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STATION ROAD
(An Occasional Series on Swavesey’s Roads)
Part One
“If only the cobblestones could speak .......”
By Stephen Bull

Proceeding from High Street and bearing right we enter, what was once appropriately named, “Station Road”. Station Road passes through the northern section of the village often referred to by the locals as “Church End”.  This part of the village reveals the most astonishing part of the village scene.  Not only is it (in the view of the writer) the most picturesque area of the village, but its history goes back into the ‘mists of time’.  Church End is intrinsically connected with the very establishment/founding of the village of Swavesey.

How Swavesey got its name
From ancient times until the early 1800s there were two ways into and through the area; by water and along the Roman Road (A14).  Access by water was clearly the most favoured method of transport.  Strategically situated close to the navigable River Ouse, and just above the flood level, Church End saw the arrival of the first settlers who, in the process, gave the village its unique name.  The oldest piece of evidence of any town or village is its name and “Swavesey” is no exception.
The most favoured interpretation for Swavesey is “Swaef’s landing place” or possibly “the Swabians’ landing place”.   Who “Swaef” or “the Swabians” were is not known, but the name  was obviously adopted by the inhabitants living close to the banks of the Ouse.

Proceeding along Station Road
As you pass by “Eyes of Swavesey” the opticians glance up and note the date of the building: “1913”.  (I will make reference to this date at the end of this article.)  A little further on the right is the “Bottle House” with nine bottles in the shape of a diamond inserted in the gable end. A Beer House originally stood on this site.  To the left is a row of red brick houses, numbered 13 to 19 (one of which has been snowcemed).  These together with a number of other houses in the village - notably the “Market or Town House” numbers 10 and 12 High Street and “The Grange” in Market Street - were built with bricks manufactured in the Swavesey Brickyard in Cow Fen.  “Swavesey bricks” as they came to be known were rather soft and irregular and did not stand up well to the vagaries of the English weather!  (The brick yard itself closed down about 1890.)

In front of us is Swan Pond with “Chequers Court” on the right.  This new development obtained its name from house number 18 which was originally “The Chequers” public house.  For over 150 years this was the home of the Mitham family, builders and undertakers, who served the village and church unstintingly for many years.

At this point the left-hand side of the road dips down alongside Swan Pond.  A level pathway continues to the church. It is partly a cobblestone causeway along which stands a number of houses.  One house of particular note is the “Merchants House” (number 31).  Possibly of late 15th century construction with a timber frame end it served as the “Swan with Two Necks” public house for many years - a corruption of the more correct “Swan with Two Nicks”.  In earlier times (1815) the public house was referred to simply as “The Swan” and in 1871 as the “Swan Inn” before the adoption of “Swan with Two Necks”.

Swan Pond
It is thought that Swan Pond was originally a wharf and formed part of a complex medieval dock system stretching into the middle of the village to Market Street.  The cobblestone causeway would have been used for loading and unloading boats.  These boats could well have sailed from The Wash via. the River Ouse, laden with coal for fuel, and sand and stone for building, etc. Return journeys would have been of grain for the Midlands and North and hay for cattle feed. The last section of the journey from the Ouse through Middle Fen was along a narrow waterway - “Navigation Drain” - probably widened during the Roman occupation, and finally into what is now called “Church Brook” which fed the series of wharves.  (See diagrammatic map.)

The rest of the road takes the traffic past the pond on the right, separated from it by iron railings on top of a reinforcing wall built to hold the road from crumbling into the pond.  Before the draining of the Fens “the pond would have filled up, as it does now in time of flood, to lap against the causeway which would have formed a perfect wharf at the door of the houses” (Ravensdale).

During the catastrophic East Anglian floods of 1947 the water rose to the doorsteps of the houses on the cobblestones, but as far as I am aware no houses were flooded or had to be evacuated.

The mature cedar trees each end of the pond were planted in 1901 to commemorate the reign of Queen Victoria.

Over the years the pond has had a chequered history.  Prior to a  piped water supply in the village the pond served a useful purpose for people living in that part of the village.  Its water was essential for the local fire brigade, and cattle and carters’ horses were ‘watered’ in the pond - while the owners, no doubt, quenched their thirst in “The Swan”!  

In the 1970s the pond became a morass of reed covered thick black sludge that the Parish Council decided to fill it in with hardcore and make into a “grassed amenity and car park” (C.E.N. 2nd April 1973).  A section of the local community objected and wished to maintain the pond as a “visual amenity”  and for it to continue to serve a “useful drainage function”.  Subsequently the pond was cleaned, landscaped and stocked with water plants and goldfish; and for many years was beautifully maintained by the late Mrs. Brooks.

Early maps of the area show a road terminating just past Swan Pond and a track veering to the left ..... but more of that another time.

If the cobblestones could speak
The cobblestone causeway has been a feature of Swavesey from time immemorial.  If they could speak they would .....tell us of the waterborne early settlers from far off shores;
......recount the worshippers making their way over the cobblestones to church services when the pond was in flood. (Note: For a time a small tax was levied for the upkeep of the pathway for the use of church attenders.);
......tell the names of mischievous children who loved to scamper along the cobblestones while on walks with parents or friends!; and
......relate the catastrophic ‘Fire’ one windy day in March 1913 when all the thatched houses in Station Road were burnt down rendering 80 people homeless.

The later necessitated the rebuilding of a number of houses, including “Frere Cottages” and the elegant frontage of “Eyes of Swavesey”.

Acknowledgements:-
1.      “History on Your Doorstep” by J.R. Ravensdale (1982);
2.      Tour of Swavesey Notes by John  Shepperson dated 20th June 1995.