Here you will find the complete contents of Cherry Hinton Memories Book Two - if you haven't done so already, I would encourage you to take a brief look at the introduction page about these books first - which you can do by clicking the link here: Cherry Hinton Memory Books - Introduction
There are three books altogether and one separately written story - you can find the links to the other books and story by visiting the Cherry Hinton Memory Books Introduction page, mentioned above, or by searching the index (Categories) on the righthand side of this page or by using the search box on the right.
BOOK TWO
Book Two “The Cherry Hinton Gang” Those Golden Years
Contains memories from: Bryan Stevens June Stevens Pat Clarke Julie Smith
Below you will find the full transcription of book two, copied as it is, with pictures of the handwritten stories to compare (and send me any corrections!). You can choose to read through it here or, for more detail, you can click on one of the names above to see their story individually and any extra pictures that I have added to illustrate their story.
Book 2 “The Cherry Hinton Gangs” Those Golden Years.
Memories of Cherry Hinton by Bryan Stevens
Vic Phillips often mentions me by my nickname “Ziggy”. Ziggy was the owner of the clothes shop in Newmarket Road before he moved into Regent Street “Stylebest”. This shop sold the most modern clothing during the fifties and sixties and it was where I bought most of my clothing, hence the name “Ziggy”. Ziggy gave me a gold tie pin for my wedding in 1959 which I still have. I am now happily married for the second time. Bonfire nights in the High Street were something special. There was an air raid shelter opposite 197 High Street, where I used to live, and we would fill it up with logs collected from the Spinney. One Bonfire night the fire was so large that it nearly burnt down the telephone wires. There was a rubbish dump down Fulbourn Old Drift over the railway line and we would go up there with our air rifles to shoot the rats. One day we were up there shooting the rats when the siren sounded from Fulbourn Hospital and thinking someone had escaped we all ran home as fast as we could. We all talk about the Spinney with fond memories. During the school summer holidays we more or less lived up there, making dens, laying turf for the floor of the den, and cooking on open fires. One day when we were there my dog Gyp caught two rabbits from out of the chalk pits which I took home. Opposite the Robin Hood pub are the springs where the water for the brook starts. There used to be railings round the springs to try and keep us out but we would get in and try to catch the pike which would be by the island. We would stand on the now stepping stones and try to catch them before they went back to the lake in Cherry Hinton Hall. In the brook round by the Black Land allotments we would block up the tunnel underneath the bridge with a sheet of corrugated iron so that the water could not escape and we could get it deep enough to swim. Grandma Coe who used to live at the then 203 High Street was still riding her “sit up and beg” bike when she was 90 years old. I still remember when a horse and cart passed by her house and left “deposits”, she would rush out with a bucket and collect them. She always had the best roses in the High Street. As you old Hintonians know, my grandfather started the Stevens Brothers Building Company. He built some of the first houses for the Housing Association in Cambridge. One of the last houses they built was the bungalow in the High Street for the Bartram family (the level crossing keepers). They also built the shoe repairers bungalow next to the recreation ground. The Cherry Hinton History Society have no record of the building company. My only record is a photograph of a cast iron sewage drain cover in the front garden of the house in the High Street which used to be 201 High Street. It reads “Stevens Bros, Builders, Cherry Hinton”. If anyone could help me find out any other information I would be grateful. For the version of this story with pictures and added notes, please click HERE
June Kathleen Stevens (nee Buffett) Cherry Hinton Memories
