Little Shelford heritage trail

Camping Close

The Camping Close, which is owned by the Wale family, was usually rented out to a local farmer. Up to 1845 members of the Wale family were buried in a mausoleum which stood in the corner of Camping Close nearest to the church. However, with the prevalence of bodysnatching in those days, which meant graves needed to be guarded for two months after a funeral, it was decided to move the coffins into a vault in the church. In Fanny Wale’s book there is an account of military manoeuvres and of troops camping here during WW1.

According to village historian Fanny Wale, when King Edward VII was at Cambridge University, he came to a meet of foxhounds in Camping Close – some village men were shooting at a target and missed it. Then Capt Frederick Wale said “You can shoot better than Widby and he held up a fork with a turnip on it and Widby hit it.” (Edward studied history at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1861. He became King in 1902.)

* No 14 Milestone Cottage

The cottage built in the early C18, takes its name from nearby milestone.

*Milestone

The milestone is mid C19, is cast iron and triangular in shape.

*Ivy House

Known as Ivy Cottage until very recently, it was constructed in the early C18 and enlarged in the early and late C19 and late C20. In 1900 Fanny Lucretia Wale lived in the cottage. She was the last member of the family bearing the name of Wale to live in Little Shelford and she left a wonderful legacy in the form of a book called ‘A Record of Shelford Parva’. She compiled the book between 1907 and 1927 and it provides an excellent record of life in the Shelfords at the beginning of the C20.

Recreation Ground

The recreation ground was given to the village by the Wale family in 1952. It is the home of Little Shelford Cricket Club who has played here since 1877. The Rev. David Shepherd, who played cricket for England before entering the church, played for Ridley Hall v. Little Shelford in the 1950’s.

Little Shelford Bowls Club, which previously played bowls on the lawn of Priesthouse, moved to the recreation ground in 1946.

Riverside Walk is a footpath created in 2005 by the Little Shelford Wildlife Group. Within the walk there is an ancient ice pond, once part of the parkland of Shelford Hall. The walk takes you along the side of the River Cam/Granta.

Beech Close

This small estate was built after the compulsory purchase of the land, which was owned by the Wale family, for £500 immediately after WW2.

Whittlesford Road (cont.)

No 48

This was Walker’s general stores and post office from 1964 until 1991. Since then it has been the offices of several different companies.

Courtyards

A private housing estate built in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

Whittlesford Road (cont.)

Bradmere Pond and Clay Pit

The present pond size belies its proud and ancient name, BRADMERE (O.E. = Broad Lake). The area is of low relief which suggests that the pond is the surviving outlying remnant of a once much more extensive feature – perhaps when in flood as much as a kilometre across. This natural basin would be flooded today, but for the fact that at some period in the past (perhaps in late medieval times) a ditch was dug along the common Parish boundary with Newton to allow the impounded water an outlet into the River Cam well downstream and to the north of the village. The ditch can be seen in Newton Road and Hauxton Road.

The pond which lies to the south of and just outside the village was ‘inter-communal’ with Whittlesford until the Enclosures Award of 1814 and is now embraced within the parish of Little Shelford.

Residents of Little Shelford were also given the rights of access to, and use of the pond, as well as the village ‘clay pit’. The pit provided ‘clunch’ for buildings within the village, which were then mainly of claybat or lathe and plaster construction. A similar grant of a ‘gravel pit’, (now Moor Close) was made at the same time.

An ex-resident born in Little Shelford remembers the pond occasionally freezing over in winter and the ice being thick enough to skate on it.

Bradmere Lane

To provide access to the clay pits, a 32 foot (9.75 m) wide ‘private bridle and carriageway’ was created. In the 1990’s Bradmere Lane was very much overgrown and it was cleared and opened up by a group of young offenders performing community service.

High Street

*No 82 Westfield

A farmhouse built c.18. This was the home of Francis Bacon, designer of the fuel cell that was used by the USA in their Apollo moon missions spacecraft. He later moved to 34 High Street.

*No 93

A cottage probably constructed in the late C17 with C19 additions to the east and north.

*No 95

Attached to No 93, this is a C19 cottage.

*Hall Farmhouse

The oldest house in the village was first built in C15 with additions and alterations in C17 and later.

*Hall Farm Barn

The barn is early C16.

*Water Pump

The pump was built in C19 and is cast iron. It is still in good working order, but is only to be used in times of emergency. As the sign on it says ‘Do not drink’.

