Histon
Histon Location within Cambridgeshire
Population	4,655 (2011)[1][2]
OS grid reference	TL437637
District	South Cambridgeshire
Shire county	Cambridgeshire
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	CAMBRIDGE
Postcode district	CB24
Dialling code	01223
Police	Cambridgeshire
Fire	Cambridgeshire
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	South East Cambridgeshire

Histon is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district, in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is immediately north of Cambridge – and is separated from the city – by the A14 road which runs east–west. In 2011, the parish had a population of 4,655.^[1] Histon forms part of the Cambridge built-up area.^[3]

Etymology

Suggestions for meanings of Histon include: "farmstead of the young warriors" or "landing place".^[4] However, the latter of these is unlikely as Histon is situated above the floodline. The likely origin of the name is from the two Saxon/Old English words hyse and tun^[5] – hyse meaning "a young man or warrior",^[6] and tun meaning "house or farm".^[7] The village name has survived as unchanged as possible since the orthographic rules at the writing of the Domesday Book in 1086, when it was recorded as Histone, which demanded an e after an "n" culmination – see Middle English orthography, due to the focus on the downstrokes only in precious ink at the time.^[8]

Early history

Some of the trackways that pass through these villages are believed to be prehistoric. Flint tools have been dug up in and around the area and aerial photographs show evidence of ancient settlements including Iron Age and Roman.^[4] Pieces of Roman pottery have been found in the area.

The earliest part of Impington to be inhabited is near the junction of Cambridge Road and Arbury Road, where there is a large ancient settlement, thought to have been built by the Ancient Britons. The settlement was taken over by the Romans when they invaded Britain. There are several roads in Impington that are thought to be based on Roman roads. The Parish probably dates from about the sixth century, when a Saxon tribe called the Empings lived there. Over time, dukes have gone off to help prevent the Danes from invading, while William I sorted out an argument over the town (then 'Epintone') between the Norman Sheriff of Cambridge and the Church.^[9]

Village sign of Histon, showing Moses Carter at left carrying a boulder

Possibly the oldest surviving area of interest is Gun's Lane, which is named after a family who once lived in the lane.^[10] Today this is just a bridleway but it was for centuries the Cambridge to Ely causeway, which was the main road into the Fens and the Isle of Ely.^[4] The Iron Age ringfort that once stood at Arbury may well at one time have guarded one end of this road. During the Norman Conquest of England, William the Conqueror passed this way with his army as he chased a rebel Saxon, Hereward the Wake, into the Fens.^[10]

Early settlement appears to have been centred around what is now Church End. Originally there were two churches here – St Etheldreda's and St Andrew's^[11] – with each church belonging to a separate manor, but only St Andrew's remains today.^[9] Before the Reformation these manors were owned by the abbeys of Denny and Eynsham.^[12] The Crown sold the manor of St Etheldreda to Sir Thomas Elyot and the manor of St Andrew to Edward Elrington in 1539.^[13]

Close by is Histon Manor House, once Histon Hall. Originally it was on a site with a moat which is still visible today, but at some point the house was moved to higher ground nearby, possibly to avoid flooding.

The churches, manor house and grounds prevented expansion to the west so the village slowly moved towards its current centre which is The Green. The Green many times the size it is currently, all of what is today the High Street would have at one time been the green.^[9]

Histon was recorded in the Domesday Book as answering for 261⁄2 hides – a hide was recorded in the book as being 120 fiscal acres.^[14]

Included on the Histon Village Sign is a man in a stove hat holding a large rock. This represents Moses Carter (1801–1860) a local strongman who lived in the village in the nineteenth century. Carter was alleged to be over seven feet tall, and famously carried a large stone from a building site to The Boot public house. The stone is still in the pub's garden. Carter is affectionately known locally as 'The Histon Giant'.^[15]

The Railway and Chivers factory

The Impington Windmill built 1806 and bought by John Chivers in 1904

The opening of the Cambridge & St. Ives Branch by the Eastern Counties Railway Company on 17 August 1847 fuelled the growth of the villages and the expansion of companies within.^[9] Stephen Chivers was one of the first to seize the new opportunity that this brought. In 1850 he bought an orchard next to the line giving him access to London and the north of England and in 1870 he sent his sons to open a fruit distribution centre in Bradford. Their customers were mainly jam makers and this was quickly noted by the boys. Following an extra good harvest of fruit in 1873, they got their father to let them make their first jam in a barn off Milton Road, Impington. This proved a successful venture, and within two years the Victoria Works jam factory had opened on the orchard site. By 1895 Chivers had diversified into many other areas including lemonade, marmalade and dessert jellies, and were the first large-scale commercial canners in Europe. By 1939 the company owned most of the large farms and estates in Histon and Impington, Impington windmill and 8,000 acres (32 km²) of land around East Anglia, and the factory employed up to 3,000 people.^[9]

An old photograph of the railway station (now guided busway)

In the 1960s eighty trains a day were scheduled at Histon railway station. This caused many delays for road users and prompted the building of the bridge road bypass, opened by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother in 1963. The road was originally scheduled to be constructed in the 1930s but was delayed because of World War II. However, fewer than ten years after it opened, on 5 October 1970, passenger services were withdrawn from the line, though seasonal deliveries of fruit continued to be delivered by rail to Chivers factory until 1983. The 1980s saw an end to the old factory. In a management buyout the site was sold to developers and a new five million pound factory was built at the rear of the property by new owners Premier Foods.^[16] Vision Park, a business park, was built on the old site and all rail services stopped in 1992. Following removal of the rail lines, the route of the railway through Histon and Impington became the route for the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway.

Churches

The villages have five places of worship with six congregations. There are two Anglican churches, both dedicated to Saint Andrew, a Methodist Church, a Baptist Church, and a Salvation Army Church. In addition, a charismatic, evangelical congregation called New Life Church, formed in Easter 2004, now meets on Sunday afternoons in the Baptist Church building. All the congregations work closely together through the Histon and Impington Council of Churches.

St Andrew's, Histon

St Andrew's Church, Histon

The first recorded reference to the church was in 1217, but in about 1270 it was modernised, turning it into a cruciform-style church. Much of the building work was carried out in the 13th and 14th centuries, but extensive restoration work and alterations took place in the 19th and 20th centuries.^[17] There have been bells in the church since at least 1553; the oldest surviving bell in the tower is dated at 1556 and was made by Austen Bracker of Islington, Norfolk.^[18] The bell is listed for preservation by the central council as it is Bracker's only dated bell.

Histon Baptist

Histon Baptist church

This has also occupied two sites. The first chapel was built in 1858 and closed in 1899, the building having now been converted into flats. The current chapel was built in 1899 with the money and land being donated by Steven Chivers, but by 1908 this was no longer big enough and an extension was opened on the south side.^[19]

Education

School teachers are not just a recent occurrence in the villages; licensed schoolmasters appear on records as early as 1580.^[24]

Sport and Leisure

Histon and Impington is home to Histon Football Club who play in Non-League football in the United Counties League Premier Division South. The village recreation ground is home to a group of football clubs for children called the Histon Hornets^[32] as well as to Histon Cricket Club,^[33] which fields a number of teams at both youth and adult level. The recreation ground (Rec) is home to Histon Tennis Club which has access to three grass courts and one hard court. Histon Bowls Club also has a green at the Rec.

Notable people

• Rosamond Harding (1898-1982), music historian. Resident of Histon Manor House for 27 years.^[34]

References

External links

• Histon and Impington Parish Council