I was born on Friday 13th June 1930 at 39, High Street, Cherry Hinton in my grandmothers little thatched cottage which sadly no longer exists as all three were demolished to make way for shops. We were fortunate to have a general store and post office next door – Mansfield’s. Mr Mansfield was also our landlord. We had no gas, electricity or water in the cottage; cooking was done in the oven heated by the fire (which was never allowed to go out) or on a small paraffin stove. Water was collected in pails from the pump in the road outside Mansfield’s, in later days a tap was installed in the next door cottage garden. I don’t remember the name of the lady who lived there but the Fuller family lived in the one adjacent to grans. Fred Fuller spent many years driving what was called ‘the clunch waggon’ from the chalk pits up to the cement works, back and forth many times a day. The water carrying was a chore mostly carried out by the man of the house – in later years my boyfriend came in handy for the job! Grandad (Albert Buffett) was a road worker in his prime but after retirement I can remember him smoking his pipe, leaning on the gate at the top of the path and watching the world go by. The gate and railings were taken for the war effort but Grandad died in 1938 so didn’t miss them. At one time, he had an allotment round on ‘the black land’ and very productive it was. As a special treat, I was ferried there on the crossbar of his bike. Gran (Elizabeth Buffett, nee Clarke, whose father owned the bakery and store in Weston Colville) remained in the cottage for many years and I lived with her after we had relocated back to Cambridge from Norwich in 1946. My dad, Noel Eric Buffett, moved back to take over running the Self Motoring Garage on Hills Road. In his youth he was a milkman delivering by horse and dairy float in the village. This mode of transport soon became too slow, so he decided to be adventurous and started up a taxi service. I still have his first driving licence dated August 1922, he was 19! The service became quite popular, the local builders, Stevens Bros hired him every year to take them to Yarmouth for their day out at the races, I particularly know of this event as I am married to Bert Stevens’ second son Roger and the tales were told many times by Roger’s grandad. As teenagers we had a great time in dear old Cherry Hinton, the Rec being a favourite meeting place. The village had the usual celebrations at the Queen’s coronation, I Particularly remember the football match on the Rec – girls versus boys. I believe the girls won although we had a distinct advantage – the boys had their hands tied behind their backs! My good friend Joyce Elliot was a major player in our team and gave no quarter!! We also had the run of the Spinney, fishing for tiddlers down the ‘island’ opposite the Robin Hood and bike races down Lime Kiln Hill which would be very much frowned on by health and safety these days. How surprising that we al survived (Joey Ling did break his arm once!) Roger has just reminded me of when he played football in the field at the top of Fishers Lane – before the game, everyone was required to remove the cow pats! A wonderful ‘growing up’ time in Cherry Hinton, writing this has made me recall so many things, the book is a great idea, long may it continue. Regards to all who may remember me – June Kathleen Stevens (nee Buffett).
Pat Clarke Cherry Hinton Memories 3-9-12
My memories as a kid in the 50’s & 60’s in Cherry Hinton, from Pat Clarke, nicknamed ‘Pixie’, from birth by: Ted Chapman, Dick Tabor & Bunny, when they first looked in my pram and saw my ears. I remember looking from my bedroom window, out over the hill at the fields to the Beech Woods from 62, Fulbourn Road which is not there now because they pulled it down to make way for the new houses, most families used to go to the Beech Woods in the summer for picnics and spend all day there. I also remember at Fulbourn Road, families having chickens and hens in their back gardens, also homing pigeons which Bill Chapman from 56 and my brother Ron had who was born at my nana’s house, 34 Fulbourn Road, my nan also took in Doug Kitson from a baby such a good women. Ron used to bring pigeons home on the 131 bus down his shirt from the Catholic Church when he got home he used to be covered in pigeon shit!! I remember playing in the Spinney and chalk pits in the summer holidays all day long, helping with the harvest in the summer, going down the High Street on the tractor to Chalk’s Farm, also cutting down branches in the spring for Bonfire Night. Everybody from Fulbourn Road was there, such fun and such good memories. I remember going down the High Street nicking the empty beer bottles from the crates at the back of the Unicorn then going into the Off Licence and getting the money back on them from Reg & Daisy for a pence for sweets or crisps. I also remember going on the coach on a Saturday to see the best village football team at that time. The coach used to take us to the away game. In the 50’s, they had the best team in the Cambs league at that time, with such good players like Big Stevo “Ziggy”, Bill Chapman, Peter Dean and don’t forget Ollie