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Test Pits 9 and 11 - 14 High Street
These pits were dug in a garden close to the High Street, at the southern end of Allerton Terrace. Allerton Terrace is a block of six terraced cottages. The cottages were built in 1910/11 on land purchased by the Great Northern Railway Company (GNR) in 1890. Having hit natural after only three contexts of test pit 9, the family team digging the pit were having so much fun that they dug a second pit very close to the first. The Finds The two pits,...
Birds of Meldreth and their Eggs
Introduction I shared this hobby mainly with Roger Hart and Michael Burgess. We had a keen interest in birds and could identify most that were likely to be seen in Meldreth. We also brought up and tamed young sparrowhawks and jackdaws but our main interest, as with many boys, was egg collecting[1]. We each had our own collection and mine was kept in a large drawer lined with cotton wool. (I had only a small drawer for all my clothes!) I had 46 eg...
Test Pit 8 - Flambards Green
This pit, together with test pits 7 and 19, was dug within an old moated area off Flambards Close that was once the site of a manor house. The moat was filled in when the houses were built, c. 1970. Information on the finds that emerged from this pit will be added in due course. In the meantime, the site diary and a selection of photographs is shown below. The Finds Although not as productive as Test Pit 7, which was dug at the eastern end of Fla...
Test Pit 7 - Flambards Green
This pit, together with test pits 8 and 19, was dug within an old moated area off Flambards Close that was once the site of a manor house. The moat was filled in when the houses were built, c. 1970. The Finds This pit produced exceptionally large quantities of medieval pottery, showing that people were living here at that time. The earliest material suggests that occupation began around the time of the Norman Conquest, and perhaps even a little e...
Test Pit 6 - 14 Flambards Close
The pit was located in the back garden, close to the river. The house was built c.1970 when the Flambards estate was developed. Previously, Flambards Mill was located close to the test pit site. A mill probably stood on the site for centuries although the most recent building was erected in the early 1840s and stood until it was destroyed by fire, c. 1910. The Finds Flambards Mill stood close to this site for centuries, so it was hoped that this ...
Test Pit 5 - 90a High Street
This pit was located on land adjacent to the British Queen. It was dug close to the river behind the house which is now called Longmead. At one time called “The Limes”, it was once part of Sheene Manor. Sylvia Gipson recalled the house: “I remember the house had a small ornamental garden at the back and the rest of the land was orchards right down to the river. Then all the trees were taken out and the gardens were created”. In the late 1950’s th...
Test Pit 4 - The British Queen
The pit was dug behind the large barn that stands in the grounds of The British Queen. The British Queen has been a public house since at least 1841, when Nathan Driver was the publican. It is now the only public house remaining in the village. During the 1940s, Percy Cox had a smithy there and in the 1970s the barn was used as a car workshop. The Finds This test pit produced a lot of rubbish! Lots of rubble, car parts and even a whole Cinzano bo...
Test Pit 3 - 57 Whitecroft Road
The pit was dug behind the garden of 57 Whitecroft Road on land that once belonged to 17th century Bluebell Cottage. The Finds This test pit produced a single sherd of Romano-British ware, small quantities of Medieval Shelly Ware, Early Medieval Sandy Ware and Hertfordshire greyware all dating to the 12th-14th centuries, two sherds of Late Medieval Ware dating to the 15th-16th centuries, a few sherds each of Glazed Red Earthenware and Staffordshi...
Test Pit 2 - 17 Chiswick End
This bungalow was built on an old orchard which belonged to John Payne of Melbourn. The test pit was dug in the front garden, against the garage wall. The Finds Six contexts were dug. This test pit produced single sherds of Romano-British Ware and Early Medieval Sandy Ware, and six sherds of Hertfordshire Greyware dating to the late 12th-14th centuries AD. Five sherds of Late Medieval Ware dating to the 15th-16th century, some Glazed Red Earthenw...
Test Pit 1 - 33 Chiswick End
The bungalow was built in 1976 on an old Bramley apple orchard owned by George Palmer. The pit was located in the back garden. The Results This test-pit produced small quantities of Glazed Red Earthenware and English Stoneware dated to the post-medieval period and a small assemblage of 21 sherds dating from the Victorian era. Other finds consisted of metal nails, a handle and other scraps, a bone shirt button, stone, mortar, charcoal, glass, clay...
Resources for Volunteers
A number of resource documents are available by following the download links below. If you would like to learn more about animal bone, pottery and flint identification, there are a number of guides available as free downloads on the Jigsaw Cambridgeshire website. The following books are also recommended: Pottery in Britain 4000BC to AD1900 by Lloyd Laing Archaeological Finds – A Guide to Identification by Norena Shopland ACA Website Access Cambri...
Location of Test Pits
As part of our Heritage Lottery Funded project, a total of 32 pits were dug in the village. The pits were dug on the following dates: 8th & 9th June: 11 pits, 10 of which were open to the public 6th & 7th July: 10 pits, 7 of which were open to the public 12th July: 1 pit (at Meldreth Manor School) 17th & 18th August: 10 pits, all of which were open to the public. In addition, Topcliffe Mill was open to visitors. Map showing the location of the pi...
