Chatteris () is a market town and civil parish in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England, situated in the Fens between Huntingdon, March and Ely. The town is in the North East Cambridgeshire parliamentary constituency.
The parish of Chatteris is large, covering 6,099 hectares, and for much of its history was a raised island in the low-lying wetland of the Fens. Mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, the town has evidence of settlement from the Neolithic period.Enjoy England.com, URL accessed 18 May 2008 After several fires in the 18th and 19th centuries, the majority of the town's housing dates from the late Victorian period onwards, with the tower of the parish church the only medieval building remaining.
Following the draining of the Fens, beginning in the 17th century and completed in the 19th century, the town's economy has been based on agriculture and related industry. Due to its proximity to Cambridge, Huntingdon and Peterborough, the town has emerged as a commuter town. The town had a population of 11,011 at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2021.
Toponymy The origin of the name Chatteris is uncertain. The name is first attested in a charter of 974 (in a fourteenth-century copy), as Cæateric and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Catriz, Cietriz, Cetriz and Cateriz. (London: Kelly's Directories Limited, 1900), p. 99. The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names derives the name from a putatively Old English personal name Ceatta and a word * ("ridge"), thus meaning "Ceatta's ridge"., s.v. Chatteris. Others have suggested, however, that the name derives from a Common Brittonic word corresponding to modern Welsh ("wood") compounded with Common Brittonic *rïcc ("groove"), though Richard Coates and Andrew Breeze characterise this interpretation as "frankly [...] most uncertain").. Others again suggest that name probably derives from the Celtic Cedrid – Ced meaning a wood and Rid, a ford, although it may also derive from "cader", meaning hill fort, suggesting a similar site to the nearby Stonea Camp.The Historic Towns of Cambridgeshire, An Extensive Urban Survey: Chatteris , Cambridgeshire County Council publication (draft, 2001), 9.
History
Prehistory and early history Archaeological evidence has been found of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements in the area, and Chatteris possesses what has been interpreted as the only upstanding Neolithic boundaries in Fenland.The Historic Towns of Cambridgeshire, An Extensive Urban Survey: Chatteris , Cambridgeshire County Council publication (draft, 2001), 14 Saxon evidence is less well preserved, although in 679, Hunna, the chaplain to Æthelthryth of Ely built a hermitage on Honey Hill.The Historic Towns of Cambridgeshire, An Extensive Urban Survey: Chatteris , Cambridgeshire County Council publication (draft, 2001), 20 More apocryphally, Chatteris is reputed to have been the last refuge of Boudica as she fled from the Romans.
Medieval period
The miraculous story of the first known parishioner of the town, Bricstan, is documented in the Historia Ecclesiastica by the Chronicler Orderic Vitalis (1075 – c.1142).Full text of The Ecclesiastical history of England and Normandy at the Internet Archive (note: unedited) According to the legend, Bricstan was a pious free tenant from the town who had joined the monastery at Ely Cathedral in 1115 to begin training as a monk. However, he was accused of theft and imprisoned in London. The legend recounts that one night he had a vision of Saint Etheldreda coming towards him, and as if by a miracle, his heavy chains fell from him and he was shackled no longer. When he awoke from his dream, he discovered that this was indeed true and he was free of his chains.Lois L. Huneycutt, Matilda of Scotland: a study in medieval queenship (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) 91. The wife of Henry I, Matilda of Scotland, heard of the miracle, and she assured herself that he was no rogue or thief, issued a writ of pardon and declared him a free man.Revd John Towers, "Bricstan Hall? Who was “Bricstan”?" Chatteris Parish Magazine. Vol.33 Issue 6. June 2007
During the Medieval period, the town was dominated by Chatteris Abbey, a small Benedictine nunnery dedicated to St Mary, built in 980 by Eadnoth the Younger for Aelfwyn, p. 168. or Alfwen the niece of King Edgar and one of only eight nunneries mentioned in the Domesday Book. The first abbess of Chatteris was Eadnoth's sister, Aelfwyn. Throughout its existence, the abbey was comparatively poor compared to other foundations, due to a lack of royal patronage and a consequent lack of tithe estates. As a result, the abbey survived the first wave of closures during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but was surrendered to the king's commissioners in 1538, by which time there were eleven nuns in residence.Claire Breay (ed.), The Cartulary of Chatteris Abbey , (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1999). . p. 96.
