-March 1947 affected over 1000 square miles (2,590 km²) of England. Thirty counties were underwater for nearly two weeks, during the worst flooding for over 200 years. The winter of 1946–1947 had been very severe, with mean average temperatures 4 °C (7 °F) below normal, for that time of year. Snow had been falling continuously since 23 January, with drifts up to 23 feet (7 m) deep in places. As the thaw began in mid-March, the warmer weather brought heavy rains. The rain running off the frozen ground, combined with the thaw, overwhelmed multiple rivers in England and eastern Wales, which flooded. The pumping station at Chear Fen, near Stretham, ran only for a short time during the floods, when one of the boilers broke down completely and the other boiler could not raise pressure. In 1950, a new pumping station was opened.
Governance
Wards of the United Kingdom
A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...
of Stretham comprises three civil parishes, Stretham, Thetford
Little Thetford
Little Thetford is a small village and civil parish south of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England, about by road from London. The village is built on a boulder clay island surrounded by flat fenland countryside, typical of settlements in this part of the East of England...
, and Wilburton
Wilburton
Wilburton is a small village of just over 1,000 inhabitants, situated in Cambridgeshire, England. It is 6 miles south west of Ely.While nominally an agricultural village, many of the inhabitants work in Cambridge, Ely or London.-History:...
, each of which has an elected council. Parish council services include bus shelters
Bus stop
A bus stop is a designated place where buses stop for passengers to board or leave a bus. These are normally positioned on the highway and are distinct from off-highway facilities such as bus stations. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage...
, cemeteries
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
, shared equity housing, local planning consultation, play areas, village halls, and war memorials. Parish council meetings are held in the village hall
Village hall
In the United States, a village hall is the seat of government for villages. It functions much as a city hall does within cities.In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building within a village which contains at least one large room, usually owned by and run for the benefit of the local...
situated in each civil parish.
The area formed part of Ely Rural District
Ely Rural District
Ely was a rural district in England from 1894 to 1974. It was named after Ely, and surrounded it to the west and north. The district was created in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894 from the Ely rural sanitary district...
from 1894 until 1974. East Cambridgeshire District Council
East Cambridgeshire
East Cambridgeshire is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England. Its council is based in Ely....
(ECDC) was formed in 1974 with administration buildings in Ely. The district council collects council tax
Council tax
Council Tax is the system of local taxation used in England, Scotland and Wales to part fund the services provided by local government in each country. It was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as a successor to the unpopular Community Charge...
, provides services such as building regulations and local planning, leisure and tourism, handles issues strategic to the district, and many other services. Cambridgeshire County Council
Cambridgeshire local elections
Cambridgeshire County Council is elected every four years by the first past the post system of election. The council currently consists of 69 councillors, representing 60 electoral divisions. The Conservative Party has a majority on the council, having gained control in the 1997 local elections...
, which has administration buildings in Cambridge, provides county-wide services such as major road infrastructure, fire and rescue, libraries and heritage, and strategic planning. A mobile library visits the village every fortnight.
The parish is represented in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
as part of South East Cambridgeshire. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It is also part of the East of England constituency
East of England (European Parliament constituency)
East of England is a constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 7 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.- Boundaries :...
of the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
which elects seven MEPs using the d'Hondt method
D'Hondt method
The d'Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method described is named after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt who described it in 1878...
of party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections in which multiple candidates are elected...
.
Geography
Geology
The village is on an east-west running boulder clayBoulder clay
Boulder clay, in geology, is a deposit of clay, often full of boulders, which is formed in and beneath glaciers and ice-sheets wherever they are found, but is in a special sense the typical deposit of the Glacial Period in northern Europe and North America...
(middle-Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
till
Till
thumb|right|Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material , and this characteristic, known as matrix support, is diagnostic of till....
) ridge
Ridge
A ridge is a geological feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. Ridges are usually termed hills or mountains as well, depending on size. There are several main types of ridges:...
sitting on a belt of mainly Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...
Kimmerigian
Kimmeridge Clay
The Kimmeridge Clay Formation is a sedimentary deposit of fossiliferous marine clay which is of Jurassic age. It occurs in Europe.Kimmeridge Clay is arguably the most economically important unit of rocks in the whole of Europe, being the major source rock for oil fields in the North Sea hydrocarbon...
clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
s running south-west from The Wash
The Wash
The Wash is the square-mouthed bay and estuary on the northwest margin of East Anglia on the east coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire. It is among the largest estuaries in the United Kingdom...
. To the east is a north-south running belt of geologically more recent Upper-Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
Lower Greensand capped by Lower-Cretaceous Gault Clay
Gault Clay
Gault is a clay formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period...
