CAMBRIDGESHIRE |
| Anglesey Abbey |
On B1102, 6 miles north-east of Cambridge |
It has nothing to do with the Isle of Anglesey, nor was
it ever an abbey. About the middle of the 12th century, the Augustinians founded a small
priory on the spot, then in the middle of wild fen country, and named it after the nearby
hamlet of Angerhale, long vanished from the map; 'abbey' was a later and unjustified
promotion. The cannons were expelled during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the
1530s, after which the building passed to a succession of owners. In 1926 Anglesey was
purchased by Huttleston Broughton, later Lord Fairhaven, as a showcase for his paintings,
porcelain, statuary, furniture, tapestries, snuffboxes and much else besides. |
| Burghley House |
Off B1443, 11 miles north-west of Peterborough |
The most grandiose of all Elizabethan houses, the
building was constructed in the form of an enormous E, no doubt a tribute to Elizabeth I
from its builder, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, adviser to the queen for most of her life.
He began building the house in the 1570s, and his descendants have lived there ever since.
There are 18 State Rooms on view, crammed with rare furniture, tapestries, ceramics, and
some 400 old master paintings. |
| Corpus Christi |
In centre of Cambridge |
A statue of Matthew Parker, Master of Corpus Christi in
1544-53 and later Archbishop of Canterbury, looks down on the college's New Court. The
nearby Old Court, completed in 1377, has been little altered since. |
| Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon |
In centre of Huntingdon |
The future Lord Protector was born in Huntingdon High
Street, in a house whose site is now occupied by a private clinic. He attended the Grammar
School a few yards up the road. The school-house, a fragment of the 12th century Hospital
of St John, is now the Cromwell Museum. Considering his unpopularity with the succeeding
Stuart regime, it is remarkable that any relics of Oliver Cromwell survived at all, and
this museum houses many of those that have. On view is Cromwell's dispatch box, a cabinet,
his hat and other personal belongings. There are also numerous portraits of himself and of
his family and friends. |
| Ely Cathedral |
In centre of Ely |
A monastery was founded in Ely in AD 673 by St
Etheldreda. In the centuries that followed, it blazed to the sky in a Danish raid and was
later besieged by the Normans; Hereward the Wake put up a heroic defence there, but was
betrayed and disappeared from history. It was in about 1080 that the present building
began to rise. It was completed by 1200, but in 1322 the tower fell down. Rather than
replace it, the sacristan, Alan of Walsingham, built in its stead the Octagon, an enormous
lantern that is acknowledged as one of the wonders of medieval engineering. The cathedral
has its own museum, devoted to the history of stained glass from medieval to modern times. |
| Fitzwilliam Museum |
In centre of Cambridge |
Today one of the chief treasure houses of the nation,
the university's own museum was founded in 1816, and acquisitions over the years have
built up fine collections of Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities, arms and armour,
ceramics, coins, manuscripts, paintings and textiles. |
| Houghton Mill |
Off A1123, 2 miles east of Huntingdon |
In AD 974 Houghton Mill provided a good income for the
Benedictine monks of Ramsey Abbey, since the locals were forbidden to get their corn
ground anywhere else, and it may have been working long before that. The original building
has long vanished, but the present five-storey, brick and tarboarded structure that dates
from the 17th to the 19th centuries still stands on the same backwater of the spreading
Great Ouse; and until about 1930, it performed much the same task as its predecessors. |
| Imperial War Museum, Duxford |
On A505, 9 miles south of Cambridge |
RAF Duxford began as a bomber base in 1918, spent the
inter-war years as a fighter station and launched its Spitfires, commanded by Douglas
Bader, against the German Luftwaffe in 1940. Later, USAAF Mustangs and Thunderbolts flew
from the field, escorting Flying Fortresses on their daylight raids deep into Germany. Now
part of the Imperial War Museum, Duxford reflects not only its own colourful history but
also that of aviation in general in a superlative collection of classic aircraft. |
| King's Parade |
In centre of Cambridge |
This short street is part of one of the world's most
pleasing thoroughfares. Among its fine buildings are St Catherine's, King's and Corpus
Christi colleges. The University Church, Great St Mary's, dates mostly from the 15th
century. Behind it is Market Hill. The Senate House, completed in 1730, is the
University's 'parliament'. |
| Ouse Washes |
Off B1093 at Manea, 5 miles south-east of March |
'Wash' is the old East Anglian term for a meadow that
floods in the winter and dries out sufficiently in summer to provide grazing for sheep and
cattle. The Ouse Washes form one of the few such areas left. They were created in the 17th
century when the Earl of Bedford and his Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden reclaimed
20,000 acres of perpetually soggy fen north-west of Ely by driving two great drains -
called the Old and New Bedford Rivers - some 25 miles long and a few hundred yards apart,
to bypass the slow meanders of the Great Ouse. |
| Peckover House |
In centre of Wisbech |
Peckover House, which from about 50 years after its
construction in 1722 until 1943 was the home of the Peckovers, a family of Quaker bankers.
