Features

Clay Pits Common

Its not obvious now but the 1826 Enclosure Award referred to land to the north east of Footpath No.8, connecting The Leys with Church Street, as "Clay pits" and on the south side of Church Street in front of No.35 as "Clay Pit Common". This was a strip of land running parallel to the footpath and extending northwards and southwards parallel to Church Street.

Common Farm

This is shown on the 1835 map as being north of Gransden Lodge Farm in what is now Gransden Lodge airfield. It appears to have been previously named as Rectory Farm and it may be noted that that the land is shown in the ownership of the Rector in the 1826 Enclosure Award but there were no buildings at that time.

Common Lane Close

This area is identified in the 1826 Enclosure Award and was situate adjacent to the second Public Drain, near to the Gransden Brook, just north of the old settlement of Crow's End.

Cow Common

The 1826 Enclosure Award map shows this located in the area of what is now Gransden Lodge airfield.

Crosses

The Little Gransden and Gamlingay crosses were parish boundary markers placed only a few yards from each other and marked the junctions of the parishes of Gamlingay, Hatley St. George and Little Gransden. They are not mentioned in the 1826 Enclosure Award so may have been lost by then. No sign of them exists today. More details here.

Crow's End

Little Gransden developed as an offshoot of the larger settlement of Great Gransden (Hunts.) to the north. The two are separated by the low-lying ground where the Gransden and Home Dole brooks meet, across which the church and the manorhouse of the abbey of Ely, to which a third of the land of the ancient settlement was granted c.1000, faced Great Gransden from a knoll. The village grew southward from them, along a street running beside the brook, which is crossed by small sandstone bridges to the closes on the far side. At its greatest extent the village stretched almost to the site of the modern Model Farm, a footpath to which may represent the line of the old high street south of its later diversion. The former access ways, bounding the closes, can be traced as far south as the farm on early 19C maps. The southern half of the village, called in 1841 Crow's End, has decayed since 1660. [Victoria, History of Cambridgeshire]

... one of the remarkable features of the village has always been its extraordinarily long, linear extension to the south, which extended for nearly a mile along Gransden Brook and was presumably built to accommodate the rapidly expanding population in the C12 and C13. The subsequent decline of the population following the Black Death lead to the virtual abandonment of much of this southern extension, especially those properties furthest form the village centre, but four dwellings still stood at Crow’s End (at the southern extremity) until the middle of the C19. [SCDC document]

The southern end of Little Gransden was called Crow's End in 1841 but not, apparently, in 1826 when the Enclosure Award was made. There were occupied buildings there in 1826 and an ancient lane that followed the course of the Gransden Brook and third Private Drain, now all on private land. The term seems to have disappeared from use after 1841.

Deadwomen's Way

This disused road, between Little and Great Gransden and Longstowe, was named after Deadwomen's Cross at the north-east corner of the parish (see Victoria County History 1973 with reference to Alumni Cantabrigienses 1752-1900 and British History Online with reference to E 134/5 Jas. I Hil./26 m. 5d.).

In the 1826 Enclosure Award this road is described as "one public Bridleway and private Carriage Road and Driftway of the breadth of fifteen feet (being a Moiety thereof the other moiety being in the parish of Great Gransden) commencing at the end of the Great Gransden Road and proceeding in an eastwardly direction along the Meerway between the parishes of Great and Little Gransden to the Boundary of the parish of Longstow"

The road was closed to public use upon the building of the airfield during the Second World War and that public use has never been reinstated.

Dick and Doll's Lane

It seems that the name may be derived from the older name of Dokesdole. However, "Dic" is very common, especially in the fenland parishes, where it is used both of ditch and dike [The Place Names of Cambridgeshire, p320]. The work goes on to say "The name often indicates the place bounded by the ditch: - Dole - (1483) ..." Lane is common, often with the name of owner or user. Dick and Doll's Lane is not identified by that name in the 1826 Enclosure Award (just referred to as "an ancient Lane") although it is named on an 1877 map. The lane forms part of the northern most boundary with Great Gransden and a ditch to some extent is evident.

Gamlingay Road

Now called Fuller's Hill.

