Part 2: the Design Context

PART 2: THE DESIGN CONTEXT 2.1 Geology, Topography and Historical Context 2.1.1 The Geology of South Nodules of flint, a few centimetres or Cambridgeshire more in diameter, are a feature of Chalk deposits. Flint is very hard The geological deposits that and composed of silica, chemically underlay South Cambridgeshire unrelated to chalk, but with its predominantly date from the origins also in marine organisms, Cretaceous Period of geological albeit ones with delicate skeletons of history (65 to 140 million years ago), silica. The silica forming these which, by geological standards, are skeletons was not particularly stable therefore relatively young. In the and, after the creatures’ death, it north-west of the district are a series was dissolved into the chalk where it of slightly older clay deposits from re-deposited in a more stable form the Upper Jurassic Period. The as nodules of flint. The hard nature geology is divided into a series of of the flint nodules makes them strata that outcrop in bands running difficult to shape for use in walling. roughly north-east to south-west Because of this, the traditional form across the district (see map in Fig of flint walling was to lay rough 2.1). These formations were laid nodules of flint in beds with one side down as successive marine deposits crudely faced, or knapped, and to that have since been raised and use brickwork to frame rectangular tilted to slope south-eastwards by openings for windows and doors, or earth movements in Tertiary times. to turn corners. This careful, selective use of brickwork reflected The south-eastern half of the district the relatively high cost of importing is underlain by Chalk, a soft white bricks from the adjacent clay areas, limestone of great purity and and has created a distinctive composed almost entirely of calcium appearance in the region. carbonate derived from the shells of marine animals deposited in a North-west of the chalk is a band of warm, clear sea. Chalk is a dark blue/grey clay, known as the relatively soft rock that makes a Gault Clay. In the 18th Century this poor building stone, but in this band of clay began to be worked on region a more resistant formation a large scale for brick making, from the Lower Chalk beds was producing at first a ‘white’ brick that sometimes used in traditional weathers grey, then later in the 19th buildings, where it is referred to as Century, the characteristic yellow clunch. The Lower Chalk beds also ‘Cambridge stock’ brick. The same include a Chalk Marl that is beds were worked for plain clay particularly suitable for the peg-tiles for the 15th Century manufacture of cement. In the onwards with clay pan-tiles south-east parishes of the district becoming widespread from the 18th the chalk is overlain by glacial Century. bolder clay, deposited by the retreating glaciers at the end of the Immediately north-west of the Gault last ice age. Clay is a narrow band of sandstone, referred to as the Lower Greensand. This band is relatively insignificant in ‘island’ of Greensand that outcrops the northern parts of the district, but within the fenland. To the west of it produces a slightly raised rib of the district the band of Greensand land above the adjacent clay fens increases in width and around that is the site for a number of Gamlingay it becomes much more settlements, most notably prominent in the landscape. Cottenham and Oakington. Further north the city of Ely is sited on an Fig 2.1 Map showing the principal geological deposits of South Cambridgeshire 2.1.2 The Topography of South range of low lying hills, which are Cambridgeshire around 100 metres above sea level. The highest ground in the District is While much of South in the south at Great Chishill, where Cambridgeshire is low lying, there the hills reach a height of just under are some significant variations to the 150 metres. In the west of the topography across the district, with a District is a second range of chalk strong correlation to the underlying hills, which correlate to a finger of geology outlined in the previous chalk that projects into the Gault section. Clay, though these hills are not as high and only attain a height of 70 to The fenland lies at, or around, sea 80 metres above sea level. level with the 10-metre contour defining the fen-edge, and along All of the chalklands, along with the which line a number of villages are eastern fens, drain to the River Cam sited. These fens broadly and its associated tributaries, which correspond to the clay deposits that in turn feeds into the River Great lie to the north of Cambridge. As Ouse. The fens that lie to the north one moves onto the chalklands the drain direct to the Great Ouse, land quickly rises into rolling where it also forms the northern downland that is generally between boundary of the District, and 20 and 