The furniture and paintings in the house have been gathered from elsewhere by the National
Trust, its new owners, but the carved mantelpieces, the panelling, and the plasterwork are
all original. The garden has a Victorian air, with a fine collection of plants and tees. |
| Pepys Library |
In centre of Cambridge |
A portrait of the diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703)
looks down on the treasures of his library in his old college, Magdalene. The 3000 volumes
include 70 medieval manuscripts, early printed books, seven of them by Caxton, and Pepys'
diaries for the years 1660 to 1669. These are written in shorthand, which it took experts
some 10,000 hours to decipher. |
| Peterborough Cathedral |
In centre of Peterborough |
The present building was begun in 1118, but the
foundation goes back to AD 654 and to Peada, the first Christian king of Mercia, who
established a monastery on the site. It was consecrated in 1238. The abbey was dissolved
in 1539, and re-founded as a cathedral in 1541. The cathedral is perpetually filled with
light due to the plain glass in most of its windows; the original stained glass was
smashed by Parliamentarian troopers during the Civil War. |
| Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery |
In centre of Peterborough |
The Museum and Art Gallery are located in an
impressive Georgian building. There are over 220,000 objects, which have
been collected over 130 years. The collections cover a great many subjects
and some are of national and international importance, such as the Norman
Cross Prisoner-of-War Craft work, the Jurassic marine reptile fossils,
finds from Roman Peterborough and the original manuscripts of the famous
poet John Clare. |
| The Round Church |
In centre of Cambridge |
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre dates from the 12th
century. It was founded by one of the Crusading military monastic orders pledged to
protect the Holy Land and the Holy Sepulchre itself - supposedly a circular structure. |
| Sacrewell Water Mill |
Off A47, 7 miles west of Peterborough |
Like most of the water mills in this part of the
country, Sacrewell has a long history. There was a mill on this site when Domesday Book
was compiled, and possibly even earlier, in Romano-British times. Sacrewell is still a
working water mill and is the central feature of a Farming and Country Life Centre. In the
mill and 18th century farm buildings there are displays of farming, domestic and rural
bygones, of country crafts and skills, of farming tools and transport during the last
century or so, and of archaeological discoveries made while ploughing the nearby fields.
There are tours of the farm and a nature trail. |
| The Backs |
In centre of Cambridge |
The college is one of several whose back lawns roll
down to the river and are known simply as 'The Backs' - one of the delights of Cambridge,
affording magnificent views of the colleges. Clare Bridge, built in the 17th century, is
approached by beautiful wrought-iron gates. Queens' Mathematical Bridge was built in 1749
on mathematical principles, and needed no nails. |
| Wandlebury Ring |
Off A1307, 4 miles south -east of Cambridge |
This Iron Age hill-fort on the crest of the Gog Magog
Hills lies near the ford over the Cam. The hills are named after the mythical giants Gog
and Magog, who were the last survivors of Albion (ancient Britain), and ancient legends
also tell of a ghostly knight who dwelt in the ring. None of this deterred the Earl of
Godolphin, who in the early 18th century built a house within the half-mile circumference
of the defences. The site of the house is marked now by a raised lawn with a sundial, but
a stable block with a clock in a cupola still stands. It has been converted into private
houses, and a small shop and exhibition centre. |
| Wimpole Hall and Home Farm |
Off A14, 8 miles south-west of Cambridge |
The original central block was built for Sir Thomas
Chicheley in the 1640s, and later owners have rebuilt or added to the house and its
out-buildings. The last private owner was Mrs Elsie Bambridge, Rudyard Kipling's daughter,
who spent almost 40 years restoring the house to its proper splendour; when she died in
1976 she left it, and its 3000 acre estate, to the National Trust. Particularly charming
are Mrs Bambridge's own apartments, left with magazines and books laid aside as though she
had just gone out for a moment, and with collections of costume and coaching paintings and
prints. |
|
