Isleham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Cambridgeshire. It is part of the Fens. It has three pubs.

Geography

Isleham is located in the Fens of south-east Cambridgeshire. The western parish boundary is formed by the

Crooked Ditch Crooked may refer to: * Crooked Creek (disambiguation) * Crooked Island (disambiguation) * Crooked Lake (disambiguation) * Crooked River (disambiguation) * Crooked Harbour, Hong Kong * Crooked Forest, West Pomerania, Poland * Crooked Bridge, a ra ...

or Crooked Drain, the eastern boundary largely by the Lea Brook and the north by the

River Lark The River Lark is a river in England that crosses the border between Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. It is a tributary of the River Great Ouse, and was extended when that river was re-routed as part of drainage improvements. It is thought to have be ...

. The village lies on the B1104 from Prickwillow to

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village ...

. Isleham is twinned with Nesles in France and

Magdala Magdala (Aramaic: מגדלא, ''Magdala'', meaning "tower"; Hebrew: , ''Migdal''; ar, المجدل, ''al-Majdal'') was an ancient Jewish city on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, north of Tiberias. In the Babylonian Talmud it is known as Magda ...

in Germany and recently with Maltov in Russia.

Amenities

The village shops: a

Co-op supermarket A consumers' co-operative is an business, enterprise owned by consumers and managed democracy, democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market economy, market system ...

Post Office. There are also three public houses - The Griffin, The Merry Monk and the Rising Sun - and three churches
The Ark Churchplfc (Pound Lane Free Church)
and St Andrew's

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

Archaeology

The region between Devil's Dyke and the line between

Littleport Littleport is a large village in East Cambridgeshire, in the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about north-east of Ely and south-east of Welney, on the Bedford Level South section of the River Great Ouse, close to Burnt Fen and ...

and Shippea Hill shows a remarkable amount of

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 ...

findings of the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age . Findings in Isleham include the famous

Isleham Hoard The Isleham Hoard is a hoard of more than 6,500 pieces of worked and unworked bronze, dating from the Bronze Age, found in 1959 by William 'Bill' Houghton and his brother, Arthur, at Isleham, near Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely, in the English county o ...

of more than 6500 pieces of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

, both manufactured articles and fragments of sheet bronze, all dating from the late Bronze Age, and discovered by William 'Bill' Houghton and his brother, Arthur.

Genealogy

Following a landscaping project, plfc (Pound Lane Free Church) have made listings and photographs of the graveyard headstones available via an on-line library.

History

Its name seems to come from

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

''Gísla hám'' = "the home of the hostages". It seems that in Anglo-Saxon societies the position of a hostage from one political group held by another political group, was sometimes more or less voluntary, and the meaning of the word could slip into "representative". On 3 May 1850 preacher Charles Spurgeon was baptised in the river Lark. To this day, a stone marks the location. The Priory of St Margaret of Antioch was founded in the village in 1090. It was always an

alien priory Alien priories were religious establishments in England, such as monasteries and convents, which were under the control of another religious house outside England. Usually the mother-house was in France.Coredon ''Dictionary of Medieval Terms'' p. ...

run directly from France and, as such, was dissolved in 1414. It was later used as a barn and is now looked after by English Heritage. St Andrew's parish church is the burial site for important ancestors of the Peyton family. Many visitors who have Peyton ancestors visit the church throughout the year, and obtain rubbings of the famous brasses decorating the Peyton monuments. The church continues to be restored with the help of donations from Peyton families in the UK and USA. Isleham Hall on West Street is a building associated with the Peyton family, and dating from the 16th century.

Culture

In 1975

Mary Chamberlain Mary Chamberlain (born 3 September 1947) is a British novelist and historian. She has been largely collected by libraries worldwide. Early life Chamberlain was born 3 September 1947 in South London, and holds degrees from the University of Edi ...

published the book ''Fenwomen'', an account of the lives of women in the village of Gislea - which was a pseudonym for Isleham. In 2015, English rapper Dirty Dike released his fourth album which included a track entitled 'Isleham Swamp'. Dirty Dike has referenced Cambridgeshire and the Fenland in several of his tracks.

References

External links

2001 CensusIsleham Village WebsiteIsleham InformerThe Griffin Isleham WebsiteThe Rising Sun Isleham WebsiteThe Old Vicarage B&B Isleham WebsiteIsleham FC Websiteplfc (Pound Lane Free Church, Isleham) genealogy library
{{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire East Cambridgeshire District