Landbeach is a small

fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich Groundwater, ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetlands along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as ...

-edge

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

village about three miles (5 km) north of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, 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. Cam ...

. The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

covers an area of .

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,

Akeman Street Akeman Street is a Roman road in southern England between the modern counties of Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire. It is approximately long and runs roughly east–west. Akeman Street linked Watling Street just north of Verulamium (near mode ...

, which once joined Ely to London, passes close to the village from north to south.

Car Dyke The Car Dyke was, and to a large extent still is, an long ditch which runs along the western edge of the Fens in eastern England. It is generally accepted as being of Roman age and, for many centuries, to have been taken as marking the western ...

, the Roman drainage canal known locally as the Tilling, also runs through the village and in medieval times marked the boundary between the marshes of Landbeach and neighbouring

Waterbeach Waterbeach is an expanding village north of Cambridge on the edge of The Fens, in the South Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. It was designated a "new town" in 2018. History Early periods Waterbeach is on the Car Dyke, a Ro ...

. Drainage of the parish was not completed until the 18th century, and for much of the year large areas of the parish were inundated. The village was listed as ''Utbech'' ("out bec") in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086, and in the 13th and 14th centuries 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 Anglo Saxon word ''bec'' meaning "stream", but a more plausible one gives the meaning as "shore", much like the modern "beach", as both Waterbeach and Landbeach were at the edge of

The Fens The Fens, also known as the , in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a ...

, then an area of marshland. Population reached a peak of 526 in 1851 but fell to 389 in 1911. It passed 600 for the first time in the 1950s and 800 in the 1990s. The village has three archaeological sites with remains of mediaeval manor houses, which together form a

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

Church

The parish church of All Saints comprises 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 medieval woodwork. The spire was rebuilt in 1972.

Tithe barn

Landbeach

Tithe Barn A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing rents and tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious orga ...

was constructed in the sixteenth century, or possibly earlier, for the collection and storage of

tithes A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more ...

paid by the villagers to the church. It is

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

ed,

timber framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

and weatherboarded, and is a

grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

. In 2016 the tithe barn was taken over by a charitable trust, which in 2019–20 renovated and rethatched the building. The tithe barn is used for village events.

Village life

Landbeach has two

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

es (Anglican and Baptist), a village hall and an Indian restaurant (formerly The Slap Up

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

). The nearest railway station is

, on the Fen Line. The village lies close to the A10 road that links

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 Turnpike often refers to: * A type of gate, another word for a turnstile * In the United States, a toll road Turnpike may also refer to: Roads United Kingdom * A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powers ...

(now the A10) remained, but this is now a restaurant.Landbeach - A Pocket History
/ref> 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 A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used either ...

Nearby villages

* Chittering *

* Milton *

Cottenham Cottenham is a village in Cambridgeshire, England. Cottenham is one of the larger villages surrounding the city of Cambridge, located around five miles north of the city. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 6095. Cottenham ...

References

External links

landbeach.org.uk

* ttp://www.fenedge.co.uk Fen Edge Community Association {{authority control Villages in Cambridgeshire Civil parishes in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District