The Valuation Office Survey (or Lloyd George's Domesday) 1910
These records were made for tax administration following the 1910 Budget and are sometimes referred to as the Land Values Duties returns. The Act provided for a valuation to be made of the land of the United Kingdom as at 30 April 1909. This valuation was to include all property, whether it was later considered exempt or not. The valuation process began during the summer of 1910. From August, landowners were sent a form which “an owner of land or...
Meldreth May Fayre
Despite some showers, over 500 people attended Meldreth’s May Fayre this year. Stalls, bands and fun competitions were all included in the fayre. Children in fancy dress joined a colourful procession, led by Aston Whitehouse, the Meldreth May Queen. Residents also brought their carefully crafted home-made scarecrows to vie for Scarecrow Champion 2013 and talented bakers entered the Victoria sponge cake competition. Event organiser Michiel Dixon s...
Accident to Mr Charles Sutherland Proctor of Gravesend
The following report appeared in the Royston Crow on 30th May 1930: ACCIDENT – Mr. Charles Sutherland Proctor, 43, of Pier Road, Gravesend, Kent, now staying for a holiday at the Sailor’s Return, Meldreth, was on Tuesday about 2.40 thrown from his motor cycle while riding from Melbourn to Shepreth. It seems the road is bad with potholes and loose stones lying about. The cycle struck a large stone and the rider received abrasions and slight concus...
Memories of 1944
I would like to report on a short stay I had in Meldreth in 1944. I am not sure if all my memories are correct, so I welcome any comments, corrections or answers to my queries. When I was four and a half my family were living in Sidcup, Kent but the intensity of the V1 attacks got so great my mother arranged for us to stay with her aunt in Meldreth. The aunt’s name was Annie Waldock, whose husband was William Waldock. They had two children Mary a...
The Twenty Year Search for a Burial Ground
Introduction We know from the Bishops Transcripts (contemporary copies of the parish registers) that burials have taken place in Holy Trinity churchyard since at least 1599. It was just over three hundred years later, in 1907, that the churchyard was officially closed. The information below relates to the search for a new burial ground, which began at least as early as 1902 and was to last for twenty years. For more information on the churchyard ...
The Abrey Family
Thomas Abrey was born in 1826 in Mildenhall, Suffolk. In 1846 he married Sarah Ann Garner. The couple had two children, Alfred and Louise. Sarah Ann and Alfred subsequently died in a fever epidemic. In 1860 Thomas was married for a second time, to Caroline Lee in Ely. Their first child, William John was born in Ely in 1861. By the time their daughter Jane was born in 1862 they were living in Melbourn but within two years the family had moved to R...
Sheene Farm
Farming at Sheene We are indebted to Michael and Janet Pilkington for providing the information for this page on Sheene Farm. Sheene Farm totalled nearly a thousand acres in the mid twentieth century. Most of the land was around the Manor House but there were 100 acres beside the London Road in Melbourn with more land in Chiswick End, the Meads, a plum orchard on Mettle Hill and a large apple orchard where Oakrits stands now. George Palmer also o...
Ambulance Trains and the Nissen Huts
We are indebted to Meldreth resident and Local History Group member Derek Stewart for his research and much of the write-up on this topic. As part of the preparations for D-Day a number of sites in Southern England were identified for the treatment of the wounded. One such site was Wimpole Hall where the large, tented 163rd US Army General Hospital, was set up in the grounds for the treatment of injured US soldiers. Meldreth was the nearest railw...
Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee 1977
The Queen’s Silver Jubilee was celebrated in Meldreth on Tuesday 7th June 1977. The Programme 1.45pm Procession from the village hall to the stocks. 2.00pm Reverend Alan Heawood dedicated the new village sign. 2.30pm Children’s sports on the school field 3.45pm Tea for everyone in the Village Hall followed by a Whist Drive for the 0ver 60’s 4.00pm It’s a Knock Out on the recreation ground 8.30pm Jubilee barbeque followed by dancing with a live ba...
150 Year Anniversary of the Railway
... Nigel Hale Ernest Hale is my Great Grandfather. His sons George (my Grandfather) and Bernard also worked on the railways....
My Memories of Meldreth Primary School in the 1940s
As I was born on November 2nd 1938, I suppose I must have started going to school in 1943*. My first recollection of school was the day that I accompanied my mother to visit this large building and converse with the head teacher who I understand, may have been a Miss Butler. I imagine that I was being ‘booked in’ and details were being finalised for my first day. As I stood nervously in the room, it was the chairs placed on top of the tables whic...
Bird Scaring Duty
Click on the audio bar opposite to hear Dennis Pepper talking about scaring the birds out the cherry orchards when he was a young boy. It was a good thing to have big families in those days, particularly if you were farming because there was so much handwork and all the children were always brought in to help out as much as possible as well as uncles and aunts who used to come fruit picking and that sort of thing. Harvest time, of course, was the...
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