LANDBEACH
THE parish of Landbeach, (fn. 63)
c. 6 km. (4 miles)
north of Cambridge and covering 900 ha.
(2,225 a.), is approximately triangular. (fn. 64) The
eastern boundary partly follows the Roman Car
Dyke running north-west before bending northeastward to run along the Roman road latterly
called Akeman Street, which led from Cambridge to Ely. The straighter north-western
boundary from 1235 followed the Beach ditch
then dug. (fn. 65) The zigzagging south-western
boundary was presumably determined by old
furlong divisions. In 1985 an area of 30 ha.
(74 a.), including a line of 14 houses built west
of the Milton road, was transferred from Milton
to Landbeach. (fn. 66)
The parish lies upon gault overlaid in the
eastern half with river gravels. Until the 18th
century much land in its narrow northern angle
was marsh and fen. The principal drainage
channels (fn. 67) lay along the boundaries. From the
Middle Ages the Car Dyke, called locally the
Tilling or Tillage, (fn. 68) drained north-eastward into
the Beach Lode, which by 1359 divided the
marshes of Landbeach from those of Waterbeach, at its start running along the Roman
road. (fn. 69) Into the Car Dyke ran lesser watercourses
flowing east of the village. The Beach Ditch was
probably made after an agreement in 1235 to
sever Landbeach's common marshes from those
of Cottenham to the west. (fn. 70) In the land further
east the manorial court had almost annually to
enforce the scouring of watercourses and other
drainage ditches. Even in the south the land was
probably severely affected by a rise in the water
table in the early 14th century, the north-east
corner of the village being protected with massive
embankments around the site of Chamberlains
manor. (fn. 71) From the Middle Ages to inclosure in
1808 the southern half of Landbeach was devoted
to arable farming under a triennial rotation, the
northern part being used primarily as pasture. (fn. 72)
The settlement at Landbeach, called in 1086
'Utbech', (fn. 73) and between 1225 and 1325 occasionally 'Inbech', (fn. 74) was perhaps originally dependent
upon its eastern neighbour Waterbeach, and may
have arisen when dwellings used in summer
by shepherds from Waterbeach on the slightly
higher ground in the south-west of Landbeach
were occupied throughout the year. (fn. 75) By 1086
Landbeach was inhabited by 32 peasants. (fn. 76) Its
population had by 1279 included c. 55 landholders, (fn. 77) although in 1327 there were only 29
taxpayers. (fn. 78) The Black Death struck the village
severely in May and June 1349, (fn. 79) probably
carrying off half the inhabitants. The number of
males in tithing paying 'head pennies', which in
the 1330s and 1340s ranged between 65 and 70, (fn. 80)
fell to 34 in October 1349, (fn. 81) and was usually
only 27 by the 1390s. (fn. 82) In 1377 the poll tax
was paid by 114 villagers. (fn. 83) The population
continued to shrink later: the number of villagers
owning livestock which strayed, c. 25 in the
mid 15th century, (fn. 84) fell below 20 after 1500. (fn. 85)
There were only 26 taxpayers in 1524, (fn. 86) and 36
households in 1563, (fn. 87) although the villagers
alleged in 1549 that there were then altogether
c. 170 inhabitants. (fn. 88)
Under Charles II 68 dwellings were returned
for the hearth tax in 1664, only 52-54 later, (fn. 89)
and in 1676 there were said to be 127 adults. (fn. 90)
The number of households probably remained
almost stable during the 18th century: there were
51 families in 1728, and 55 houses in 1795,
including 239 people. (fn. 91) After 1800 the population grew rapidly until 1821, to 371, then
more steadily, to reach 468 in 1841. (fn. 92) Despite
emigration, sometimes assisted by the parish, (fn. 93)
numbers attained a peak of 526 in 1851, and
after a setback in the 1860s had climbed again
to 510 by 1881, thereafter declining slowly to
389 in 1911. A slow growth then resumed, raising
the population to 473 by 1931, to c. 630 in the
1950s, and, after a pause in the 1960s, to 742 by
1981. (fn. 94)
The early medieval village (fn. 95) probably occupied an almost rectangular site east of the Roman
road, and just above the 5-metre contour. Internally it was divided by several lanes running
east-west and north-south. The north-eastern
quarter was occupied by the farmstead of
Chamberlains manor with the church and rectory house to the south by forking lanes. The
lane on the east led south to a small green at
the junction of an east-west lane, surviving as
Cockfen Lane, where a market cross is said to
have stood. Extensive closes around the site of
Brays manor stretched across the south end of
the rectangle. Probably in the 12th or 13th
century more dwellings were built further south
each side of the road toward Milton, which
became the modern High Street. Those to the
west were almost certainly put up on former
open-field land, their tofts still being reckoned
as selions in the 15th century. (fn. 96)
From the late 14th century the number of
inhabited dwellings gradually diminished, and
customary tenants were regularly but vainly
ordered to put their houses in repair. On
Chamberlains manor between four and six were
repeatedly reported as badly maintained in the
late 1350s, (fn. 97) and, after a temporary recovery,
again between 1400 and the 1430s, when 4 or 5
more were ruinous on Brays manor. (fn. 98) In the mid
15th century the lord of Chamberlains converted
one unwanted close by the street west of his
manor into a green which survived until inclosure. (fn. 99) By 1500 the village was divided into Green
End around that green and Cambridge End, by
1639 Land End, to the south. (fn. 1) On Brays manor
the Kirkbys, its lords after 1500, left almost all
their copyhold messuages untenanted. In 1549,
when the village was supposed to have contained
37 tenements, the villagers asserted that Richard
Kirkby, desiring to expand his pasturage, had
let 14 fall into decay, leaving only the manor
house and two other houses on his manor. (fn. 2)
After 1550 new cottages were sometimes built
on the waste. (fn. 3) By 1639 such cottages numbered
18 out of the 63 dwellings then recorded. (fn. 4) Under
Charles II only 10 of 52-54 houses had more
than two hearths, and 16 had only one. (fn. 5) The
Plague House, a timber-framed, thatched, partly
medieval cottage on the high street, restored
in the 1970s, traditionally commemorates the
shelter given in 1666 by the rector William
Rawley to refugees from the plague at London.
