Horningsea is a small village north of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire in England. The parish covers an area of 2.6 square miles (6.7 km2; 1,700 acres). It lies on the east bank of the River Cam, and on the road from Cambridge to Clayhithe. The nearest railway station is Waterbeach, 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) away.
Listed as Horningesea in the Domesday Book, the village's name derives from either "Island (or dry ground in marsh) of a man called Horning" or "Island by the horn-shaped hill". [2] [3]
Central to the development of Horningsea as a settlement has been its location on the River Cam, whose use for navigation dates back to at least Roman times. Around 4000 years ago, the parish consisted of a chalk promontory between marshland and the sea, and there is evidence of Iron Age habitation. Around 1000 years ago it had become a peninsula extending northwards into the undrained fens. [2]
Between the 2nd and 4th centuries Horningsea was used for pottery by the Romans and was connected with Lincoln by Car Dyke, a Roman canal. [4]
Drainage of the area began with Bottisham Lode in early medieval times, and a bridge is mentioned in the village in the late 13th century. In 1637 the Earl of Bedford was given 400 acres in Fen Ditton, Horningsea, and Stow cum Quy which were drained over the following 20 years. The remainder of the parish was drained in the late 18th and 19th centuries, other than the area around Snout's Corner, which is still fenland. [2]
The Saxon hamlets of Eye and Clayhithe have been part of Horningsea parish since 1279, with Clayhithe situated where the ancient peninsula reached the river. [2]
In 2006 Horningsea's conservation area was re-appraised by South Cambridgeshire District Council. [5] The report contains much detail about the current status of the village and its buildings.
The village has been home to a place of worship for well over a thousand years. The Saxons chose the site for a minster in the 9th century, though it was sacked by the invading Danes in the 870s and rebuilt soon after. Only a pair of Saxon coffin lids remain from the original church.
The south arcade remains from the 11th century, the chancel from around 1220, and the building was substantially rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries. During this period it was granted to the Hospital of St John in Cambridge, that later became St John's College. It was extensively restored in the early 19th century. [6]
Horningsea has two pubs (the Plough and Fleece [7] and the Crown and Punchbowl [8] ), and the parish church of St Peter. The only retail facility inside the village is a Garden centre which also contains a cycle shop.
In September, 2012 a Community Interest Company (Horningsea CIC) took over the running of the Plough and Fleece pub (at the time the only village pub). [9]
There were three public houses in 1764; The Sluice at Clayhithe which catered to the river traffic, closed in around 1830, The Chequers, which probably opened around 1800 and closed in around 1873, and The Crown and Punch Bowl inn which opened in a 17th-century building in around 1764. The Plough and Fleece, occupying a 16th-century building, opened as a pub in the 19th century. [2]
The Millennium Green contains a sculpture called Convexity created by local artist Matthew Sanderson. [10] The Millennium pavilion is also situated here. These were created as part of the Millennium celebrations at the start of 2000.
Cambridgeshire is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, Northamptonshire to the west and Bedfordshire to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Peterborough, and the city of Cambridge is the county town.
The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system of drainage channels and man-made rivers and automated pumping stations. There have been unintended consequences to this reclamation, as the land level has continued to sink and the dykes have been built higher to protect it from flooding.
Fulbourn is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, with evidence of settlement dating back to Neolithic times. The village was probably established under its current name by 1200. The waterfowl-frequented stream after which it was named lies in the east, close to the division between arable and fenland.
Wicken is a small village on the edge of The Fens near Soham in East Cambridgeshire, ten miles north east of Cambridge and five miles south of Ely. It is the site of Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve.
Swavesey is a village lying on the Prime Meridian in Cambridgeshire, England, with a population of 2,463. The village is situated 9 miles to the north west of Cambridge and 3 miles south east of St Ives.
The Car Dyke was, and to a large extent still is, a long ditch which runs along the western edge of the Fens in eastern England for a distance of over 57 miles (92 km). It is generally accepted as being a Roman construction and was, for many centuries, considered to mark the western edge of the Fens. Its name derives from carr, a fourteenth-century word for marsh or drained land.
Waterbeach is a village 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Cambridge on the edge of The Fens, in the South Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It was designated a "new town" in 2018.
Landbeach is a small fen-edge English village about three miles (5 km) north of Cambridge. The parish covers an area of 9 km2 (3.5 sq mi).
Cottenham is a village in Cambridgeshire, England. Cottenham is one of the larger villages surrounding the city of Cambridge, located around five miles north of the city. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 6,095. Cottenham is one of a number of villages that make up the historical Fen Edge region in between Cambridge and Ely, which were originally settlements on the shore of the marshes close to the city of Cambridge, then an inland port.
Willingham is a village in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located in the South Cambridgeshire district and sits just outside the border of the Fens, just south of the River Great Ouse.
Stretham is a village and civil parish 4 miles (6 km) south-south-west of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England, about 74 miles (119 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.
Fen Ditton is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district, on the northeast edge of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 the parish had a population of 760. The parish covers an area of 5.99 square kilometres (2 sq mi).
Stow cum Quy, commonly referred to as Quy, is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Situated around 4 miles (6.4 km) north east of Cambridge lying between the Burwell Road (B1102) and the medieval Cambridge to Newmarket road, it covers an area of 764 hectares.
Chittering is a hamlet about 8 miles (13 km) north of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire, England. For administrative purposes it is part of the parish of Waterbeach. The population of the hamlet was included in the civil parish of Bottisham at the 2011 Census.
Fleam Dyke is a linear earthwork between Fulbourn and Balsham in Cambridgeshire, initiated some time between AD 330 and AD 510. It is three miles long and seven metres high from ditch to bank, and its ditch faces westwards, implying invading Saxons as its architects. Later, it formed a boundary of the Anglo-Saxon administrative division of Flendish Hundred. At a prominent point, the earthwork runs beside Mutlow Hill, crowned by a 4000-year-old Bronze Age burial mound.
Rampton is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, situated on the edge of The Fens six miles to the north of Cambridge.
Tadlow is a small village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England on the River Cam. It is 20 kilometres (12 mi) south-west of Cambridge and 9 kilometres (6 mi) north-east of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. In 2001 the population was 181 and the area of the village is 681 hectares.
Little Thetford is a small village in the civil parish of Thetford, 3 miles (5 km) south of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England, about 76 miles (122 km) 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.
The Cambridgeshire Lodes are a series of man-made waterways, believed to be Roman in origin, located in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. Bottisham, Swaffham Bulbeck, Reach, Burwell, Wicken and Monks Lodes all connect to the River Cam, while Soham and Cottenham Lodes connect to the River Great Ouse. All have been navigable historically, but some are no longer officially navigable.
Flendish Hundred was a pre-Norman administrative division of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It probably got its name from Fleam Dyke. Hundreds were intermediate administrative divisions, larger than villages and smaller than shires, that survived until the 19th century. It was probably created in the early 10th century. Flendish was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. In the 11th century Flendish hundred contained four vills, later divided into five parishes: Fulbourn, Teversham, Hinton, and Horningsea.