The Terrace

The terrace is a footpath that links the High Street with Whittlesford Road. It became ‘The Terrace’ from the terrace of thatched cottages that bordered this footpath at the High Street end and the pan tiled cottages towards Whittlesford Road.

High Street (cont.)

*No 73

A cottage built in the late C17.

*No 67 The Carriers

A late C17 cottage and extended in the early C18 and again in the C19. It was restored c.1983.

*The Navigator

This was originally a row of cottages, probably of late C17 construction with C19 alterations and a C20 addition at the side.

It was originally called ‘The Plough’ but in the 1980’s because of mistaken identity with the ‘Plough’ public house in Great Shelford the name was changed to ‘The Navigator’.

Low Brooms

This was the home of the Wale family before they had the ‘White’ house built opposite the church.

No 40

Site of the home of Professor James Meade, joint winner with the Swedish economist Bertil Ohlin, of the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in 1977.

No 34

Site of the home of Francis Bacon OBE, FRS, when he moved from Westfield.

*Nos 35-49

This row of cottages was built around 1870 when there was a demand for more labourers’ homes to accommodate the growing population.

*Kings Farm House and Yard

The house is late C19, but incorporating a C16 cottage. Air Commodore James Coward lived here while he was stationed at Duxford during the ‘Battle of Britain’. He was shot down over Little Shelford and lost a leg.

*Kings Farm Dovecote

The dovecote, now a garage, was built in the C18.

*No 26

The cottage is mid C17in construction.

Kirby Lodge

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, this was a finishing school for girls. Arthur Dunn, who captained the English football team four times, and also played in two FA Cup finals, lived here.

No 15

Formerly Butler’s bakery and shop with living quarters behind the shop. The building has been renovated and is now a private house.

Congregational Chapel

The chapel behind No 15 was founded in 1823 and rebuilt in 1881. The chapel closed and was sold to become a private home.

*No11

The cottage is late C17 with a slightly later bay added to the road end.

Phone Box

Rented by the parish council and now the village library.

Garden Fields

Mount View Cottages

This row of cottages was built, possibly in the late 1920’s, by a local builder Frederick Marshall, who lived on the corner of Newton Road. Their name

was derived from the view of Margaret’s or Maggot’s Mount from this part of the village.

Blennie’s Patch

The allotments were named after Blennie Powell (a member of the Wale family) who originally owned the land and sold it to the village.

Hauxton Road

*Forge Cottage

A cottage of several building periods, but mostly late C17, with C19 alterations and C20 enlargements. It was the village blacksmith’s smithy.

The Rope Walk

The house name was taken from a once thriving rope industry that was carried out on this site that ran parallel with Church Street .

Newton Road

No 10

The home of Sergeant Sid Dockerill, who was awarded the Military Cross during WW1, when the Cambridgeshire Regiment were involved in storming the Schwaben Redoubt in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. His medal is on display in the Duxford Imperial War Museum.

No 25 Beechwood

Formerly the ‘Red House’ – a children’s home until the late 1980’s.

The Obelisk

‘He lived an advocate for liberty, a good subject, an agreeable companion, a faithful friend, an hospitable neighbour and in all parts of life a useful member of society.’ This is part of the engraving to be found on the obelisk which is situated on St Margaret’s Mount, or Maggot’s Mount, a high vantage point to the west of the village that can be reached by a footpath from Newton Road. It was erected in 1739 to the memory of Mr Gregory Wale by his friend James Church. They regularly met at this place on horseback over many years and agreed that whoever should live the longest, would erect a memorial to their friendship on this high ground overlooking the parish. It was Mr Church who lived to carry out this pact. The obelisk is actually in the parish of Harston.

Hauxton Road (cont.)

Nos 19a, 19b, 19c

This was the site of the West End Brewery. The brewery was not very successful, perhaps it could not compete with the larger brewers and by 1916 the premises were no longer used for this purpose. The buildings were demolished by 1966.

No 65

Once the level crossing gate keeper’s house, but now a private home.

Level Crossing

This is the main line between Cambridge and King’s Cross. The body of King George VI was brought along this line from Sandringham in Norfolk, where he died, to London in February 1952.

Hauxton Road/Newton Road

Bradmere ditch

The flood relief ditch passes under both these roads before making its way to the River Cam/Granta.

M11

This section of the M11, from the Stansted junction to where the road joins the A14, was the third and final part of the motorway to be built and was completed in the 1970’s.

Heritage trail words written by Ray Saich, Chairman of the Little Shelford Local History Society.

*Listed building

For more information on all of these properties and stories, please go to www.littleshelfordhistory.co.uk

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