Maureen James - Cambridgeshire Folk Tales

For all the Fen Tigers, who I hope will appreciate
and enjoy this book. And to Aunty Joan and Uncle Tom, whose love and inspiration stay with me always.

This book follows on from my other volume in the same series, namely Lincolnshire Folk Tales . For both I have drawn on research carried out on the folklore and folk tales of the flatlands for my PhD. However, it would not have been possible without the initial inspirations provided by Barbara Johnson and Heather Falvey that revived my passion for history back in 1985. I am also indebted to Liz Wright for persuading me that I could write professionally, Paul Jackson for showing me the power of the spoken story, and Del Reid for being a tower of strength for so many storytellers. I also would like to thank the late Doug Stone of Chatteris and Peter Hewitt of March, for sharing not just with me, but with many, many others, their love of local history. Similarly, I owe a debt of gratitude to the folklorists of the past, especially Enid Porter and the late W.H. Barrett (and his informants). Numerous other storytellers and historians have also inspired me on my journey, but with regards to Cambridgeshire and the Fens, these include Hugh Lupton, Malcolm Busby, Polly Howat, Mike Petty, Celia and Geoff Taylor, Judith Legge, Gordon Phillips, Nicky Stockman, Alan Lamb, Ernie Hall and the late Arthur Dunham. Finally, I need to thank my husband Stuart for helping with the illustrations, and he and the rest of my family for their patience and understanding.

Maidens garter, fenmans charter,

Neighbours brats, fishermans floats,

fire a glowing, reaper mowing,

are things never interfered with.

Tom Hickathrift Legendary Giant

The Ely and Littleport Riots

Elijahs Ghost (A Tale of a Toadman)

The Legend of Whittlesey Mere

Mr Leech and the Devil

Robin Good-fellow

Black Dogs, Will o the Wykes and Lantern Men

The Legend of Bulldog Bridge

Mark Twain and Tall Stories of the Fens

Two Fat Geese

The Fearless Girl

The Clerks Revenge

The Witches of Warboys

The Witch-finders in Cambridgeshire

Matcham and the Drummer Boy

The Gruesome History of Caxton Gibbet

The Beastly Butcher of St Neots

Gog Magog and the Land of the Giants

PC Peak of Wicken Fen

The French Prisoners at Norman Cross

The Sufferings of Elizabeth Woodcock

Etheldreda Princess, Abbess and Saint

Bricstan of Chatteris

The Devil, the Church and the Stone Cross

The Mystery of the Whirlin Cakes

King Canute and the Fens

The Prowess of Osbert Fitz Hugh

Hereward the Saxon

King John and Wisbech

Legends of the English Civil War

1 Alconbury

2 Aldreth

3 Balsham

4 Bodsey

5 Bottisham

6 Bourn

7 Brampton

8 Brandon Creek

9 Burwell

10 Cambridge

11 Caxton Gibbet

12 Chatteris

13 Cherry Hinton

14 Coates

15 Coppingford

16 Cottenham

17 Diddington

18 Doddington

19 Easton

20 Eldernell

21 Elsworth

22 Ely

23 Grantchester

25 Gt Abington

26 Gunwade Ferry

27 Hemingford Grey

28 Huntingdon

29 Impington

30 Keyston

31 Leverington

32 Litlington

33 Littleport

34 March

35 Molesworth

36 Norman Cross

37 Parson Drove

38 Peterborough

39 Prickwillow

40 Quanea

41 Ramsey

42 Raveley

43 Snailwell

44 Soham

45 St Ives

46 St Neots

47 Stilton

48 Stretham

49 Stuntney

50 Sutton

51 Trumpington

52 Upware

53 Waldersea

54 Wandlebury

55 Wansford

56 Warboys

57 West Wratting

58 Whittlesey

59 Whittlesey/Mere

60 Wicken Fen

61 Wimblington

62 Wisbech

63 Witchford

64 Woodcroft

On its borders Hickathrifts castle once stood, and in its mazes
Hereward sought shelter during his long struggle
for independence.

Jonathan Peckover, 1868

Like the other books within this History Press series, this volume is a collection of folk tales linked to the landscape and to a specific county. The county in this case is Cambridgeshire, formed in 1965 by the joining of the historic county of Cambridgeshire with the Isle of Ely and, in 1974, with the addition of Huntingdonshire and the Soke of Peterborough (part of the unitary authority).

The present county of Cambridgeshire is bordered on the north by Lincolnshire, on the east by Norfolk and Suffolk, on the south by Essex and Hertfordshire and on the west by Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire.

A glance at an Ordnance Survey map will show that much of the northern part of the county consists mostly of very low-lying land, the silt and peat fenland, interspersed with similarly low-lying islands.

Daniel Defoe, in his Tour Through the Eastern Counties of England (1722), noted that the Fens were the sink of no less than thirteen counties being subject regularly to inundation by the rivers Cam or Grant, the Great Ouse and Little Ouse, the Nene, the Welland, and the Lark.

The situation is still the same today, and the area still carries the run-off water from Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Huntingdonshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Suffolk and Warwickshire. However, there is now an elaborate system of moving the flood waters out to the Wash.

With the shrinkage of the peat, almost all of the Fenland rivers are now above the level of the land, some many feet higher, making a strange sight with the river banks rising high above the roads that run beside them. There are also numerous drainage dykes crossing the Fens, into which the Fenland waters are pumped on their way to the sea. It has been estimated that when all the pumping stations in the Fens are busy they can move a total of ten million gallons of water per minute.

But what of the landscape before all the pumps and drains?

In 1868 Jonathan Peckover of Wisbech described the county before the extensive drainage of the seventeenth century:

the inland water extended as far south as Cambridge, and touched on the east, Downham, Brandon and Mildenhall; Soham being upon a lengthy neck of land which stretched out into the morass. On the west side were St Ives, Somersham, Ramsey, Peterborough and Peakirk. The sea entered at three outlets from the north, the widest of which passed by Wisbech, another at Spalding and a third at Lynn, the sea coast from Lynn running northward and passing a short distance from Castle Rising. There was thus between Wisbech and Lynn, a large oblong island of marshland, upon the upper part of which was Walpole, and on the lower side Hickathrifts castle at Emneth There was also another larger island called Holland between Wisbech and Spalding, which with the one just mentioned formed the northern border of the great inland swamp of waters called the Fens. Upon the southern borders of Holland were Crowland and Guyhirn. In the waters of the Fens were scattered a great number of islands, upon some of the principal of which were situated Thorney, Whittlesey, March, Chatteris and Littleport. The largest island was a straggling piece of ground which was called the Isle of Ely, near the north of which was Ely and the south, Haddenham.