Ditton Corner
Ditton Corner

Fen Ditton History

Archeology suggests Stone Age settlements in the Cambridgeshire region several thousands of years B.C.

 

The village is first mentioned in 960 AD as 'Dittone' meaning the village by the ditch, with the ditch being Fleam Dyke, a high banked ditch that runs from the village to Stow-cum-Quy, defending the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia.

 

Fleam Dyke is one of four parallel defensive earthworks, thought to date from the seventh century wars between the kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia. It extends from the Cam here south-east to Quy Fen, and then pops up again in the magnificently visible stretch from Fulbourn to Balsham - ten miles away.

 

The chalk ridge overlooking the river, where our house, Ditton Corner ,stands is the oldest inhabited part of the parish. The church occupies the commanding position overlooking the Cam and its water meadows from the line of the Dyke. From here in medieval times, wharves stretched along the river to north and south. This is close to the navigable limit of the Cam, where goods would have been unloaded for the Stourbridge Fair, held every September - which at its heyday was described by Defoe as the biggest in the world.

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