Queen Adelaide
Under Construction
The present village of Queen Adelaide, which lies just over 2 miles north east of Ely is purported to be named after a pub built near the bridge over the River Ouse in 1820s or 30s. The pub was named after Queen Adelaide
(1792 – 1849), queen consort to William IV. Prior to this the historical record indicates the village, hamlet or manor in this area was called Turbutsey. One of the earliest references to Turbutsey was in 1109, although there was probably a farm or manor on a site near to the present Potter Group buildings before this. At this time the River Ouse ran a completely different course and was no-where near Turbutsey. However, as with many other Fen towns and villages, the name ending –sey indicates that the farm/manor/hamlet was an island or surrounded by or very close to water.
An Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded in Ely in 673 and re-founded in 970. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, and the putting down of the local rebellion of Hereward the Wake immediately after, the first Norman Abbot began to rebuild the Ely cathedral on a new and larger scale. From 1109 onwards the cathedral became the seat of a bishop of the new bishopric of Ely. The farm or hamlet of Turbutsey was among those granted to the monks of Ely by the Bishop’s charter of 1109.
Documentation from 1417 (the arbitration award) shows Turbutsey as one of the seven manors, near to Ely, over which the sacrist (a church officer with responsibility for sacred vessels) had special jurisdiction: the others were Brame, Stuntney, Thorney, Northney, Quaveney, and Shepey. Turbutsey supplied a considerable part of the sacrist's food in the 14th century.
At the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536 – 1540) under Henry VIII, the estate of Turbutsey was granted to the dean and chapter of the new Church of England diocese of Ely. The population of the area at the time was not great. Bishop Cox's survey of Ely, in 1563, gives the total number of householders as 400: in Holy Trinity parish with Turbutsey and Stuntney there were 246; in St. Mary's parish with Chettisham 154.
Later references to Turbutsey say there was a dairy here in the 16th and 17th centuries plus it had fishing-rights, an ancient quay, a willow-holt (wood or woody hill), a kiln for brick- or tile-making and a chapel. The remains of brick-pits and old brick buildings, near the present Thistle Corner, probably mark the site of what was known in the 16th century as 'Little Turbutsey'. Brick making became highly profitable and from the second half of the 16th century Ely bricks were supplying building works outside the city, including for some Cambridge colleges, Kings Lynn harbour and merchants houses in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. The success of the Ely brick business can be attributed in part to trade along the River Ouse and connecting river network and to the local gault clay used to make the bricks.
With the drainage of the Fens in the 1620s and 30s agriculture became more important and it remains so today, with Queen Adelaide surrounded by arable land on nearly all sides, except that the farm land between the village and Ely is now being eaten up by new housing developments. The growing of willow and osiers for basket making around Ely remained important for several hundred years; 40 basket makers were recorded in Ely and surrounding villages in the 1870s. Turbutsey manor house was finally pulled down to make room for the Ely beet factory in 1925.
As stated earlier, the course of the River Ouse was different from that of today, and in 1826 the South Level Drainage and Navigation Committee started planning for the excavation of Sandy’s Cut, which would straighten the river between Ely and Littleport taking it across Padnal Fen. At the time the River Ouse ran from Ely via Old Bank to Prickwillow, so there was no river crossing between Ely and Prickwillow on what is now Prickwillow/Ely Road. The Cut would reduce river journeys by nearly 6 miles and get around shallows at what was The Plough pub, Old bank, which catered for river traffic held up at the shallows. Once the river was diverted the pub lost trade and is now a private house.
The Navigation Committee visited the work on Sandy’s Cut on 12th December 1828 “and were much gratified by the progress which has been already made under the direction of their able superintendent, Mr. John Human of Prickwillow, who has completed nearly half the distance”. The Cut was opened to public traffic at midday on 19th April 1830, after which the Committee travelled by barge from Ely to Littleport along the Cut and returned to celebrate the event with a dinner at The Lamb Inn at 4 O’clock (tickets for the dinner were 15s each).
At the time the village was referred to by reference to the bridge that now had to be built over the Cut, which was called Adelaide Bridge because it was built close to the pub. The present bridge was built in 1930. A report from The Cambridge Chronicle of 26th April 1851, covers a robbery from the pub, when 14lb of salt butter, one green ham and near 7st of salt pork were stolen; “suspicion rests upon some parties living in Littleport, footsteps being traced to Sandal Bridge in that town”.