Glebe Paddock

Change of use to burial ground approved 15 March 2001, under planning Ref. S/0520/01/F.

Gransden Brook

This brook eventually drains into the Ouse at St. Neots. The brook has cut into the underlying greensand and falls over 100 ft. from the South of the parish to the North.

Gransden Mill

This is an open trestle post mill, the earliest form of windmill. The present mill is known to date from the early C17 and possibly from as early as 1612. If this date is right, it is the earliest surviving windmill in the country, and its only possible rival is Bourn Mill (1636), which lies three miles distant.

In about 1890 the main post began to list to one side and the mill eventually became inoperable. However, it was in use intermittently, though probably in a dangerous condition, up until 1911. The mill was in some danger of being pulled down, but fortunately survived, and was declared an ancient monument in 1957. Restoration of the outside fabric by Cambridgeshire County Council was completed in 1984. The internal machinery still exists and the mill is in the process of restoration.

Great Gransden Road

Great Gransden Road was the name given to what is now Primrose Hill in the 1826 Enclosure Award.

Hayley Wood

This ancient woodland is described here. On its eastern side runs an ancient lane that is described in the 1826 Enclosure Award and which forms the boundary between the parishes of Little Gransden and Longstow.

Hill Ground

This are is mentioned in the 1826 Enclosure Award and appears to be situate to include 2 Main Road and the land immediately to the east.

Home Dole

This area of common grazing land lies between the Gransden Brook and Home Dole Brook. The image is of the footpath bridge across the Gransden Brook looking in a north easterly direction towards Home Dole.

Houndwood Field

This is named in the 1826 Enclosure Award and lay to the east of Stocking Field crossing the Longstow Road (B1046) onto what is now Gransden Lodge Airfield.

Mill Field

North of Houndwood Field and bounded by Deadwoman's Way to the north.

Old House Close

Mentioned in the 1826 Enclosure Award as a Close south east of Crow's End lying near to the Stow Road.

Pasture Close

This Close is mentioned in the 1826 Enclosure Award and appears to be situate just south of the entrance to Hill Farm on the east side of Main Road.

Private Carriage Roads and Driftways

Four of these are described in the 1826 Enclosure Award:

1. The 1st runs off of what is now Primrose Hill. The Enclosure commentary starts from the windmill end of the Driftway.

2. The 2nd is an extension running south off The Leys.

3. The 3rd is what is now Church Street.

4. The 4th runs alongside the paddocks behind what is now Willow Tree House, Church Street.

It is not clear who paid for these private roads or indeed who the owners were. It can only be presumed they were provided for the benefit of owners access to the various enclosures which led off them.

A further Carriage and Driftway is referred to in the 1826 Enclosure Award which was for the sole use of Robert Fuller, Thomas Quintin Esquire, and William Virley, owners of enclosures close to the beginning of the 3rd Private Drain just north of the Longstowe Road and on land which is now part of Model Farm.

The street running alongside the 3rd Public Drain (Gransden Brook), providing access to Crow's End, is not referred to in the 1826 Enclosure Award although it is shown on the accompanying map.

Public Drains

Three are described in the 1826 Enclosure Award. They may have occurred naturally but the landowners were required by the Enclosure Award to maintain them so they could also have been dug out.

1. The 1st started to the north of Gransden Lodge Airfield and runs parallel to the first Private Carriage Road and Driftway before joining the Gransden Brook near to The Chequers.

2. The 2nd started on what was called Cow Common (now Gransden Lodge Airfield) and ran westward between Houndswood Field and Mill Field joining the Gransden Brook south of Springs Lane.

3. The 3rd started in an Enclosure called Three Acres (now part of Model Farm), just north of the Longstow Road, and eventually flows into the Gransden Brook.

Public Footpaths

Only two are described in the 1826 Enclosure Award. However various other Bridleways and Lanes are mentioned.

Purser's Farm

This is shown on the 1835 map as lying either side of the Fuller's Hill road but it seems to have later subsumed into other farms.

Pyghtle Corner

This is just off the bend north of the Chequers public house. There was a former sand pit here but the bend is now shrouded by trees.

A piece of land off Church Lane (now Church Walk), where the Schoolhouse was eventually built, was referred to as the Pightle in the 1826 Enclosure Award.

