Queen Adelaide is a

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

on the

River Great Ouse The River Great Ouse ( ) is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the ...

the Fens The Fens or Fenlands 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 system o ...

about northeast of

Ely, Cambridgeshire Ely ( ) is a cathedral city and civil parish in the East Cambridgeshire district, in Cambridgeshire, England, northeast of Cambridge, southeast of Peterborough and from London. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the built-up a ...

, England. Queen Adelaide town sign - geograph

The hamlet is named after a

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

, which in turn was named after the British queen

Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (Adelaide Amelia Louise Theresa Caroline; 13 August 1792 – 2 December 1849) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Queen of Hanover from 26 June 1830 to 20 June 1837 as the wife of King ...

. 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 ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetland along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires ...

Breckland Breckland in Norfolk and Suffolk is a 39,433 hectare Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. The SPA partly overlaps the 7,544 hectare Breckland Special Area of Conservation. As a la ...

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, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...

. West of the hamlet there is also a loop line, the Adelaide Loop, that the B1382 crosses on a bridge. The

is just to the east, and the section flowing north from the Queen Adelaide Bridge to the Sandhill Bridge at

Littleport Littleport is a town 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 Mare Fe ...

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. It is also known as the U ...

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 ...

Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely, is an Church of England, Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral can trace its origin to the abbey founded in Ely in 67 ...

, which is away by road, so in 1883 a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

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