SWAVESEY, a village on the edge of the fens eight miles west of Cambridge, offers the walker a wide variety of landscape features. To the south, towards the A14, are arable fields and to the north is Mare Fen Nature Reserve, which is frequently flooded in winter, but where cattle graze peacefully in summer. The impressive Church of St Andrew and the nearby Manor House are built on a small gravel island. The stone for the church was transported from the River Ouse, along the winding medieval Navigation Drain through Middle Fen, to the site of the former priory on the north side of the church. The main part of the early village was built on a larger island south of the church. At its centre is the wide Market Street, where in 1244 Henry III granted the Lord of the Manor, Alan de la Zouch, the right to hold a market and fair. West of Market Street, in Taylors Lane, can be seen the remains of ditches and banks which formed the earthworks attached to a castle of the same period. Swavesey developed into a thriving commercial centre due to its navigable waterways from the River Ouse to docks in Market Street and at Swan Pond. An aerial view taken in 1976 has revealed the extent of the village's early development, and its prosperity can be judged from the Merchant's House by Swan Pond, the Market House in the High Street and the Old House in Black Horse Lane. Today several walks start in the centre of the village and take you down byways and alongside waterways which still show evidence of earlier activities. Recent gravel extractions in part of Mow Fen have created new features which add interest to the landscape and wildlife walks around Swavesey.
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