Quintin Darlow

This name appears on the Ordnance Survey Explorer Map 1:25000 to the east of Main Road. It doesn't appear to have any significant age to it, seeming to date from c.1965. The then purchaser of the land named the land after Thomas Quintin, the landowner at the time of the 1826 Enclosure Award, and the most recent owner in c.1965, Jack Darlow. A house was built to the east of the Gransden Brook in 1975 by R. J. H. Tuck which would seem to identify it as No.26 Main Road. It is said there was a public house on the land, presumably to the west of the Gransden Brook [Gamlingay Gazette, December 1996]. However a 1965 planning application refers to a building on the site as Plum Tree Cottage.

Radburns Close

This lay to the north west of the Third Private Carriage Road and Driftway (Bridleway No.6 off Church Street) and north east of the Fourth Private Carriage Road and Driftway (Bridleway No.7 off Bridleway No.6) in what is now 56 Church Street (Willow Tree Stud).

Rectory Farm

Appears to have acquired its name from c.1800. Shown as Common Farm on the 1835 Ordnance Survey map but by the 1841 census had reverted to Rectory Farm which name it retained until the 1940s when it seems to have fallen into disuse and in part was subsumed into Hill Farm. There is a separate Rectory Farm in Great Gransden.

Ridge and Furrow

This is an archaeological pattern of ridges and troughs created by a system of ploughing used in the Middle Ages, typical of the open field system. See here for more information. There is not much of it to be seen today but there is some evidence of it in the above image taken looking east along Bridleway No.6.

Sand Pit Close

Located to the south west of Main Road and situate opposite of the footpath leading to Home Dole this Close is identified in the 1826 Enclosure Award.

Sells Close

This is mentioned in the 1826 Enclosure Award but is not shown on the accompanying map. It appears from the description to have been part of what is now called Model Farm.

South West Loop Road

According to A History of Cambridgeshire, the nucleus of Little Gransden originally consisted of two linked loop roads, similar to but less complex than Great Gransden. Part of the south-west loop has been abandoned but is probably off bridleway 6 and joining with what is now Main Road. Stocking Field is to the South of this location.

Spinney Close

Located to the south of the Longstowe Road, opposite the source of the third Public Drain, and to the west of Gransden Lodge Farm as identified in the 1826 Enclosure Award.

Springs Lane

The 1826 Enclosure Award describes the Gamlingay Road and Stow Road as both commencing at the west end of Springs Lane. It appears that Springs Lane ran from the junction of those two roads in a north easterly direction along what is now Main Road.

Stocking Field

This lay across the Fuller's Hill road, north of Fuller's Hill Farm, and reaching to the Longstow Road (B1046) to the west of Houndwood Field.

The Crofts

Lying to the west of Main Road this area is mentioned in the 1826 Enclosure Award and appears to be situate just north of Brook Cottage west approximately of 17 Main Road.

The Grove

Mentioned in the 1826 Enclosure Award, The Grove appears to be situate beween The Old Diary and Elm's Farm to the east of Main Road.

Three Acres

This is mentioned in the 1826 Enclosure Award. It appears from the description to have been part of what is now called Model Farm lying just north of the Longstow Road to the west of Gransden Lodge Farm.

Town Close

Mentioned in the 1826 Enclosure Award this was part of the paddocks to the south of 35 Church Street and abutting The Leys.

It is interesting that Little Gransden, being an extended settlement along the Little Gransden brook, does not have an obvious village green. Town Close may have served the purpose of village green to complete the unholy trinity of church, pub, and village green. The Open Spaces Society is a place to visit should Town Close ever come under threat for development.

Towns End Close

Mentioned in the 1826 Enclosure Award as a Close south east of Crow's End lying near to the Stow Road.

Upper or Leets Close

Situated to the east of the Longstowe Road this Close was mentioned in the 1826 Enclosure Award and was situate just north of the Crow's End settlement.

Village Street

The 1826 Enclosure Award refers to the Village Street as being that part of what is now Main Road that continued north from Springs Lane and continuing past the Great Gransden Road (Primrose Hill) and Church Street.