; the whole area is surrounded by even more recent fen
Fen
A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...
deposits. A rich layer of phosphate
Phosphate
A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in...
fossils, known locally as coprolite
Coprolite
A coprolite is fossilized animal dung. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour rather than morphology. The name is derived from the Greek words κοπρος / kopros meaning 'dung' and λιθος / lithos meaning 'stone'. They...
and mined
Open-pit mining
Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....
for its fertiliser value, is to be found at the junction of Lower Greensand and Gault Clay. Further east is a north-east—south-west running belt of Cretaceous chalk
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
. To the west, again running north-east—south-west, is a scarp
Fault scarp
A fault scarp is the topographic expression of faulting attributed to the displacement of the land surface by movement along faults. They are exhibited either by differential movement and subsequent erosion along an old inactive geologic fault , or by a movement on a recent active fault...
belt of middle-Jurassic sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....
s including limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
and sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
.
The flat fenland countryside around the village, typical for this part of the region, lies about 16 feet (5 m) above sea-level. The highest point in the village is 53 feet (16 m) above sea-level and the highest point in the area is 85 feet (26 m) at Ely, three-mile (4 miles (6 km)) north-north-east. In contrast, the highest point in Cambridgeshire, 479 feet (146 m) above sea-level, is at Great Chishill
Great Chishill
Great Chishill is a village forming part of the civil parish of Great and Little Chishill in the south of the county of Cambridgeshire. The church is in the Perpendicular style and is dedicated to Swithun....
, 23 miles (37 km) almost due south. Holme
Holme, Cambridgeshire
Holme is a village in Huntingdonshire , England, near Conington and Yaxley, and south of Peterborough.- The village :...
at nine feet (9.02 ft (2.75 m)) below sea-level is East Cambridgeshire's (and the United Kingdom's) lowest point, and is 23 miles (37 km) north-west.
Boundaries
The eastern border is formed by the River Cam. The River Great Ouse forms the south-west border then, at the Stretham Ferry Bridge, cuts through the south-eastern corner joining the River Cam at the north-east corner of the village. The A10 road crosses the River Great Ouse at close to the Stretham Ferry Bridge at the southern border of the village then, running firstly due north, cuts the village in half running north-east on towards Little Thetford then Ely. Newmarket road, in this area the west-east running A1123 from Huntingdon, joins the village coming from the west out of Wilburton through the village crossing the River Great Ouse at Gravel Farm then on towards Wicken.Climate
The average annual rainfall of 24 inches (609.6 mm) makes Cambridgeshire one of the driest counties in the British IslesBritish Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
. Protected from the cool onshore coastal breezes east of the region, Cambridgeshire is warm in summer and cold and frosty in winter. Regional weather forecasting
Weather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century...
and historical summaries are available from the UK Met Office
Met Office
The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
. The nearest Met Office weather station
Weather station
A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for observing atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind...
is Cambridge.
Demography
Stretham is in output area classification zones (CGM) one through five; mainly classified as type three-C, accessible countryside, though about one third of the area is classed as three-A, village life. In both these classifications, most residents work from home employed in agriculture of fishing. The areas in this classification are less densely populated than other areas of the country. The usually detached households generally have two or more cars. Varied ethnic backgrounds are less likely in such areas.Notable buildings
To the east of the 12th century site of St James' ChurchSt James' Church, Stretham
St James' Church, Stretham, is an active Anglican church in the village of Stretham, Cambridgeshire, England. Founded in the 12th century, it was heavily restored by the architect J. P. St Aubyn in 1876. English Heritage, a body responsible for preserving historical sites in the...
stands an early 15th century cross "...the most perfect surviving example in the country."; it was restored in 1910. Parts of St James's Church are 14th century though it was heavily restored
Victorian restoration
Victorian restoration is the term commonly used to refer to the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria...
in the 19th century. Monuments include a tomb lid with an inscription which refers to Nicholas de Kyngestone, rector late 13th century; a brass to Joan Swan, 1497; a black marble slab for Anne Brunsell, 1667, wife of a rector, and sister of Sir Christopher Wren
Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren FRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.He used to be accorded responsibility for rebuilding 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710...
. The church is part of the Ely team ministry along with the nearby St George's Church, Little Thetford
St George's Church, Little Thetford
St George's Church, Little Thetford, is an Anglican church in the village of Little Thetford, Cambridgeshire, England.- History :St. George's Church is a 14th-century stone building with slate roof. In 1751 it was recorded as a chapel of ease attached to Stretham served by the rector there. The...
.
Also a pub called the Red Lion and a village store with Post Office.
Transport
The village was once served by a railway stationStretham railway station
Stretham railway station was a station in Stretham, Cambridgeshire on the Ely and St Ives Railway.-History:The railway line between and Sutton was built by the Ely, Haddenham and Sutton Railway . It opened on 16 April 1866, and one of the original stations was that at Stretham...
on the Ely and St Ives Railway
Ely and St Ives Railway
The Ely and St Ives Railway is a closed railway that ran between Ely, Cambridgeshire and St Ives. The route was long single track, built to standard gauge and was completely closed on 5 October 1964...
