March, Cambridgeshire

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March
OS Grid Reference:	TL417969
Lat/Lon:	52°33′N 0°05′ECoordinates: 52°33′N 0°05′E
Population:	19042 (2001 Census)
Dwellings:	8290 (2001 Census)
Formal status:	Town
Administration
County:	Cambridgeshire
Region:	East of England
Nation:	England
Post Office and Telephone
Post town:	March
Postcode:	PE15
Dialling Code:	01354

Map sources for March, Cambridgeshire at grid reference TL417969

March is a parish and market town and the head of a county court district and petty sessional division, with an important junction station on the Great Eastern and Great Northern railways, 88 miles from London by rail, 29 north from Cambridge, 14 north-west from Ely and 9 south from Wisbech, in the Northern division of the county, hundred and union of North Witchford, Isle of Ely, rural deanery of March and in the peculiar archidiaconal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Ely.

The town is situated on the banks of the River Nene, which is navigable, and facilitates the conveyance of coal, corn and timber to Cambridge, Wisbech, King's Lynn, Peterborough, St. Ives, Bedford and various other places.

Like many Fenland towns, March was once an Island surrounded by marshes. It occupied the second largest "island" in the Great Level. As the land drained, the town grew and prospered as a trading and religious centre. It was also a minor port and in more recent times a market town, administrative and railway centre.

1 History
2 Market
3 St Wendreda's Church
4 Whitemoor marshalling yards
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

Modern March lies on the path of the Roman Road the Fen Causeway and there is evidence of Roman settlements in the area.

Before the draining of the fens, the town was effectively an island in the marshy fens. It was formed from two settlements, Merche and Mercheford, separated by a canal. The town probably owes its origin to the ford on the old course of the Nene, where the road between Ely and Wisbech, the two chief towns of the Isle, crossed the river. At one time shipping on the River Nene provided the basis of the town's trade, but this declined with coming of the railway in the 19th century.

A bridge of one arch was erected over the river Nene towards the north end of the town in 1850. The High street, which is the chief thoroughfare, is continued over the bridge to Broad street on the north side of the Nene, and the High causeway is lined with a fine avenue of elm and other trees.

A Local Board of Health was formed in 1851, under the Act, 14 and 15 Vict. c. 103 (1851), but under the provisions of the "Local Government Act, 1894" (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), the town is now governed by an Urban District Council of 12 members, and is lighted with gas from works the property of the March Gas and Coke Co. Limited. The Wisbech Water Works Company, by a provisional order, obtained in 1884, supply the town with water, which is brought through mains from Wisbech, a distance of 10 miles.

The town is divided into four ecclesiastical parishes which, with three others, were formed out of the parish of Doddington subsequently to 1863, according to the provisions of the Doddington Rectory Division Acts, 10 and 11 Vict. c. 3 (1847) and 19 and 20 Vict. c. 1 (1856)." "The area of the entire civil parish is 19,669 acres of land and 108 of water; rateable value, £47,414; the area of the ecclesiastical parishes is:- St. Mary, 7,143; St John 3,485; St. Peter, 4,072. The population of the civil parish and urban district in 1891 was 6,988; and the ecclesiastical parishes, viz. St. John, 3,685; St. Mary, 634; St. Peter, 1,697 and St. Wendreda, 972."

Since 1979 it has been the starting point of the March March march, in which a group of Cambridge academics walk back to Cambridge from March during the third month of the year.

March is also home to HM Prison Whitemoor, first opened in 1992. It houses around 500 of the most dangerous prisoners in the UK.

[edit] Market

With a long history of trading, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, March was a minor port. In 1566 eight boats, capable of carrying one, one and a half, or two cartloads, were used in the coal and grain trades. A certain amount of traffic - in coal and other commodities, carried in barges, was observed by Dugdale in 1657. Local tradesmen’s tokens of 1669, and a silver shilling token of 1811, have been noted.

Originally a Market appears to have been held near the original town (then village) centre, on land beside The Causeway. A Market Cross (now called The Stone Cross) points towards the existence of an early Market and this cross was erected in the early 16th Century. This site was very near to St Wendreda’s Church.

In 1669 the people of the town successfully petitioned King Charles II and in 1670 he granted the Lord of the Manor of Doddington a Royal Charter endowing the right to hold a Market with two annual fairs, in spite of the opposition of Wisbech Corporation. This Market was held on Fridays. The Lord of the Manor of Doddington, who owned a large part of March, gave special permission to the townspeople to sell their goods on some of his land in the town centre. This site, now called the Market Place, was then known as Bridge Green Common and later named Market Hill.