At this date fourteen local families still used the abbey church as parochial but this, unusually, did not save it from demolition, the parishioners being transferred to nearby St Peter and St Paul's Church in the area. It has been conjectured that due to the short space between them, the parish church may have been the abbey church,The Historic Towns of Cambridgeshire, An Extensive Urban Survey: Chatteris , Cambridgeshire County Council publication (draft, 2001), 19 although Claire Breay's Cartulary of Chatteris Abbey discounts this idea, citing that historical documentation clearly defines two separate churches. A range of the cloister buildings survived as part of a mansion known as Park House. This was demolished in 1847 and the site has now completely vanished beneath streets and housing, although the "Park Streets" of Chatteris mark the boundary of its walls and several buildings contain stone originating from the abbey.Claire Breay (ed.), The Cartulary of Chatteris Abbey , (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1999). , p.92 A large portion of the town was destroyed by a great fire in 1310, which destroyed the nunnery and a large portion of the church, leaving only sections of the base of the tower.
Early modern and contemporary
Later fires in 1706 and 1864 destroyed most medieval and Georgian architecture, and a large proportion of the town's listed buildings date from the Victorian period onwards.The Historic Towns of Cambridgeshire, An Extensive Urban Survey: Chatteris , Cambridgeshire County Council publication (draft, 2001), 13 However, many of the pasture fields on the outskirts of the town have evidence of ridge and furrow farming practices, although these are under threat by current building proposals.
To the north of the town runs the Forty Foot Drain, a large river also called Vermuyden's Drain, after the Dutch engineer whose name is associated with the fen drainage works of the middle of the 17th century. Several of the older buildings of the town show evidence of the Dutch architectural style.Chatteris History, URL accessed 18 May 2008
Chatteris is a market town and has possessed this designation since 1834, although an earlier market existed in the town, which was discontinued due to poor roads in 1808.Fenland District Council website , URL accessed 22 May 2008 A small market is still held every Friday.
Following the Beeching Axe, Chatteris railway station, formerly on the St Ives extension of the Great Eastern Railway, was closed in March 1967.Kelly's Directory of Cambridgeshire , (London: Kelly's Directories Limited, 1900), pp.99.Chatteris Town History , URL accessed 22 May 2008 The station buildings no longer exist.
Geography Chatteris is situated between Huntingdon, St Ives, Peterborough, March and Ely, in the middle of the Fens—the lowest-lying area in the United Kingdom—with most of the land surrounding the town being below sea level, although the highest point in the Fens (36 feet above sea level) is within Chatteris's parish boundaries.Malcolm Moss MP constituency page, URL accessed 8 September 2009 The peaty land surrounding the town is largely used for agriculture, drained by numerous ditches and dykes, and there are two large drainage rivers near the town – the Forty Foot Drain, also known as Vermuyden's Drain, and the Sixteen Foot Drain.
Chatteris is a key turning point on the A141 road (known as the Isle of Ely way) and the starting point of the A142 road to Ely and Suffolk (known as Ireton's Way). The town also has important links to Cambridge and the A14 via the B1050 to Bar Hill. The town centre traffic was bypassed in 1986, with the disused route of the former St Ives extension of the Great Eastern Railway being used to build the A141 to March and Guyhirn.Fenland District Wide Local Plan: Chatteris (Adopted August 1993), Fenland District Council
Climate There are no Met Office recording stations in the Fens, but an indication of rainfall and temperature of the county town Cambridge on the edge of the Fens shows that rainfall is below the national average, and in a wider study of East Anglia, the region had temperatures comparable with London, the warmest part of the UK.Climate: Eastern England , Met Office.gov, URL accessed 8 September 2009.
Governance
There are three tiers of local government covering Chatteris, at civil parish (town), district, and county level: Chatteris Town Council, Fenland District Council, and Cambridgeshire County Council. The district and county councils are also members of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, led by the directly elected Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The town council is based at 14 Church Lane.
The town is part of the North East Cambridgeshire parliamentary seat, whose Member of Parliament is currently Steve Barclay, a Conservative.
Administrative history Chatteris was an ancient parish in the North Witchford hundred of Cambridgeshire. It was administered by its vestry and manorial courts until 1873, when the parish was made a local government district, with an elected local board. Such local government districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894.
The North Witchford hundred formed part of the Isle of Ely, which was historically a liberty under the secular jurisdiction of the Bishop of Ely. The bishop's jurisdiction was ended by the Liberty of Ely Act 1837 (7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 53). Between 1889 and 1965, the Isle of Ely was an administrative county with its own county council, whilst also forming part of the wider geographical county of Cambridgeshire. Between 1965 and 1974, the administrative county covering Chatteris was called Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely.
Chatteris Urban District was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. District-level functions passed to the new Fenland District Council. A successor parish called Chatteris was created covering the area of the abolished urban district, with its parish council taking the name Chatteris Town Council.
Policing Under the Police Act 1964 and local government reform in 1974, the Isle of Ely Constabulary became part of the Mid-Anglia Constabulary until the present Cambridgeshire Constabulary was formed in 1974.Cambridgeshire Constabulary History The Badgers Lair (retrieved 11 December 2005). A small police station is situated in East Park Street, but it is no longer open to the public.Cambridgeshire Constabulary , URL accessed 17 July 2016.
Economy Overview