Chapman who helped with Cherry Hinton football club for many a year. What a great man he was. On a Sunday you would see on the washing line all the football shirts hanging out to dry at 56 Fulbourn Road which Queenie, Bill’s mum, had washed, where on a Saturday night, Ron my brother & myself would go and watch TV, there would be Well Fargo, Dixon of Dock Green and not to forget the 65 Special etc! You would see Peter Dean who was dating Bill’s sister Shirley at the time who later married. Christmas time at the Robin Hood Bill’s dad, Ollie my own father, “Nobby” Phil Clarke, Luffy, Rocky Root & Tubby Tabor all singing their heads off, also most Saturday nights, in the High Street, there was Smith’s where we used to get sweets. Next door was Parish Butchers on the corner of Mill End was Co-op where my mum used to send me for some groceries. Sometimes the ladies who worked there would get me to sing Elvis? With a broom as a guitar then give me some sweets. I also remember my mum going to the butchers which is now the Building Society and our dog followed her in and pinched a lump of meat and over to the Rec to eat the lot. We had to have him put down as the butcher wouldn’t accept payment for the meat and reported it. I remember coming home from school straight round my nan, where she would have the tea-pot out or on the table and loads of home-made goodies ready, like Jam Roly Poly and Spotted Dick and also Suet Pudding. 9 times out of 10, Eddie Long would be sitting at the table with my nan, they were great friends at the time. I played football from the age of 14 for the village football team (The Cherries) from the 60’s right through to the late 70’s till I was in my 30’s. We had 4 teams at the time I started in the youth team. I remember playing Cambridge City Youth in the Cup on the Rec on the first pitch they roped it off, there was about 600 there and we won 3. 0. I did finished in the First Team, when I first started playing we got changed in the Unicorn. What days there were, I loved it and would do it all over again if I could. I could go on and on. Anyway I will never forget great peachy life. Bunny Tabor, Bill Chapman, Trev Clapman, Dick Tabor, The Roots, Gentles, Pearsons, Bakers, Vic Phillips and one old mate, Barry Hawtins, Such good times, NEVER FORGET “Pixie” – Pat Clarke Sorry Pixie again, I forgot Meadly Gray and his sister Evelyn & Grayson Tabor and his blind brother Russ playing football in the road and laughing his head off, all good fun as kids. Thanks for all your memories, “Pixie”
Julie L Smith (nee Plumb) Cherry Hinton Memories
Formally Fulbourn Road (4 doors up from the Robin Hood and Little John) The stories so far have triggered a lot of my memories and stories from my dad about Cherry Hinton who all of his family were CH people. Dad, Len Plumb or as everyone knew him ‘Doggy’, as he always had a dog, somebody in one of the previous stories mentioned horses in the High Street, well dad used to bring the working horses down to wash them down in the spring near the Robin Hood and Little John the would mount one and gallop at speed with 6 more tied up behind the High Street, he often got told off for this, he then lived in one of the houses next to the level crossing with 2 brothers and 4 sisters, so there will be a lot of stories lost. Dads regiment was billeted back to Scotland were I was born and then we moved back to CH just after the war at the end of 1945, so my own memories start from here, my thoughts are triggered by many of the names of previous writers. We lived in Fulbourn Road before it was straightened, our front garden went up to where the car park on the other side of the road is now, and before traffic lights were positioned. I with Richard Tabor and Trevor Chapman and others “whose names are often mentioned in previous notes” would be always in the Spinney and chalk pits looking for meteorites, then we’d speed down the road on carts made up from old prams and end up in the Robin Hood next to the big stone that according to us had Little Johns footprint on it “traffic what traffic”. School like many others was in the Green Hut with teacher Miss Rush and Mr Reed who gave me the slipper, many years later he came into the hairdressers that I had just started work and said to everybody “I gave Julie here the slipper”. I digress. Back to better memories, can anybody else remember the day cattle got out of the train that had stopped at the crossing, they came charging down the road, can’t remember the date but we were in school. My family now cannot understand how we would sit on the church wall collecting car numbers and collecting the confetti. One of my walks from home in Fulbourn Road, to