In 1785 the tolls were assessed at £6 per year. Soon after this the Market appears to have lapsed, though the fairs continued at this period to be prosperous. The development of the Market was impeded by the absence of a covered hall and by the fact that Market day in March and several neighbouring towns fell on the same day (Friday).

In 1807 the Vestry decided that it was not hygienic for goods to be loaded or unloaded in the vicinity of the Market and ordered all saw pits, timber and other encroachments around the Market place to be removed. The Market was struggling during this time and an attempt to revive it in 1821 was not very successful. A Butter Cross, also known as a Market House, was erected in 1831. This building also housed the town fire engine and had an upstairs room that for a time housed the ‘Clock House School’ and later the Town Surveyor’s office. This office was covered by a turret which housed the Town Clock (purchased by public subscription about 1750) and the Fire Bell. During later refurbishments this clock was re-housed in St Peter’s Church Tower. The Town Stocks were also placed in the Market Place and local offenders (and those who refused to go to church) were placed in them.

The want of a Market House was remedied, in a make-shift fashion, by Sir Henry Peyton, 2nd baronet of the 1776 creation, (who was the current Lord of the Manor of Doddington). His building, however, was only 40 ft long by 17 ft broad, and provided only 14 stalls under cover

After the opening of the railway in 1847 another attempt was made to increase the Market. In 1851 the Market had been stated to be ‘making progress’; and £150 was subscribed to give a treat to the poor at its re-opening. The difficulty of the clashing with other Market days was solved in December 1856 by changing the day from Friday to Wednesday ‘by private arrangement and without any formalities’. The tolls were, however, collected in an arbitrary and haphazard way; they were assessed for poor rate purposes at £10.

In 1872 the Board of Health bought a Shand and Mason fire engine that was the town’s first steam appliance that was to be housed in the Market house. During the same year the Vestry agreed to erect a urinal at the back of the Butter Cross for use by boys attending the Clock House School, but would not erect a water closet (toilet).

The Market toll-keeper in 1888, though he had no fixed scale of charges and kept no record of receipts, was said to be taking about £50 a year. The success and prosperity of the Market fluctuated over the years and an attempt by the Local Board to purchase the Market Rights to mark the Jubilee of 1887 was a failure. However in 1897 Sir Algernon Peyton ( the Lord of the Manor of Doddington ) agreed to sell the Market Rights, the Market Place and Market House to March Urban District Council for the sum of £800. At that time the Market was leased to Mr F B Phillips who agreed to surrender his lease in 1898 subject to his receiving the Market tolls for one year without charge. This was agreed and the transaction was completed.

The Market Rights passed to Fenland District Council following the Local Government Re-organisation in 1974.

[edit] St Wendreda's Church

St. Wendreda, after whom the church is named, is the Town’s own saint and the only church known to be dedicated to this saint is here.

She was a 7th century Anglo-Saxon who is supposed to be a daughter of King Anna of East Anglia (killed 654) one of the first Christian Kings of the kingdom of East Anglia. Two of her sisters, Etheldreda and Sexburgha, who were the abbesses of Ely and Minster-in-Sheppey respectively, are better known saints. She is also associated with Exning, Suffolk.

The saint’s relics were enshrined in gold, in Ely Cathedral, until in 1016 they were carried off to battle in the hope they would bring victory to Edmund Ironside the son of King Ethelred. But at the Battle of Ashingdon the army of the King Canute captured the relics and he presented them to Canterbury Cathedral. In 1343 the relics were returned to March but their final resting place is unknown.

The church is world famous for its magnificent double-hammer beam roof and together with 120 carved angels it is regarded as one of the best of its kind.

John Betjeman described the church as "worth cycling 40 miles in a head wind to see".

In Victorian times, other Anglican churches were built in March, nearer to where the majority of the inhabitants now lived.

[edit] Whitemoor marshalling yards

Whitemoor marshalling yards, built in the 1920s and 30s, were once the second largest in Europe, and the largest in Britain. They were gradually phased out during the 1960s and shut down in 1990. Whitemoor prison was built on part of the site. The natural regeneration of the remaining 44 hectares resulted in its classification as a potential country park. In addition, a new housing development was constructed adjacent to the site. However, in 2002, Network Rail identified a need for a supply depot and redeveloped part of the site.