Fowlmere is one of the southernmost villages in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, England. The population of the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

at the 2011 Census was 1,206. It is very close to the

Imperial War Museum Duxford Imperial War Museum Duxford is a branch of the Imperial War Museum near Duxford in Cambridgeshire, England. Britain's largest aviation museum, Duxford houses the museum's large exhibits, including nearly 200 aircraft, military vehicles, artill ...

, and southwest of the city 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 ...

History

The village has an ancient landmark called the ‘Round Moat’, which is the remains of an early

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

settlement dating from around the ninth century. The Census Records from 1841 to 1891 can be found in the Cambridge Record Office. In addition the 1851 Census for Fowlmere is available in full transcript form, on microfiche, from th
Cambridgeshire Family History Society Bookstall

The village was struck by an F1/T2 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.

Village life

Fowlmere has one pub, The Chequers that has operated since the 16th Century. It served as a coaching inn for travellers going into and from

and was even used as coffin storage for those travelling with bodies. It was notably mentioned in the diary of

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...

, which is regarded as an important historical English diary. Nowadays, the pub serves as a local bar and restaurant that takes in patrons from many nearby villages. Fowlmere has no general convenience shop, but does have a small business park that houses several business. There are three main fields in Fowlmere: One next to the school, one behind the church and one by the Village Hall. They are regularly used by locals for recreation and are maintained by the local council.

School

Fowlmere has one school, Fowlmere Primary School which educates around 100 students a year. It is an extension of an old school building that has been used since its founding in 1861. It teaches pupils aged 4–11 (years reception to 6) and attracts pupils from both Fowlmere,

Thriplow Thriplow () is a village in the civil parish of Thriplow and Heathfield, in Cambridgeshire, England, south of Cambridge. The village also gives its name to a former Cambridgeshire hundred. History The parish of Thriplow covers , roughly span ...

and nearby

Great Chishill Great Chishill is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Great and Little Chishill, in the South Cambridgeshire district, in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. The village is about east of the county boundary with Hertford ...

as it does not have a Primary school of its own. The site lies opposite 'The Butts' which is a field and neighbourhood at the edge of the village. The school forms a large part of the community, as most of the children in the small village grow up around it.

Airfield

Fowlmere Airfield opened in late-1916 as an emergency landing ground for 75 (Home Defence) Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps, who had their HQ in Bedford and dispersed their three flights to Yelling (St Neots), Old Weston (Thrapston) and Therfield (Baldock) on anti-Zeppelin duties. Its purpose was to receive aircraft lost, out of fuel or with engine troubles and was staffed with a minimum number of personnel whose prime task was to light flares to aid pilots in finding the site. It closed down after WW1. As

RAF Fowlmere Fowlmere Airfield is a small airfield located northeast of Royston, Hertfordshire and southwest of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. It was previously a Royal Air Force satellite station, RAF Fowlmere. History First World War Flying at ...

, near the edge of the village, it was the location for the RAF Station and transferred to the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) for use by their 339th Fighter Group during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The Group flew its first combat mission on 30 April 1944, and its last on 21 April 1945. Modern Air was established at the airfield during September 1990 by Derick Gunning and Anna McDowell. Now the airfield provides pilots with self-fly

Piper aircraft Piper Aircraft, Inc. is a manufacturer of general aviation aircraft, located at the Vero Beach Regional Airport in Vero Beach, Florida, United States and owned since 2009 by the Government of Brunei. Throughout much of the mid-to-late 20th centur ...

and servicing, as well as PPL training. * ICAO: EGMA * Runway Length: * Runway Surface: Grass * Aircraft for hire (2009): 4 * PPR for visiting: 01763 208281 * Fowlmere radio: 135.705 MHz

Natural history

The Fowlmere nature reserve (maintained by the

RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

) is situated west of the village, between it and the village of

Melbourn Melbourn () is a large, clustered village in the far south-west of Cambridgeshire, England. Its traditional high street is bypassed by the A10, intersecting the settlement's other main axis exactly northwest of the traditional focal point of R ...

. With of nature trails, it attracts many visitors. Several special birds are seen there, including:

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

water rail The water rail (''Rallus aquaticus'') is a bird of the rail family which breeds in well-vegetated wetlands across Europe, Asia and North Africa. Northern and eastern populations are migratory, but this species is a permanent resident in the war ...

s, and

grasshopper warbler The grass warblers are small passerine birds belonging to the genus ''Locustella''. Formerly placed in the paraphyletic "Old World warbler" assemblage, they are now considered the northernmost representatives of a largely Gondwanan family, the ...

s. Fowlmere, along with several other Cambridgeshire villages, lays claim to a sighting of the infamous Fen Tiger, a supposed wild

big cat The term "big cat" is typically used to refer to any of the five living members of the genus '' Panthera'', namely the tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard. Despite enormous differences in size, various cat species are quite similar ...

.Cambridge Paranormal

References

External links

Fowlmere's airfields

Modern Air

Fowlmere Nature Reserve

Fowlmere Primary School
{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District