my aunts (married Gordon Plumb) in March Lane, was as you walked up the High Street you had to pass field with bull’s in, I used to bribe a school friend who used to live near the scrap yard (Richies) in Coldhams Lane, to come with me pass the field near where the bookie’s shop is now, to see my aunt who had been evacuated here in 1940 from London. She lived next to Mrs Daniels who kept pigs. One of the places where they did washing and ironing for the University is a shed opposite the Unicorn pub, dad’s step mother was one of them, and aunt Eileen did the ironing, later married Noel Buffett. Also, opposite the Unicorn was our and Mr Birds back drive to the Gardens, as many people will remember collecting flowers and vegetables from Birdies garden next to dads, you would have to go past Don Smith’s bakery ovens. Up to and possibly the early 70’s the patients from Fulbourn Hospital used to come down the High Street, accompanied by nurses to spend their pocket money. Fulbourn Hospital and Colville School used to run the local St John’s Ambulance Brigade where I attended, I only joined for the uniform. In Fulbourn Old Drift was the coal merchant, Mrs Potter, I had to stand and count the sacks that we had delivered. Another memory is of all the turkeys near the brook by the bridge, they disappeared to be replaced with static caravans for a time, now all houses. Cherry Hinton Hall was the nursery school and baby clinic. My aunt told me the extra land in the Recreation Ground was part paid for by the village people! Is this right? I didn’t realise how much freedom we had until you look back on it. Cherry Hinton was a village, even the local policemen knew everybody. Dated: 27-12-13
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The Tutton (or Tottenhoe) Way is an ancient route-way that skirts the eastern edge of Cherry Hinton old parish, now Ward, and now also forms the eastern Cambridge City Boundary.
VIDEO 1 of 3 - Tutton Way
I can, so far, trace this boundary from the northern end of Bridewell Road in Cherry Hinton where it joins Fishers Lane, following through the back gardens and the line of this routeway south, to meet up with the small passage way at the other end of Bridewell Road, that leads through on to the Back Field, where it continues on in the form of a paved footway to join Fulbourn Road. It then crosses straight over Fulbourn Road and enters the northern boundary of the Gog Magog Hills, where it travels up through a field edge as a trackway, going first alongside the eastern edge of the Peterhouse Technology Park and then continues up over the hill, in a straight line, through the fields as a wide trackway (currently closed to the public). The Tottenhow Way then meets the Worts' Causeway Road at one of the highest points on the Gog Magog Hills, where, straight across the road, it continues, for a short way, as a wide trackway named the Shelford Gap before apparently ending at the thick hedge line beyond which the Gog Magog Golf Course lays. It also meets the apparent end of the Roman Road, collectively known as Worstead Street or Wool Street. The Roman Road leads off of the end of the Shelford Gap (Tutton Way) in a south easterly direction, in a long straight line for many miles.
VIDEO 2 of 3 - Tutton Way
There is a little bit of a dirt track entrance/parking on the roadside by the start of the Shelford Gap on Worts' Causeway and barriers to prevent vehicles driving down the track but it is a popular place to start the walk down the Roman Road. However, it’s not very advisable to go there alone and there are, shall we say, interesting individual and collective, unusual activities that go on at that spot, particularly as there is a small wooded area alongside the trackway. It is not really very safe to walk up to this point as there is no real safe footpath from Cherry Hinton, so going by bike or car is currently the safest way.
From Cherry Hinton the route is taken, starting from the Robinhood at the junction of Cherry Hinton High Street and Cherry Hinton Road. Go straight over onto Queen Edith’s Way. Take the first turn on the left to drive over Lime Kiln Hill, at the immediate base of Lime Kiln Hill, where there is a crossroads. Take the next left to drive up Worts' Causeway, passing the Beech Woods on your right, continue up the hill until you reach the crest, where you will see the parking area for the Shelford Gap on your right hand side. You will be able to cross the road on foot to look north over the Tutton Way and see the spectacular views across Cambridge, Cherry Hinton and beyond. If it is a very clear day you will also be able to spot Ely Cathedral in the distance (about 20 odd miles away.)
