Landbeach

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Landbeach
Cambridgeshire
Landbeach.JPG
Location
Grid reference: TL476652
Location: 52°15’52"N, 0°9’42"E
Data
Population: 825  (2001)
Post town: Cambridge
Postcode: CB25
Dialling code: 01223
Local Government
Council: South Cambridgeshire
Parliamentary
constituency:
South East Cambridgeshire

Landbeach is a small fen-edge village in Cambridgeshire, found about five miles north of Cambridge, off the main Cambridge to Ely road, the A10, which was also the ancient Roman road north into the Great Fen. The parish covers an area of Error: mismatched units.

History

The fen edge north of Cambridge was well populated in Roman times, and the village's situation on a Roman road will have helped its growth. The road, the Mere Way (also called Akeman Street), which once joined Ely to London, passes through the village from north to south. Car Dyke, the Roman drainage canal known locally as the Tilling, also runs through the village and in mediæval times marked the boundary between the marshes of Landbeach and neighbouring Waterbeach.

Drainage of the parish was not completed until the 18th century, and for much of the year large areas of the parish were inundated.[1]

The village was listed as Utbech ("out bec") in the Domesday Book and in the 13th and 14th century was occasionally referred to as Inbech ("in bec"). The original meaning of the "beach" part of the names is not universally agreed. One theory invokes the Old English word bec meaning "stream". Another suggests that it means "shore", much like the modern "beach", as both Waterbeach and Landbeach were at the edge of the Great Fen,[2] albeit that the word is not found in extant sources while bec is. It might be another local dialect word which is lost.

Population reached a peak of 526 in 1851 falling to 389 in 1911. It passed 600 for the first time in the 1950s and 800 in the 1990s.[1]

The village has three archaeological sites with remains of mediæval manor houses, which together form a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Churches

Church of All Saints

The parish church is All Saints. It has a chancel with north chapel, a nave with south porch, and a three-stage west tower with a slim octagonal spire. The majority of the present building was constructed in the 14th century, though there are some remains of the 13th century building at the base of the tower and chancel. The church retains much of its mediæval woodwork. The spire was rebuilt in 1972.[1]

Village life

Landbeach has two churches, a village hall and an Indian restaurant (formerly The Slap Up public house). The nearest railway station is Waterbeach, on the Fen Line. The village lies close to the A10 road that links Cambridge to Ely and on to King's Lynn.

There were up to seven public houses in the village in the 19th century, of which none remain. These included The Black Bull which opened in the mid-18th century. The Black Bull, The Bower and The British Queen are now private houses and The Red Cow remains only in that a part of its tiled floor can be seen in the garden of one of the houses in the High Street. There is no remaining trace of The Windmill, The Coach and Horses, The Queen Adelaide or The Bricklayers Arms. By the 1960s only The Slap-Up, which opened in around 1860 on the Cambridge to Ely turnpike (now the A10) remained, but this is now a restaurant, renamed Bollywood Spice.[1][3]

Landbeach Recreation Ground on Cockfen Lane is a Queen Elizabeth II Field.

Within the parish boundary, but outside the residential area, is Cambridge Research Park, on the site of the former Landbeach Marina, itself a flooded former gravel pit.

Village sign

Outside links

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("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Landbeach)

References