Historical

(Content courtesy of English Heritage)

Located 2 miles to the West of Peterborough, in the village of Longthorpe, is the survival of a medieval fortified manor house. The house was built soon after 1264, and the tower added c1300.

Longthorpe Tower displays a set of 14th Century wall paintings that are one of the most complete and important of their kind in northern Europe. The paintings were probably commissioned during the first half of the 14th Century, and are most spectacular in the great chamber, where they cover the walls and ceiling entirely. The images are of very high quality, and the subjects depicted in them are drawn from biblical and secular sources, including the nativity, King David, and the Wheel of Life. The overall theme of the wall paintings appears to be the contrast between transient worldly life with all its pitfalls, and the rewards and permanent values of the spiritual.

(Content courtesy of Clare Cottage and River Nene Regional Park)

Wothorpe Towers was built by the eldest son of William Cecil, the first Lord of Burghley, in the early 17th century. It was built to "retire out of the dust while his great house at Burghley was a sweeping". Its main use appears to have been as a dower house. The building was constructed around 3 sides of a courtyard; the central building was square and each corner had a tower with a cupola, and there was also a service wing for kitchens and servants' rooms on either side.

It is possible that during the 18th century some of the stone was removed and re-used in the building of the stables at Burghley House, and in the mid 19th century the cupolas were removed from the towers.

The whole of the Wothorpe Towers building, including an octagonal cockpit and the stables were allowed to fall into disprepair, but are now undergoing restoration as a part of an Environmental Grant Scheme set up by River Nene Regional Park.

(Content courtesy of Thorney.org and Britainexpress.com)

An Abbey was founded at Thorney, near Peterborough, in around 662AD. At the time, this area of high ground in the fens was known as the "Island of Hermits", presumably referring to the quiet monastic lifestyle chosen by the monks who lived there. Danish attacks in 870AD destroyed most religious settlements in the area, but the monks of Thorney managed to escape quite lightly, and helped to bury their less fortunate fellows at Peterborough.

The Abbey was refounded in 972AD by St Aethelwold and was run in strict accordance with the Benedictine rule. In 1080AD a large Norman church was built, and contained relics of saints, including St Botolph. The Abbey continued to undergo expansion during the early 14th century, with further buildings being added and embellished. However the Abbey suffered greatly during the Black Death of 1349 (13 monks and 100 people in their household were killed), and subsequently Thorney Abbey went into decline.

At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, Thorney Abbey still had an abbot and 20 monks. The abbot retired to Whittlesey and the monks were given pensions. Subsequently the Abbey was rapidly stripped of materials and was reduced to ruins.

The Abbey church was partially spared as the 5 westernmost bays of the nave became adapted to serve as the parish church, which is still in use today.

(Content courtesy of Clare Cottage and The John Clare Page)

The poet John Clare was born on July 13th 1793 in Helpston, a village located between Peterborough and Stamford. Clare, despite suffering from mental illness in the perios leading up to his death in 1864, is now widely regarded as on of the greatest English poets. Helpston was Clare's home for the first 40 years of his life.

The house in which John Clare lived has now been bought by the John Clare Trust (purchased in 2007), which has ensured the preservation of the building for future generations.

Whilst living in Helpston Clare wrote much of his most memorable work, and in recognition of this the Trust is planning on converting sections of the cottage back to a style appearance that is reminiscent of how the cottage would have looked in Clare's time, at the beginning of the 19th century.

In addition the cottage is also being developed to serve as a visitor centre, writers retreat, and an environmental and education centre.

As well as the Clare cottage, a small memorial is also present in Helpston, unveiled in 1921 by Edmund Blunden.

(Content courtesy of Elton Hall)

Elton Hall has been in the Proby family since 1660, and is a splendid romantic, part gothic house.

The Hall is part of a 3800 acre estated which comprises farms, houses and cottages, commercial properties and woodland. The estate is located quite close to Peterborough and straddles the borders of Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.

The house itself is surrounded by 200 acres of parkland, bound on the west by the river Nene.

(Content courtesy of crowlandabbey.org and Britainexpress)

Crowland Abbey was founded in memory of St Guthlac in 716AD. At the time of his arrival to the area, Crowland was an uninhabited island in the fens. Guthlac was than a young man who had turned away from the world to lead a life of quiet contemplation. As his reputation for holiness grew, others came to join him and a monastic community was established. Two years after Guthlac's death, one of his supporters; Aethelbald, King of Mercier, founded Crowland Abbey.

Between 866AD and 1170AD the Abbey was either partially or fully destroyed and rebuilt on three separate occasions. There then followed a period of prosperity for the Abbey, up until the Dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII when the Abbey underwent its final destruction.

Today, the remains of the Abbey still function as the parish church, although they are only a small part of the splendour that would have once been Crowland Abbey.

(Content courtesy of Burghley House)

Burghley is one of the largest and finest examples of a house from the first Elizabethan Age. The house was built and mostly designed by William Cecil (1520-1598), Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I, between 1555 and 1587. Cecil was created Lord Burghley in 1571, and his descendents continue to inhabit and manage the house.

The main house has 35 major rooms on the ground and first floors as well as 80 lesser rooms and numerous corridors, halls, bathrooms, and service areas. The house has three quarters of an acre of lead roof which was restored and rebuilt between 1983 and 1993.

Burghley house is set in extensive grounds with formal garden areas as well as many acres of parkland.

Eastfield Cemetery is a 26 acre site in Peterborough that has been recognised as a County Wildlife Site. This reflects the neutral grassland that exists there and its ability to support more than three strong indicators for this type of habitat.

Broadway cemetery, located in the heart of Peterborough, is a 10 acre site dating from 1856. It contains the burial sites of many noteworthy locals and numerous military graves and memorials, especially from World War One. On April 25th each year, a memorial serice is held to mark Anzac day and to commemorate the life of Sergeant Thomas Hunter. Hunter was an Australian WWI soldier who was wounded and brought back to Britain. He later died in July of 1916, in the building that is now the Peterborough Museum.

The site is also one of four graveyards mentioned in "Paradise Preserved", the English Nature/English Heritage publication on maintaining and protecting older cemeteries.

(Partial content courtesy of the Living Spring Journal)

Located at Longthorpe, Holywell Ponds is the site of the best remaining examples of medieval fish ponds in the Peterborough area. There are seven ponds, which used to form part of the Thorpe Hall estate, and are fed by a natural spring which rises up through limestone rock. This spring has had a small grotto built around it and after feeding the first pond the water then flows from one pond to another across the site. The ponds are set in several acres of grassland; some of which is being converted to a wildflower meadow.