Once you’ve finished your visit you can either go back the way you came or you can continue along the road eastwards, turning right, as you come out of the Shelford Gap on to Worts' Causway, where it then becomes Shelford Road. It will lead you over the hills, with lovely views, where you’ll also be able to see the sails of the Fulbourn windmill on your left as you make the descent down towards the village of Fulbourn. At the bottom of the road you’ll meet with Cambridge Road and mini roundabout, where you can turn left and follow the road straight back to the Robin Hood pub in Cherry Hinton.
I think, on the whole, hardly anyone today knows about the existence of the Tutton Way, other than the people who remember me talking about it when giving local history talks to groups, where I would mention it now and then. I had found out about it from reading old documents, maps and surveys from Cherry Hinton when doing my research on the village over the years. Being stuck in isolation during the lockdown is giving me chance to write up a few things that I’ve been meaning to write about for some time, including the ever-allusive Cherry Hinton Local History book that I’ve been promising to write for years. So, I thought I’d start with writing about a few of the places you can walk to or get to, for nice walks and offload some of the information and theories about the archaeology and local history of the area, out of my head and onto paper/screen, with an idea to start forming the book that I must get done.
Prehistoric Cherry Hinton Map ©Michelle Bullivant 2010
The map above, that I made some time ago, gives you an idea of some of the routeways and sites in and around Cherry Hinton during prehistoric times. I have placed the current main church building of St Andrew's on the map just to help you get your bearings. You can see the Tutton Way (Tottenhoe Way) that we are discussing, you can also see the Roman Road and the projection of its, potentially earlier route. You can also see the hillforts of Wandlebury and the War Ditches. I also mapped out the (at the time) known burial (barrow) sites, showing their relationship to the routeways. It just gives you a basic illustration of the area that we are looking at and makes the point that you can often tell ancient (pre Roman) boundaries and route-ways as they are often have barrows and other markers along their course.
At the end of the Shelford Gap, near to where it meets the Roman Road, were once two locally known barrows, nicknamed the Two Penny Loaves: "Smith's carrier's cart turned right from Fulbourn, heading south into rolling countryside. All the way it creaked ever upwards, till at the top of a ridge they reached an ancient track which was apparently an old Roman road linking Cambridge with Colchester, the way marked by two barrows, called by local people the "Two penny loaves" (Pickwick's Cambridge Scrapboook 1838, Mike Petty) "At this point, where the road returns to its original direction, there are the remains of two tumuli, called the Two- penny Loaves, one of which was opened in 1778, and seven skeletons were found at its bottom ; six of them were laid close together and parallel, with their heads pointing due north, the other lay with its head directed due west, and its feet next the side of the nearest of the six (Nichols's Lit. Artec, viii. 631)" (Ancient Cambridgeshire, by Charles Babington, Cambridge Antiquarian Society)
The picture above (with my son in the foreground and daughter climbing in the background, many years ago) gives you an idea of what Bronze Age burials mounds, or barrows as they are also called, look like. The one above is situated on Thurfield Heath in Royston, not that far away. You may often drive past them at the side of roadways and not realise what they are, a good example is of the one on the A11 as you drive towards Norwich from the 5 went ways roundabout at Barton Mills. The Two Penny Loaves would have looked something like this, standing side by side. However their fate, as with many of these barrows, was that they were excavated and destroyed, with the majority of barrows being ploughed away over the years to only occasionally be seen on aerial photographs as a crop mark on the ground. After lockdown, I will see if the Gog Magog Golf Club will let me go and have a look for the site of the Two Penny Loaves and report back to you if any sign of them remains.
One of the earliest descriptions that we have of the layout of some of the land in Cherry Hinton comes from a written survey of the Manor of Netherhall in the Parish of Hynton from 1592 (Separate articles on the Manors of Cherry Hinton and place names in the area soon). Unfortunately this survey, carried out by Christopher Saxton (you can read about him on Wikipeadia), is a written survey only with no accompanying map that we know of. This means we have to go by the written descriptions within the old open fields of the parish to work out where he is talking about.
