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Cottenham High Street - Summer 2007

In the later C19th pastoral farming declined and its place was partly taken by extensive orchards, soft fruit and flower growing.

Another period of intensive change followed after 1970, seeing a further rapid doubling of the population to about 5,000 today. The village remains a thriving community, but increasingly residents were not born in the parish and travel to work outside it. Although farming is still an important activity in the parish, fruit growing has almost disappeared and only a fraction of Cottenham's orchards remain.

Cottenham people have long been active in efforts to preserve their local identity. In the 1970s a Village Society was formed to collate material about Cottenham history and disseminate it to residents old and new, while in the 1990s Cottenham was the first village in the UK to publish its own Village Design Statement and have it adopted as supplementary planning guidance. The present Cottenham Environment Audit project can be seen as an extension of those efforts.

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Cottenham is a Fen-edge village six miles north of Cambridge and has been designated a Rural Growth Settlement. Its population has doubled in size in the past 30 years, to 4500 in 1994, but despite this rapid modern growth the village retains a distinctive character. Its landscape, settlement patterns and buildings show the marks of more than 1000 years of history. Along the length of the High Street, its chapels, church and many substantial farmhouses are signs of an independent and democratic community.

The rural character of the villagehas changed over time as agricultural land, including 100 acres of orchards, has been replaced by housing. These changes have brought with them many different economic and social benefits. Further accelerating pressures, however, in particular the large development sites designated at Broad Lane and Denmark Road, may threaten those very characteristics which give Cottenham its identity.

The village community is sufficiently large and varied to support many thriving voluntary groups, together with a range of social, leisure and education opportunities. The Village College acts also as a village hall and is the main focus for community activity. The new library and sports centre will increase the scope of facilities available locally, although it will still be necessary to travel further for some sporting and cultural activities, and for entertainment. The increasing population will continue to require the expansion of the schools and add to the demand for improved community facilities.

Landscape and History
Cottenham is a large parish of 2800 hectares on the fen edge north of Cambridge. The village lies at the northern tip of a ridge of greensand where the medieval open fields were located. North of the village lay permanent peat fenland and summer pasture which proved ideal for rearing cattle and producing the once renowned Cottenham cheese. Other activities included fishing and wildfowling, osier growing and gravel and peat extraction.

The parish was enclosed and fully drained, relatively late, in the 1840s. During this period the population rapidly doubled from some 1,200 to about 2,400 and much of the village and landscape took on its present form.

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