. The line between Ely station
Ely railway station
Ely railway station serves the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. The station lies on the Fen Line from Cambridge to King's Lynn, which is electrified at 25 kV AC overhead...
and Sutton
Sutton railway station (Cambridgeshire)
Sutton railway station was a station in Sutton, Cambridgeshire on the Ely and St Ives Railway.Sutton was one of the main goods yards on the line. The original station on the Ely to Sutton line became the goods station with several sidings. There was a signal box at the station.-External links:* *...
was opened 16 April 1866 under Great Eastern Railway (GER)
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia...
operation. On 10 May 1878 the line was completed when the Needingworth
Needingworth
Needingworth – in Huntingdonshire , England – is a village east of St Ives and just west of the Prime Meridian.The village is attached to Holywell by a single road, connecting the two villages....
junction, on the St Ives
St Ives railway station (Great Eastern)
St Ives railway station is a former railway station in St Ives, Cambridgeshire. It formed a junction, with lines to the east heading towards Cambridge, Ely and March. It closed in 1970.-External links:* *...
to March
March railway station
March railway station serves the town of March in Cambridgeshire, England. The station is east of Peterborough on the Ely to Peterborough Line....
line, was linked to the Ely–St Ives branch. Although passenger traffic was always poor; the line closed to passengers 22 February 1931, seasonal freight traffic of sugar-beet
Sugar beet
Sugar beet, a cultivated plant of Beta vulgaris, is a plant whose tuber contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production. Sugar beets and other B...
and fruit kept the line going until it finally closed 5 October 1964. The new bridge for the A10 at Stretham Ferry was constructed in 1975 diverting the road over the River Great Ouse at Chear Lode.
Notable people
- Hervey le BretonHervey le BretonHervey le Breton was a Breton cleric who became Bishop of Bangor in Wales and later Bishop of Ely in England. Appointed to Bangor by King William II of England, when Normans were advancing into Wales, Hervey was unable to remain in his diocese when the Welsh began to drive the Normans back from...
(d. 1131) Bishop of ElyBishop of ElyThe Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire , together with a section of north-west Norfolk and has its see in the City of Ely, Cambridgeshire, where the seat is located at the...
. - John Parker (1532/3–1592), Church of England clergyman.
- Lancelot RidleyLancelot RidleyLancelot Ridley , was an English clergyman, known as a theological writer, and rector of St James' Church, Stretham, Cambridgeshire.- Life :...
(d. 1576), appointed one of the first Six PreachersSix PreachersThe college of Six Preachers of Canterbury Cathedral was created by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer as part of the reorganisation of the monastic Christ Church Priory into the new secular Cathedral....
of Canterbury CathedralCanterbury CathedralCanterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....
in 1541 and a rectorRectorThe word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of Stretham from 1560, was buried in the parish. One of his sons, the English physician, Mark RidleyMark Ridley (physician)Dr. Mark Ridley was an English physician, born in Stretham, Cambridgeshire, to Lancelot Ridley. He became physician to the English merchant in Russia, and then personal physician to the Tsar of Russia. While there, ca. 1594-1599, he compiled a Russian-English, English-Russian dictionary, which is...
(1560–1624), who became the personal physician to the Tsar of RussiaFeodor I of RussiaFyodor I Ivanovich 1598) was the last Rurikid Tsar of Russia , son of Ivan IV and Anastasia Romanovna. In English he is sometimes called Feodor the Bellringer in consequence of his strong faith and inclination to travel the land and ring the bells at churches. However, in Russian the name...
, was born in Stretham. A 7,203 entry Russian–English dictionary was published by Ridley, and also books on magnetismMagnetismMagnetism is a property of materials that respond at an atomic or subatomic level to an applied magnetic field. Ferromagnetism is the strongest and most familiar type of magnetism. It is responsible for the behavior of permanent magnets, which produce their own persistent magnetic fields, as well...
; he was a friend of William Gilbert. - Ralph Brownrigg (1592–1659)
- Henry Hervey BaberHenry Hervey BaberHenry Hervey Baber was an English philologist.He was born in Slingsby, Yorkshire the second son of Thomas, a London Attorney of the Inner Temple, and Elizabeth Baber and was educated at St Paul's School, London. He entered All Souls College, Oxford and graduated MA in 1805...
(bap. 1775, d. 1869) - Joseph Glynn (1799–1863)
- Philip Freeman (1818–1875)
- Sir George Harry Smith Willis (1823–1900)
- Jean Adamson (1928— ) writer of Topsy and TimTopsy and TimTopsy and Tim is a series of children's books written by Jean Adamson and Gareth Adamson about twins and their adventures. Topsy and Tim's parents later adopted a sister and brother for the twins...
lives in the village
External links
External links
Images of England
Images of England
rightImages of England is an online photographic record of all the listed buildings in England at the date of February 2001. The archive gives access to over 323,000 colour images, each of which is matched with the item’s listed designation architectural description.This ‘snapshot’ is not an...
buildings not mentioned in the text