The main open field that the Tutton Way traversed was called Quarry Field, it was a large area covering across from Lime Kiln Hill, on the Gog Magogs, eastwards to the parish boundary (the Tutton Way). Saxton gives the following description and land measurements:
"Quarry Field... The Furlong abutting the Totton Way - One piece lying in the lands of ..Junior South - 1 acre, 0 roodes, 5 dawks and 3 pches One piece laying between the lands of Uphall on the east and Gilbert Wise on the west - 0 acres, 2 roodes, 8 dawks and 2 pches" (London Metropolitan Archives, H01/ST/E/106/002) So here we see the first known written mention of the Tutton Way - spelt by Saxton, as 'Totton'
The next reference to the Tutton Way can be found in the Survey of St. Thomas' Hospital Land in Cherry Hinton, 1733 by John Tracey. (Survey of Hospital Propery at Cherry Hinton, by John Tracey, 1733. London Metropolitan Archives, H01/ST/E/107/003) which again was a written survey based within the old open fields of the parish but this time, contained three simple maps. One of which shows the route way, within Quarry Field, called Tutton Way. I'll order a decent copy of the map and place here, after lockdown, so you can have a look.
Here you can read a bit more of a very good, general overview about the Roman Road, written by my friend and colleague Tim Malim. You will see that this link takes you to the Friends of The Roman Road & Fleam Dyke website, where you can have a little bit more of a look at their take on the Cambridge Dykes. I will do a separate article or two about these and The Roman Road myself at some point soon because if I start on these now I’ll get completely side tracked and loose my focus on the Tutton Way - research is never really done!
https://frrfd.org.uk/archaeology-and-history/roman-road/
If you want to know a bit more about Wandlebury, for now, you can follow the link below, to take you to the Cambridge Past, Present and Future website, who look after the Wandlebury site.
https://www.cambridgeppf.org/wandlebury-history And more on the War Ditches can be read here, linked from the Wildlife Trust website who now manage and care for this particular site. https://www.wildlifebcn.org/sites/default/files/2018-05/East%20Pit%20Archaeology%20Report_0.pdf Again, I will write something further on both Wandlebury and the War Ditches at some point soon and post here on my website for you but I just need to focus on one thing at a time or I shall be drawn into writing great reams of theories, arguments and never actually getting anything up and published for you.
The earliest maps and surveys, that I’ve mentioned above, call the routeway the Tutton Way or Totten Way, where as I have seen it also named the Tottenhoe Way on a later map. There are a couple of possible meanings to this name – If we start with the earlier ‘Tutton’ it could be a derivative from the word ‘tot’ meaning fool or idiot, perhaps indicating a more perilous routeway – the fools way. Another thought is that ‘toten’ is the German word for ‘dead’, suitable for an ancient routeway lined with the burials of the ancestors perhaps? However, the later used name of 'Tottenhoe' makes a little more sense in many ways, as Totternhoe is a village in central Bedfordshire where the Totternhoe stone is sourced, now bear with me, as this does relate to our site in some regard – Totternhoe stone is not hard stone, it is a seam of very strong, durable chalk which was quarried in that area for use in great buildings, such as Westminster Abbey. Here in Cherry Hinton, from at least the Roman period, the strong building chalk, known as clunch, has been quarried and in turn used in such buildings as Peterhouse College and Ely Cathedral. You can see the evidence of this at East Pit off of Lime Kiln Hill, in the large open quarries there, which is only a stones through from our Tutton Way. Perhaps the name related to this strong chalk and its quarrying industry. Does the chalk seam run from Bedford through Cambridge? Burwell village, to the north east of Cherry Hinton, also used to have chalk quarries where the Burwell Rock would be quarried for building use in similar ways.
