Cherry Hinton Hall is a house and
park
A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...
in
Cherry Hinton
Cherry Hinton is a suburban area of the city of Cambridge, in Cambridgeshire, England. It is around southeast of Cambridge city centre.
History
The rectangular parish of Cherry Hinton occupies the western corner of Flendish hundred on the so ...
, to the south of
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, England. The house and grounds are owned and managed by
Cambridge City Council.
The Hall hosts the annual
Cambridge Folk Festival that draws thousands to the park. During the summer Cherry Hinton Hall is popular including with young families. Community activities also take place in the park, such as an
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
and buildings survey carried out by local schoolchildren in 2007.
In 2007, Cherry Hinton Hall became home to
Cambridge International School and later Holme Court School, a specialist school for children with
dyslexia
Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...
and related conditions. It is now home to Oaks International School, which is owned by the International Schools Partnership.
The ''Friends of Cherry Hinton Hall'' was formed in 2009 as a group concerned about the usage, environment, welfare and future of the park for the benefit of those who use it most.
Owners and residents
![Ad for Cherry Hinton Hall 1870](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Ad_for_Cherry_Hinton_Hall_1870.jpg)
Cherry Hinton Hall was built in 1839 by John Okes (1793-1870), a surgeon at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. He had been apprenticed to his father, Thomas Verney Okes, a doctor at Addenbrookes Hospital, before qualifying at the University of Cambridge as a surgeon. In 1824 Okes married Mary Elizabeth Collin, only daughter of Joseph Martin, of Epping. They lived in Cambridge for some time; from 1831 Okes purchased the old enclosures at Mill End Close, and the land at Mill End common, and in 1839 built Cherry Hinton Hall on this land. John Okes outlined in a court case the improvements he made to the land. He said when he bought it there was only an old farm house on it. He built the Hall and then laid out the gardens. He made the following statement in 1854: “I have laid out a considerable sum of money in planting. When I purchased the estate the Cherry Hinton Brook ran through it. The whole stream came from two springs skirting my property. In building the house I selected the spot with a view of making ornamental water. I cut a channel and made the lake in a great measure and have been every year enlarging it. I have stocked the stream for trout and dug a pond for pike". On Okes's death in 1870 the Cherry Hinton estate was sold to the Cambridge University and Town Waterworks Company. One of the Directors of the Waterworks Company was the next resident.
![Charles Balls circa 1860](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Charles_Balls_circa_1860.jpg)
Charles Balls was born in 1810 in Cambridge, son of farm labourer Henry Balls. He became a shoe-maker, subsequently making his fortune as a leather merchant. In 1858 and 1859 he was appointed Mayor of Cambridge, and was later one of the Directors of the Cambridge University and Town Waterworks Company and, at one time, was Chairman of the Cambridge University and Town Gas Light Company. His wife Eliza died in 1876 at Cherry Hinton Hall and Charles and his daughters lived at the Hall until 1888 when they moved back to Cambridge. Charles died in 1892 in his Cambridge home at the age of 82.
By 1902, Richard Thomas Lyons MD lived at the Hall. In 1902 solicitor
Sir William Phene Neal, 1st Baronet (
Lord Mayor of London
The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...
in 1930) and his wife came to live at the Hall, and remained there for many years.
It appears that Neal operated a dairy farm on the estate, as reference is made in a trade magazine to the “Cherryhinton Hall Farm Dairy".
[British Food Journal, 1919, p. 87. Online reference https://books.google.com/books?id=QY09AQAAMAAJ&q=%22cherryhinton+hall+farm+dairy%22&dq=%22cherryhinton+hall+farm+dairy%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=p8H2UrjmMcWrkgXjm4CoCg&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAQ] In the 1930s the Hall and surrounding land was purchased by the Cambridge City Council and they still own it today.
References
External links
*
Cherry Hinton Hall at British HistoryCambridge City CouncilFriends of Cherry Hinton Hall
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Cambridge
Parks and open spaces in Cambridge
Country houses in Cambridgeshire