Queen Adelaide is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

on the River Great Ouse in

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 ...

about northeast of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. Queen Adelaide town sign - geograph

The hamlet is named after a

pub 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 was ...

, which in turn was named after

Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen , house = Saxe-Meiningen , father = Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen , mother = Princess Louise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Meiningen, Saxe-Meiningen, Holy ...

, wife of

King William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded hi ...

. The hamlet did not exist until the 19th century, when the railways reached Ely and the pub was built. The B1382 road is Queen Adelaide's main street. South of the hamlet is a junction of three railways: the

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 ...

, Breckland and Ely to Peterborough railway lines. Each of the three lines crosses the hamlet's main street with a separate

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term a ...

. West of the hamlet there is also a

loop Loop or LOOP may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live * Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets * Loop Mobile, an ...

line, the Adelaide Loop, that the B1382 crosses on a bridge. The River Great Ouse is just to the east, and the section flowing north from the Queen Adelaide Bridge to the Sandhill Bridge at Littleport is known as the ''Adelaide straight'', completed in 1829; it has been used as an emergency alternative to the River Thames for

the Boat Race The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. There are separate men's ...

in 1944, and again in 2021, when Hammersmith Bridge in London was closed to river traffic. Queen Adelaide is in the

Church of England parish The parish with its parish church(es) is the basic territorial unit of the Church of England. The parish has its roots in the Roman Catholic Church and survived the English Reformation largely untouched. Each is within one of 42 dioceses: divide ...

of Ely Cathedral, which is away by road, so in 1883 a chapel of ease was built in the hamlet. It was dedicated to St Etheldreda, who was a 7th-century East Anglian princess and Abbess of Ely. More recently the chapel has been deconsecrated and converted into a private house.

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Hamlets in Cambridgeshire East Cambridgeshire District Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen {{Cambridgeshire-geo-stub