A quick google for you, rather than me spending ages going through the piles of old maps that I have here, reveals some further information, from Cambridgeshire Geological Society, which gives this latter theory more credence as being the most likely for the naming of our routeway. http://www.cambsgeology.org/565-2-3-2
If you go onto the Back Field in Cherry Hinton, at the eastern end where a passageway leads through on to Bridewell Road, you can stand on the Tutton Way as it cuts over the back field in the form of a wide paved pathway, which leads out onto Fulbourn Road. Once out onto Fulbourn Road, you will be able to see that this spot also marks the official Cambridge City Boundary, with a sign, again highlighting the importance of this ancient boundary. The back field is a Cambridge City Council owned green space which local residence use to walk their dogs and the staff, at ARM across the road, come out to have games of cricket and sit and enjoy their lunch. In the autumn there are great amounts of blackberries to be picked and in the spring the boundaries are covered in yellow daffodils. The Back Field runs from the passageway that runs into Leete Road, off of Fulbourn Road and it ends just before the hedges as you approach the roundabout at Yarrow Road, Fulbourn Road junction.
VIDEO 3 of 3 - Tutton Way
The Tutton Way can be seen in the form of an earthwork running along inside the back gardens of the houses on the eastern side of Bridewell Road. My mum used to live down the end section of this road and there was a large, clear slope running up and through her back garden which was not a natural slope but man made.
The map above (which you can see in full on the Cherry Hinton Community Archives website), shows the parish boundary marked by a dotted black line. As it stands and from what we (you and I) now know, the Tutton Way ends were it joins the old Roman Road at the end of the Shelford Gap, however, you can also see that if you were to draw a straight line from this point over the Roman Road, that the Tutton Way would lead straight into Wandlebury hill fort. I would strongly suggest that it did just that, once upon a time.
If you then follow the Tutton Way north, across the field and back towards Cherry Hinton village you come to a point where the parish boundary abruptly turns to the right, up and then to the left again, creating a off set square shape. The point at which the boundary turns is where the Tutton Way ends, as far I can tell at this time. This point is at the bottom of what is now Bridewell Road, where it meets Fisher's Lane in Cherry Hinton. The odd square actually marks out where there was once a some common land, it was called Drayton Common. It can easily be imagined that cattle were put out to pasture on the common land at this point and then driven up onto the higher ground, along the Tutton Way, perhaps in even earlier times, all the way into Wandlebury encampment itself. However, more research and on the ground field work is needed to really test out and explore if this really was the extent of the Tutton Way. It good fun to get out the maps and look on aerial views of the site and see if we can look for clues and trace the line of this old route way any further - perhaps the route continued across Drayton Common to meet at the crossroads by the church, with what is now Church Lane, the High Street and Fulbourn Old Drift? Or did the route turn at some point and join Daws Lane which runs bend Cherry Hinton Hall and was one of the old route-ways into Cambridge? etc. etc..
Below are a selection of photographs that I took of some of the records held by Peterhouse College, who owned a lot of land in Cherry Hinton. I am afraid that the pictures rea not very good quality as they were taken some years ago on an old phone or camera, so I must get back to Peterhouse to get clearer images. The pictures below cover the area around the Shelford Gap and are from the 1870's, recording what crops were grown and if they were successful etc. The important thing of note is that within the written columns Quarry Field is mentioned along with "Furlong abutting the Totten Way" - so the name was still in use for this route way around this date.
As always, research is never finished and theories evolve as more data becomes available but they must all start somewhere - an idea, a clue and most importantly curiosity. I will add to this and any other of my posts as and when I discover some new piece of information to add, in the meantime I hope this has been of some interest to you all :)
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Cherry Hinton History Pages:
Contents If you'd like to go straight to a specific article or blog post within the Cherry Hinton History Page you can click on any of the post titles in the list below and it will take you directly there. Alternatively, you can use the search box above to search by keyword or you can use the index further below. About & how to use:This is the blog page for my articles, memories and archives relating to the archaeology and local history of Cherry Hinton, a village to the southeast of Cambridge UK. The area covered is the old Parish of Cherry Hinton which today includes the Ward of Queen Edith's. The Categories below are really the keyword index of what is on the Cherry Hinton History Pages. Each is a clickable link which will take you to an article or blog which contains that word or subject.
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December 2024
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