Fulbourn
| Fulbourn | |
| Cambridgeshire | |
|---|---|
 Fulbourn High Street and church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TL522563 |
| Location: | 52°11’2"N, -0°13’38"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 4,673 (2011) |
| Post town: | Cambridge |
| Postcode: | CB21 |
| Dialling code: | 01223 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | South Cambridgeshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
South East Cambridgeshire |
Fulbourn is a village in southern Cambridgeshire, about five miles southeast of central Cambridge. To the west is Cherry Hinton and Cambridge beyond it. To the east is Great Wilbraham, and to the north the vast fields drained from the fen.
The village has so far escaped the swelling of Cambridge, separated from it by farmland and the grounds of Fulbourn Hospital. It is part of the Cambridge Green Belt. The village itself is fairly compact and it sits in the midst of a rural parish. This is the fen edge; north and east of the village the land is flat, drained fen, while to the south and southwest the Gog Magog Hills rise up, reaching over 200 feet. There is a wooded area including a Nature Reserve (Fulbourn Fen) to the east in the Manor grounds.
The traditional parish boundaries are ancient marks: to the south a Roman road running over the hills and the yet more ancient Icknield Way; to the east is Fleam Dyke, an early Anglo-Saxon defensive earthwork which also marks the boundary of (and gives a name to) the Flendish Hundred in which Fulbourne sits, and on its course the corner of the parish is Mutlow Hill, an Iron Age barrow. The tributary streams of the Quy Water mark the northern bounds.
Population
Most of the population live within a half-mile square in the main village. The village is centred on the Parish Church of Saint Vigor, but has extended in post-war years west towards Cambridge and north in a narrow ribbon of development towards the former station on the Ipswich to Ely Line (Cambridge branch). There has been substantial housing estate development, both local authority and private, particularly southwest and south of the centre.
The civil parish contains additional housing located on the edge of Cherry Hinton.
Employment and commerce
Since Second World War most residents in employment have worked outside the village, in Cambridge or elsewhere. Many find work at the close-by Addenbrookes Hospital. Within the village itself there is employment in small industrial areas close to the former railway station (where there is now a level crossing on the Great Wilbraham road) and elsewhere to the north of the village. There are also professional offices in the former rectory and pumping station and a developing business park in redundant hospital buildings and in new buildings close by. Others are employed in service industries such as retail, and in education. Agriculture, though still important in terms of land use, only employs a small number of people.
The village's business park is joined by the Capital Park on the site of the old hospital, which has many tens of thousands of square feet of office space. These parks enhance the area's business environment beyond what was started by the creation of the Science Parks which date from the 1980s and 1990s.
In the High Street there are a number of shops including a supermarket, a butcher selling own-flock and local produce, a greengrocer selling produce from New Covent Garden Market and flowers, an estate agents, a chemist, a children second-hand shop, a used-car dealer, an antiques shop, a cappuccino bar, a beauty salon, a Chinese take-away and a kebab shop, as well as "Twelve", the church office/meeting-room. The florist which closed down in 2013 has now been refurbished into a second hand clothes store.
Besides the church, perhaps the most important social centre in the village is The Six Bells pub, now owned by the White family and housed in a building that dates from the 15th century. Being historically "the last coaching stop on the way to Newmarket", Fulbourn at one time had over twenty public houses; there are now just three; the Six Bells in the High Street, The White Hart on Balsham Road, and the Baker's Arms on the corner of Teversham Road. The Fulbourn Community Centre is attached to the Townley Memorial Hall.
Big Society
The village has a well-appointed recreation ground adjacent to which is the newly refurbished Townley Memorial village hall, which now includes meeting rooms, a small indoor sports hall, a venue for sports and social clubs.
There are a community centre and a village hall on separate sites, the hall being adjacent to the extensive recreation ground. There is a retirement home, Home Close, in the village: the Rector currently sits on the Residents' Committee, visits the home regularly and conducts services there.
- Football:
- Fulbourn Institute FC
- Fulbourn Sports
- There are also 2 Colts clubs Fulbourn Institute and Fulbourn Falcons.
There is a thriving amateur dramatics society in the village, St John's Players.
Future developments
Proposals for significant additional housing to the north of the village after 2016 included in the current Structure Plan review have been vigorously fought by the Parish and District Councils. The Panel which conducted an examination into the review have recommended that these proposals be dropped. It is expected, however, whatever the outcome, some additional housing will occur within or on the edge of the village in the next 10 years or so. Apart from the developing Business Park already mentioned there are no current proposals for major additional employment opportunities in Fulbourn.
Arts and Artists
Fulbourn is home to several artists: painters, sculptors, jewellers, potters, textile artists participate in Open Studios in July.
Outside links
- Fulbourn Parish Council
- Fulbourn Primary School
- Fulbourn Village Library
- St John's Players - Fulbourn's Amateur Dramatics Society
- Fulbourn Village History Society
- http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/your_university/anglia_ruskin_campuses/fulbourn.html