Rawley's wife and son both died that summer. (fn. 6)
Surviving late 17th-century cottages (fn. 7) include a
range of four two-storeyed, timber-framed and
thatched ones south of the rectory, with overhanging gables to the street, repaired after 1960.
Among more substantial 17th-century houses is
the red-brick Old Beach Farm with gabled wings
projecting to the east, perhaps the first brick
house built in Landbeach. (fn. 8) Other timber-framed
houses such as the Limes and the former Black
Bull inn were refaced in brick in the 18th and
early 19th century. After 1800, following the
decay of the ancient cross-lanes, most dwellings
stood along the north-south street. In the 19th
century, when there was some infilling, besides
rebuilding, in grey brick, the number of inhabited houses steadily increased from c. 50 in
the 1830s to c. 115 in the 1860s, (fn. 9) almost all of
which in 1861 stood on the high street. Only
two farmhouses, for Rectory and Oldfield farms,
had been built out in the former open fields
since inclosure in 1808. (fn. 10) The number of houses
shrank slightly from 1871, when seven stood
empty, to c. 100 by 1901. (fn. 11) In 1910 there
were 91 dwellings, all but 19 styled cottages. (fn. 12)
Numbers grew again from the 1920s to reach c.
140 by 1931, 196 by 1951, 228 in 1961, and 278
in 1981. (fn. 13) Besides some infilling within the old
village closes, there was much ribbon building
in the 1930s and later along the Waterbeach road
and each side of the main Cambridge-Ely road,
which runs just inside the parish's eastern
boundary. (fn. 14) In the 1850s 8-10 houses had already been scattered along it.
Figure 9:
Landbeach and Milton c. 1800
Those roads were both created in modern
times. The original route to Ely had probably
led through the village and northward to converge with the line of the Roman road at Goose
House or Hall. About 1286 the lord of Landbeach and others were accused of obstructing a
road used by cattle drovers, which led from
Waterbeach to Cambridge past 'Rudich', Waterbeach's southern field. (fn. 15) By 1550 travellers were
allowed to use a track across Landbeach's
meadows to the east, (fn. 16) and that route was selected,
despite opposition by the villagers to encroachment on their common grassland and an increase
in their statute labour, when the turnpike road
from Cambridge to Ely was laid out under an
Act of 1763. (fn. 17) It remained a turnpike until
1874. (fn. 18) The straight roads east to Waterbeach
and north-west to Cottenham were set out at
inclosure, while that leading south along the line
of the Roman road towards Impington was left
without improvement to follow its old course. (fn. 19)
The village usually had in modern times five
to seven public houses, (fn. 20) including the Black
Bull, established by 1765, (fn. 21) at which a book club
met, 1846-71. (fn. 22) Three others recorded by the
1850s had closed by 1960. (fn. 23) In 1986 there remained only the Slap-Up, opened by 1864, (fn. 24)
just within Landbeach parish, where a side road
to Waterbeach leaves the turnpike. (fn. 25)
The village Feast, still observed in the 1860s,
had in 1779 been moved with that of Waterbeach
to May. (fn. 26) Football was traditionally played on
Camping close until c. 1800. (fn. 27) About 1886 a
reading room for working men had 40 members. (fn. 28) A village hall, opened in 1936, was
enlarged in 1975, when Landbeach had several
social and sports clubs. An adjacent field was
bought c. 1972 as a recreation ground. (fn. 29) In the
1970s the Landbeach Society, formed in 1971
under the inspiration of the village's historian,
Dr. J. R. Ravensdale, to preserve its buildings
and character, promoted open days when the
public could visit the older houses. (fn. 30)
Extensive gravel diggings in the north end
were partly flooded by the late 1960s, when their
owner, Leonard Dickerson, planned to use 80 a.
of them for water sports. (fn. 31) In 1979 he opened
the Landbeach Marina on 120 a. there, including
a park for 400 caravans; its lake provided facilities
for boating, water-skiing, and fishing. (fn. 32)