Waterbeach

Waterbeach is a village on the edge of The Fens, 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Cambridge in the South Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It has grown recently as a dormitory settlement for Cambridge.

For other uses, see Waterbeach (disambiguation).

Waterbeach

Waterbeach village sign
Waterbeach
Location within Cambridgeshire
Population5,166 (2011)[1]
OS grid referenceTL496654
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townCAMBRIDGE
Postcode districtCB25
Dialling code01223
PoliceCambridgeshire
FireCambridgeshire
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament

History

Village

Waterbeach is on the Car Dyke, a Roman waterway whose course can be traced as far as Lincoln. Recent archaeological investigations have found extensive evidence of Roman settlement at the south end of the village.

Waterbeach appears in the 1086 Domesday Book as Utbech. In the 12th century, the Knights Templar occupied Denny Abbey to the north of the village, one of several Scheduled Ancient Monuments, which houses the Farmland Museum. Also scheduled are the site of Waterbeach Abbey, to the south of the present church, and a stretch of the Car Dyke.

The lawyer/politician John Yaxley acquired an estate at Waterbeach by 1610 and lived there. He and Edward Aungier of Cambridge purchased the manors of Waterbeach and Causeway from the Crown for £900 in 1614.[2]

RAF and British Army

A Royal Air Force station, RAF Waterbeach, was built on the northern edge of the village in 1940, for the RAF Bomber Command. After the Second World War, the station was operated by RAF Transport Command and then by RAF Fighter Command until 1966, when the site transferred to the Royal Engineers and became Waterbeach Barracks. The small Museum has closed, but its collection has been saved and put in storage.[3]

The barracks closed on 28 March 2013, after a move by all the remaining Army units to RAF Kinloss in Scotland and to RAF Wittering in 2012–2013. The site is being used to provide 6,000–10,000 new homes.[4][5]

Today
St John's Church

Waterbeach has expanded in recent years along with the economic growth in the region. It has increasingly become a dormitory for Cambridge. The village has several shops and businesses. There is a small industrial estate at the edge of the village and several small companies have premises in the village itself. Waterbeach Community Primary School has some 300 pupils. Adjacent to it is Waterbeach Independent Lending Library.

An Anglican Church of St John the Evangelist, a Baptist church famous for its ties with Charles Haddon Spurgeon,[6] and a corps of the Salvation Army are present in the village. Active community groups include Scouts and Girl Guides, the Army Cadet Force, playgroups and a play scheme, and a Community Association. The Denny End industrial estate and Cambridge Innovation Park accommodate businesses such as the Milton Brewery and A&R Cambridge Ltd. To the south-east is a Woodland Trust nature area called Cow Hollow Wood, created in 2000 to mark the Millennium.[7]

Transport

Waterbeach railway station is on the Fen Line between Cambridge and Kings Lynn. The village lies close to the busy London–King's Lynn A10 road. The village has a bus service linking it to Cambridge and to the towns of March, Wisbech and Littleport and the city of Ely.[8] A proposal to move the railway station closer to the development at the Barracks was approved by the local planning committee in 2018.[9]

An Ordnance Survey map of the 1920s shows an agricultural tramway running north from Clay's Farm on Joist Fen to Middle Farm, between the railway and the River Cam, opposite the ferry to Upware.

Notable people

In birth order:

See also

References
  1. "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  2. History of Parliament Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  3. "Museum's collection is saved". Retrieved 21 December 2012.
  4. "Waterbeach Barracks closes to make way for housing". Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  5. "First tranche of Army unit moves confirmed". Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  6. Waterbeach Baptist Church, History Archived June 17, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Cow Hollow Wood | Explore woods | The Woodland Trust". www.woodlandtrust.org.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  8. "Waterbeach". Oliver Merrington. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
  9. "Waterbeach on track for new railway station". South Cambs District Council. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  10. "Jugge, Judge, Richard (JG531R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

Sources

Bibliography
  • John F. Hamlin and Oliver J. Merrington (2011 and 2014), At the 'Beach: the story of Royal Air Force Waterbeach and Waterbeach Barracks, Peterborough: GMS Enterprises (available from Waterbeach Military Heritage Museum) ISBN 1-904514-63-4
  • William Keatinge Clay (1852), A History of the Parish of Waterbeach in the County of Cambridge, Cambridge: Deighton Bell (Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Octavo series, Vol. 4)
  • Robert Masters (1795), A Short Account of the Parish of Waterbeach: in the Diocese of Ely, London
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