Chatteris
Chatteris (/ˈtʃætərɪs/ ⓘ) is a market town and civil parish in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England, situated in the Fens between Huntingdon, March and Ely.[1] 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.[8] 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.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.[9] 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.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.[15] 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.[16] 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.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.[25] 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.[31] The town is part of the North East Cambridgeshire parliamentary seat, whose Member of Parliament is currently Steve Barclay, a Conservative.[39] Alan Bartlett and Sons Ltd, a major British grower and packer of root vegetables has a large facility in the town with over 2,500 hectares under cultivation, much of it growing parsnips and the Chantenay and Bushytops carrot.[42] The company was established in the town in the late 19th century and over the years has manufactured diamond mining equipment and overhead cranes.The company is now part of the Avingtrans Group and specialises in creating engineered products for the oil, gas, nuclear and medical industries.[45][46] Another supermarket constructed on the A141 Fenland Way became the first of Tesco's discount Jack's-branded stores in the UK and hosted the press launch on 19 September 2018, opening to the public the following day.Chatteris was well served by local bus routes, with regular buses to the nearby towns of March, St Ives, Ely and the city of Cambridge.[56] The parish of Chatteris is large, covering 6,099 hectares, equalling an average population density of 1.45, although most of the dwellings are concentrated in a smaller area, the outskirts of the town consisting of farmland.[80] News of the song made the headlines of the Cambridgeshire Times and the Peterborough Evening Telegraph during September 2005, a month before the album's official release.Proposals for the development of Cromwell Community College under the government's BSF programme include significant leisure provisions and these are expected to start in 2010.[93][94] The town is noted for its annual display of Christmas lights, which are entirely funded by community donations and have been featured on BBC Look East.[97][98] The town has a museum https://www.chatterismuseum.org.uk/ run by volunteers, with several permanent exhibitions about local history, the Fens, Victoriana and the railways.[103] Since 2012 Chatteris has a branch of the University of the Third Age (U3A) which caters for people no longer in full time employment, with a talk every month at the general meeting held at the King Edward Centre, plus over 20 interest groups of various kinds, and a number of trips and theatre visits are also provided during the year.
CambridgeshireOS grid referenceLondonCivil parishDistrictFenlandShire countyRegionCountryEnglandSovereign statePost townPostcode districtDialling codePoliceAmbulanceEast of EnglandUK ParliamentNorth East Cambridgeshirethe FensHuntingdonwetlandDomesday BookNeolithicCambridgePeterboroughcommuter townUnited Kingdom Census 2021charterOld Englishpersonal nameCommon BrittonicRichard CoatesAndrew Breezehill fortStonea CampHistory of CambridgeshireBronze AgeIron AgeÆthelthrythhermitageBoudicaChatteris AbbeyDenny AbbeyparishionerBricstanOrderic Vitalisfree tenantEly CathedralSaint EtheldredaHenry IMatilda of ScotlandBenedictinenunneryEadnoth the YoungerKing EdgarpatronageDissolution of the MonasteriesClaire BreayChatteris railway stationlisted buildingsridge and furrowForty Foot DrainVermuydenBeeching AxeSt IvesGreat Eastern Railwaysea levelA141 roadIsle of ElyA142 roadIreton's WayBar HillGuyhirnMet Officecounty townEast AngliaCambridge University Botanic Gardenprecipitationsunshine hoursTown signcounty levelFenland District CouncilCambridgeshire County CouncilCambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined AuthorityMayor of Cambridgeshire and PeterboroughSteve BarclayConservativeancient parishhundredvestrymanorial courtsurban districtsLocal Government Act 1894libertyBishop of ElyLiberty of Ely Act 18377 Will. 4 & 1 Vict.administrative countyCambridgeshire and Isle of ElyLocal Government Act 1972successor parishPolice Act 1964Mid-Anglia ConstabularyCambridgeshire Constabularypolice stationJack'smothballedPoundstretcherScrewfixpost officeBarclaysfish and chipAinsley Harriottmembers' clubshectaresHarrison & Harrisonlow churchChurch of EnglandCatholic ChurchMethodistUnited ReformedBaptist UnionSalvation ArmyGrace Baptistprimary schools