This memory is taken from the Cherry Hinton Memory Books Collection which were donated to my Cherry Hinton archive. You can read more about the complete collection by clicking here:
Cherry Hinton Memory Books Introduction I am now taking each memory/story and posting them individually on here, adding in any pictures to illustrate the memories and any further points of information and research that may be of interest.
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.
Further notes by Michelle:
I would love to find that drain cover, mentioned above, and get a picture of it and photographs of where the houses above mentioned stood. I have had a look along that stretch of High Street but the house numbers have all changed sometime ago and many houses have been pulled down and others built in turn. There is a real challenge now to draw up a map showing the changing houses/buildings and where they were over time on the High Street, along with working out the house numbering system. Once this has been done we will be able to add the information and pictures to a separate article, and in turn to these memories where they mention any particular houses.
One clue from the story above is that Mrs Coe lived at what was then 203 High Street - meaning that 201 would perhaps of been next door to that house, and therefore the Steven Bros drain cover may still be found somewhere there.
I have search the census, electoral and directory information to see if I can find which house Mrs Coe lived at on the High Street around the 1930's-1960's. The only two clues that I have so far are the picture on the left below, which is from the Richard Hoye collection - it is a photograph c.1985 showing a house on the High Street which is still there today (see my picture on the right). Richard Hoye's picture, on the left, has a note beneath it stating "Mrs Coe". The house has the name 'Temperance Villa' on it (for which I have searched many records and turned up nothing on it) and it is dated 1903. If this was the house, 203 High Street, referred to in the story above it is now known by a different number.
The next clue is on the 1911 Census and of the only Coe family on the High Street at that date - it shows Charles Coe living on the High Street with his family "near the school" - Temperance Villa shown above would have been built by this time - and is near the school on the High Street. This branch of the Coe family were certainly living along this stretch of the High Street in 1911, did one of these Coe ladies end up living in Temperance Villa and is this the house referred to above, what was then 203?
We might also be able to work out where 197 High Street, above mentioned, was and in turn know that across the road there was once an air-raid shelter - which may or may not remain in some form.
I have managed to find out a little more about the Steven's Bros Builders business. The picture below shows Albert Stevens and Jess Tabor in Cherry Hinton near the railway line, stating that they are both apprentice carpenters. The photo is not dated but as you will see from the other sources that I've managed to find, below, this helps us get an idea of what the Steven's Bros were doing in their business.
You can see from the County Directory extract below that 'Stevens Brothers' are listed as builders and wheel-wrights.
Then, in this newspaper clipping below from 1936, we find that the Stevens Bros were the undertakers of a funeral! They give the address for the business as the High Street Cherry Hinton. As odd as this seems, to find them acting as undertakers, this was not unusual for joiners or furniture makers and like to do this at this time. I presume it would be because they are able to produce the wooden coffins but that's just my guess as to why this is the case, as in many similar firms across the country years ago - in fact Chippendale in London, the great furniture maker, also did the same, so it really was 'a thing'.
To add further proof that they were listed as builders and contractors but also carrying out undertaker services, you can see more detail on the bill below from 1935. Note the business header on this paper and the house shown.
You can see the details of the business still continuing in 1955 from the newspaper advert below.
A very important part of the village has been the British Legion Hall, first a shed-like building that once stood on the main recreation ground and then, when it was rebuilt down Fishers Lane. So many Cherry Hinton memories from both of these two versions of the hall from over the years. The Fishers Lane hall was demolished about 10 years ago and now the houses of Poppy Close stand on its site. I have now discovered that the Stevens Bros were the builders for the British Legion Hut in Fishers Lane, as you'll see from the bill below. This is great to discover and will add a bit more to the story of the firm. Again note the header and picture of the house. They give their address as 77 & 79 High Street Cherry Hinton.
The picture above shows the Fishers Lane, British Legion Hall, as it was, built by the Stevens Brothers of Cherry Hinton.
Please do feel free to get in touch if you would like to add anything to this story or if you have any further information on the Stevens Bros.
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I had the pleasure of being able to name the new care home, built locally. The home is built down Bullen Close, just off of Cherry Hinton Road and I have donated the prize money to Cherry Hinton Local History Society so that they can print & produce some local history walking guides (leaflets or booklets) for Cherry Hinton, which I will get on and write now. Hopefully we'll the first of these available in Spring 2021 - good for socially distanced walks etc. Here's the link for the article
2010 Diaries
I got out on Saturday morning to give a guided tour of Cherry Hinton Hall for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, which Tony Kirby had organised. We had a good walk around and I pointed out and explained the features in the grounds from the prehistoric archaeology to the Victorian parkland. We even made a quick trip out of the site, up the road to Giants Grave (Spring Head) which is the large natural spring pool opposite the Robin Hood Pub in Cherry Hinton. Last night, I went and gave a lecture on local archaeology and history to Cherry Hinton Local History Society, it was a great evening and I had a surprise visitor along, Barry Fuller, from the Cambridge Archaeology Field Group - he had been involved with Cambridgeshire Association for Local History 25 years ago and is a great friend of mine, he'd been trying to get the chance to come along to the history society for the last year and had finally made it, so it turned out to be a great evening all round :) 2010 diaries
I have just been to our lovely committee meeting for Cherry Hinton Local History Society. We always have a lot to go through but do it with great humour and nice cups of tea and coffee. I am lucky to be on so many committees that are a pleasure to attend. Cherry Hinton Local History Society has nearly been going for 30 years! We found some notes about the start of the group and had a look through them today. We found out that the society actually started on March 21st 1982, so we’ll have to have some celebrations for our 30th year which is 2011. We’ll get all the details we have about the history of the group up onto our Cherry Hinton Archives Group (CCAN) website. Click here if you would like more details about Cherry Hinton Local History Society.
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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