40 metres above sea level, eventually reaches the sea at the though slightly higher in the east. Wash. Further south and east the chalklands continue to rise into a Fig 2.2 Map outlining the basic topography of South Cambridgeshire 2.1.3 The Historical Development continued through the Bronze Age of South Cambridgeshire and into the Iron Age, by when farming had become so well The siting and historical developed that huge tracts of land development of settlements within were covered by ditched fields and South Cambridgeshire is closely enclosed homesteads, especially in associated with the communication areas of gravel subsoil. network (particularly at river crossings or road junctions), the Roman avoidance of land liable to flooding The Roman towns of this region, and developments in agriculture. Cambridge, Godmanchester, Sandy The spring-lines between the chalk and Great Chesterford, are all and clay were favoured areas for located just outside the District, but settlement, and so, to an even their markets brought prosperity to greater extent, were the river the adjacent rural areas and the valleys, with their light gravel and network of Roman roads have left a alluvial soils and good lasting legacy. The best preserved communications. The chalk areas Roman settlement is at Bullock’s to the south could only be settled Haste in Cottenham; a site so large where water supplies were that it appears more like a town than available, but the open aspect of this a village, while Romanisation of the countryside made it particularly countryside was established though suitable for trade routes from east to a series of villas that were at the west across the region, using centre of agricultural estates. Those numerous parallel tracks that are excavated at Litlington and Ickleton collectively known as the Icknield were particularly large and Way. magnificent examples, while others are known at Babraham, Bartlow, Prehistoric Comberton, Guilden Morden, In Palaeolithic and Mesolithic times Horningsea, Horseheath, Linton, the area was occupied by hunter- Shepreth, Teversham and Great gatherers, when much of the area Wilbraham. Another important that was later to become fen was feature of the Roman occupation then above sea level, so could also were canals. Car Dyke, visible support the hunter-gatherer today at Cottenham, Landbeach and societies in a forest landscape. It Waterbeach, was used to transport was the rise in sea level that food-stuffs, leather goods and other accompanied the melting ice-cap at products from the agricultural the end of the last ice age that lead regions of southern Cambridgeshire to periodic flooding and the to the army stationed in Northern development of the fenland areas. Britain. It may also have served to In Neolithic times communities drain neighbouring land. became more settled and an agrarian based society started to Anglo-Saxon develop. These early communities Occupation of a number of Roman established themselves on the chalk sites is believed to have continued grasslands around the Icknield Way, on into Saxon times, along with use along the river valleys and fenland of the Roman roads, since many edge, and on the lighter soils Saxon settlements and burial sites associated with the Greensand. The follow these routes. The best- development of these communities known sites from the early Anglo- Saxon period are a series of The process was to be fraught with cemeteries and defensive Dykes, problems as the peat shrank, though more recent excavations leaving much of the land below sea have now revealed evidence of huts, level and windmills (later replaced halls and other signs of human by steam, diesel and electric pumps) occupation at Hinxton, Linton, were then required to lift the water Cottenham, Waterbeach, back up to sea level. However, the Pampisford and Great Wilbraham. rich farmland that was created by The four great Anglo-Saxon dykes in this process was capable of South Cambridgeshire (Miles supporting a large population and Ditches, Bran Ditch, Brent Ditch and the villages along the fen-edge Fleam Dyke), together with the expanded as a result. larger Devil’s Dyke in East Cambridgeshire, all appear to have Until the middle of the eighteenth had the same function, namely to century the majority of parishes protect land in the east by continued to farm in common, as preventing easy access along the they had since Saxon times, with the Icknield Way, and all are built to a huge medieval open fields worked in similar pattern, with wide, flat bases narrow strips. Then, over a period and straight-sided ditches on the of 100 years, these fields were western side. enclosed by successive acts of Parliament as the Enclosure Middle Ages movement brought about major By 1086, when the Domesday Book change to the countryside.

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