Witchford

Coordinates: 52°23′13″N 0°12′22″E / 52.387°N 0.206°E / 52.387; 0.206

Signpost in Witchford

Witchford /ˈwɪtʃfɔrd/ is a small village near Ely in Cambridgeshire, England with a 2011 population of 2,385.^[1]

Witchford houses the secondary school Witchford Village College that serves all of the surrounding villages, including Haddenham, Little Thetford, Mepal, Stretham, Sutton, Wilburton and Witcham.^[2]

The village hosts the Grunty Fen Half Marathon road race, which has been staged annually in the village since 1991.^[3] The race begins and ends at Witchford Village College and involves two laps into the nearby Grunty Fen.

RAF Witchford

The village was once the home to RAF Witchford, an RAF Bomber Command base that was built in 1942 and closed and broken up in 1946. It was initially home to the Vickers Wellington bombers of No. 196 Squadron RAF, but after they relocated to RAF Leicester East their place was taken by No. 115 Squadron RAF flying Avro Lancasters. It was proposed to become a missile base thereafter (rumours were it was to become a Blue Streak base), which is why some of the older residents refer to the site (now an industrial park) as "The Rocket Base".^{[citation needed]}

A museum dedicated to RAF Witchford is located in the village.^[4]

Archaeology

A cemetery was discovered here during World War II whilst constructing the aerodrome.^[5] Archaeologist Major Gordon Fowler reported witnessing a bulldozer levelling off ground and in so doing was crushing skeletons. Little archaeological work could be undertaken as the urgent war effort could not be stopped. He was however able to recover some objects from the graves, which were later dated by Lethbridge to be consistent with the period AD 450–650.^[6] More recent survey work found Iron-Age and Roman period domestic and other remains. An Anglo-Saxon cemetery was not found at that time leading to the conclusion that this was not the site of the lost village of Cratendune.^[7]

References

Bibliography

• "Cambridgeshire Archaeology Historic Environment Team Annual Report:Lancaster Way, East Cambridgeshire" (PDF). Cambridgeshire County Council. 2008–2009. Retrieved 19 August 2010.  Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Fowler, Gordon (1948), "Cratendune: A problem of the Dark Ages", Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society (For the Cambridge Antiquarian Society by Bowes and Bowes) XLI: 70–73, retrieved 29 September 2010 

External links

Media related to Witchford at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Settlements in East Cambridgeshire Cities Ely Towns Soham Villages Aldreth Ashley Barway Bottisham Brinkley Burwell Chettisham Cheveley Chippenham Coveney Dullingham Fordham Haddenham Isleham Little Downham Little Thetford Littleport Lode Longmeadow Mepal Prickwillow Pymoor Queen Adelaide Reach Stetchworth Stretham Stuntney Sutton Swaffham Bulbeck Swaffham Prior Upware Wicken Wilburton Witcham Witchford Woodditton Civil parishes List of civil parishes in Cambridgeshire