The village enlarged after the opening of Sandy’s Cut, partly to house an influx of railway workers. The first of the three lines that run through Queen Adelaide to be opened was the Cambridge – Norwich line in 1845. The Cambridge – Kings Lynn and Ely to Peterborough lines both opened in 1847 (There are a number of websites showing pictures taken of or from these 3 lines in and around Queen Adelaide).
Adelaide Bridge school was built in 1872 to cater for 50 pupils. It was enlarged in 1885 but closed in 1953. The old school and adjacent headmaster’s house are now both private dwellings.
The church of St. Etheldreda, was erected at Adelaide Bridge in 1883-4 at a cost of £700, and was described as having a plain edifice of brick, consisting of nave, south porch and a turret containing one bell: there are sittings for 140. It was sold for conversion to a private dwelling in 1978. There is also reference to a Primitive Methodist chapel in Low Road, Queen Adelaide in a map of 1900 (Primitive Methodism was started in 1811 in Staffordshire as a reaction against the ‘gentrification’ of Wesleyan Methodism; the 2 rejoined in 1932). The remains of the chapel can still just be seen next t0 Bridge House.
Under the general Local Government Act of 1894 the Urban District of Ely was created, with a council of thirteen persons in 1900. The Urban District included the two city parishes, the College Precincts, and the hamlets of Stuntney, Chettisham, Prickwillow, and Adelaide Bridge. After the last local government reorganisation in 1974, Queen Adelaide is now within the larger East Cambridgeshire District Council, but is also part of the City of Ely Parish Council.
The sugar beet factory was opened in October 1925 after one year of building and was a major employer. Beet was brought to the factory by river, road and rail, but it too closed in 1981. The site is now owned by the logistics company The Potter Group who had the new bridge from Queen Adelaide Way built into their site in 1993 after lorries had difficulty accessing the site from the former entrance next to The School House on Ely Road.
The former Queen Adelaide pub drew a lot of its trade from the factory workers and it closed only a few years after. Another closure that reflected the decline in village life was that in October 1971 of Queen Adelaide’s only shop. It had been run by Mrs Victoria Stevens and her son Reginald, the shop being run by the Stevens for 11 years. In the same year Cllr Alfred Pope told Ely Urban Council that Queen Adelaide “was dying” because of building restrictions; since 1940 34 houses had been demolished, but only 7 built.
In 1930 Adelaide FC were winners of the Isle Lower Junior Cup. A photograph of the winning team still hangs in the village hall. Queen Adelaide and its residents played their part in the two world wars. The Royal British Legion Role of Honour for Queen Adelaide, for those who fell in the First World War can be found at;
During the Second World War, after the fall of France, the invasion of Britain by the Germans became a real possibility. Defences were thrown up quickly across the country, the most readily identifiable anti-invasion defence structure being the pillbox. Around 28,000 were built across the county, mostly in 1940 – 1941 and they tended to be built in conjunction with natural features that would add to the defensive position, such as major rivers like the Great Ouse. Many local pillboxes remain today. There is one in Queen Adelaide along Low Road; there are 2 between Queen Adelaide and Littleport; one between Queen Adelaide and Prickwillow; and one just off Prickwillow Road, between Queen Adelaide and Ely; plus until recently there was a home guard shelter just outside Queen Adelaide on the road to Prickwillow, that is now demolished. On a lighter side, April 1940 saw the enrolment to the village’s first girl guide group started (although there is now no guide group in the village), and in 1944 the University boat race was rowed between Littleport and Queen Adelaide bridge, because of the war-time bombing of London. 5,000 people were reported to have watched the race, which Oxford won by ¾ of a length. The boat race was re-enacted on its 60th anniversary in February 2004, which again saw big crowds in the village looking at displays of Second World War vehicles and other memorabilia as well as the race.
The village still has many important features. The 3 level crossings, railway bridge over the loop line (Ely south curve) and the river bridge dominate the road through the village. Agriculture is still important to the area and two major employers, The Potter Group and DS Smith Packaging have depots in the village. Plus there are the beet pools on Queen Adelaide Way which the RSPB considers an important site for wildlife and which may become a protected site to help form a wildlife corridor along the River Ouse east of Ely. The village hall was renovated to its current state in the 1980s with a full refurbishment of the hall’s kitchen being completed in 2006. The hall now acts as the social centre for the village, which remains an active and vibrant place