Staine Hundred
IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL EVENING for the Local History Society's walk around
Haddenham, led by Lorna Delanoy who was brought up in the village and was an
excellent guide. She had many stories to tell of the personalities who had
lived in the village. Haddenham is built on a ridge and is the highest village
in the Isle of Ely. The tour started from the old school founded by Robert
Arkenstall in 1723, which has been enlarged to become the Arkenstall Community
Centre.
The 20 or so members crossed the busy Station Road and then turned into the peaceful Merrick Lane where there were good views over towards Ely and Grunty Fen. Much of the land in this belongs to the Mormons. The well -kept recreation was a hive of activity and from there we passed the new school and came out in Camping Close. Camping is an old name for football. We then proceeded to the High Street where we saw a number of interesting buildings before making a stop at the Methodist church where coffee was served.
This Methodist church was rebuilt in 1891. The red-brick Baptist Church with a
spire on the Green was built by the Chivers family in 1905, when they had
extensive fruit farms in the area. People who worked for Chivers were expected
to attend the Baptist church on Sundays. The new Health Centre is build on the
site of the old Baptist Hall where Lorna remembered having school meals, and
there were whispers of bodies under the floor - which were probably true as
there was an old crypt. Opposite is the Manor Farm House, though the present
owners have dropped the "Farm House" which had a tall building at the
back where the farmers ground their corn. On the corner of Church Lane, there
are some interesting cottages which had never been modernized with brick steps
with rounded ends down to the road which are so steep and narrow that some of
us would have found them impossible to negotiate.
The old Anglican cemetery is now a wildlife park and again lovely views over towards Sutton were enjoyed. When the railway was built, earth was taken from the field adjoining the cemetery and put into trucks which ran by gravity down to the railway. Cart horses would then pull the empty carts up. The deep hollow where the earth was removed is still clearly visible. The railway, which ran from Ely to St Ives, was one of the Beeching casualities.
The old church hall which was used as a village hall until the Arkenshall
Centre was built, had been converted into attractive dwellings. The doctor
lived in the old vicarage where the old stables had been turned into a
bungalow. A new surgery has been built by the Green next to the Methodist
cemetery. The present lady Vicar lives in a new vicarage. A previous Vicar who
drove himself in a trap, offered a lift to the local policeman in torrential
rain but when the thunder lightning came, the horse reared up and the policeman
was thrown out backwards, hit his head and died. We saw his grave in the
churchyard.
Ovin, who was a steward to Queen Ethelreda, founded a Christian church in Haddenham in 673 so Haddenham celebrated 1300 years of Christianity just a year after the celebrations in Ely Cathedral. The church was extensively renovated at the end of the last century with money collected from a number of sources. There were plans to put a spire on the square tower, but the person holding the money made a sudden and unexpected trip to America and was not seen again so there is no spire on the church!
The Staine Hundred Outing on June 13th has been cancelled owing to lack of support.