DRY DRAYTON
Dry Drayton, (fn. 54) which formerly contained
2,421 a., (fn. 55) lies 8 km. (5 miles) north-west of
Cambridge, occupying an approximate quadrilateral, bounded on the north by the CambridgeHuntingdon road and on the south by that from
Cambridge to St. Neots, which were turnpikes
respectively between 1745 and 1874 (fn. 56) and between 1772 and 1876. (fn. 57) In 1966 c. 350 a. in the
north-west angle were detached to form the new
civil parish of Bar Hill, to which another 7 a.
were transferred in 1982 and 1985 leaving c.
833 ha. to the parent parish. (fn. 58) Although the
village was probably named Dry Drayton to
distinguish it from Fen Drayton 8 km. to the
north-west, (fn. 59) it has occasionally suffered in years
of drought, when all springs ran dry. (fn. 60)
The parish lies mostly upon gault, overlying
chalk which is exposed in the far north-west,
and itself overlaid in the south and even on
higher ground in the north by boulder clay. (fn. 61)
The land slopes steadily upward towards the
south from only c. 15 m. (50 ft.) near the northern
road to over 65 m. (200 ft.) by the southern
border. Two streams, the Caldwell, later Callow,
brook, to the east, so named by 1418, (fn. 62) and
probably by the 1320s, and the Dam brook to
the west, recorded in 1331, (fn. 63) have carved out
valleys for themselves each side of a central
ridge, on which the village stands. The brook
running eastward into Madingley was called the
Gore brook from the 1350s until after 1810. (fn. 64)
No ancient woodland survives. A few 19thcentury plantations, totaling 58 a. in 1905, (fn. 65)
including Carlisle wood (31 a.), (fn. 66) established by
1900 on the south-east border, were cleared by
the 1920s. (fn. 67) The parish has been mainly devoted
to arable farming, being cultivated on a triennial
rotation until its inclosure in 1809. After 1960
the planned village of Bar Hill was laid out in
its north-west corner.
The vill held 52 peasants in 1086. (fn. 68) There
were 48 people paying the fifteenth in 1327, (fn. 69) 122 adults liable to poll tax in 1377, (fn. 70) and 36
people charged to the subsidy in 1524. (fn. 71) In 1563
there were only 31 households, (fn. 72) but by the
1660s some 55 occupied dwellings, (fn. 73) and in 1676
again 122 adults. (fn. 74) In 1728 there were 40-50
households with c. 200 souls. (fn. 75) By 1800 the
population had risen to 376, in 80 families.
Thereafter it rose gradually usually by c. 20 a
decade, although more rapidly in the 1830s, to
a peak of 497 in 1851, before settling at c. 475
in the 1860s. By 1881 numbers had fallen sharply
to 374. A slower decline, to 323 in 1901, was
reversed, following new building at Scotland
Farm, only in 1911. (fn. 76) In 1917 numbers had
fallen again to 397, including 45 men away at
the War, (fn. 77) and were only 373 in 1931. (fn. 78) From
444 in 1949 they fell to 405 in 1951 before
growing slowly to 487 in 1971, then almost
doubling to 886 in 1981. (fn. 79) At Bar Hill, where
settlement began in 1967, (fn. 80) the resident population rose to 674 by 1971, (fn. 81) 1,673 in 1975, (fn. 82) and
2,365 in 1981. (fn. 83)
A possibly Anglo-Saxon burial, in which a
7th-century glass beaker was found in 1915, lay
by the Huntingdon road. (fn. 84) In the 14th century
the village stood about a mile south of that
road. (fn. 85) From the village ancient field ways ran
north-east and north to the Huntingdon road,
while others led southwards to the St. Neots
road and eastwards to Madingley. That leading
north-east towards Oakington was probably
called the Port way by 1500; (fn. 86) that running
north, probably by 1800 known as the Drift, was
reduced to a bridle way in 1811, when a parallel
third way further east, called Hardwicke way,
became a footpath. The main way running south,
later called Scotland Road, was then partly
straightened. (fn. 87) A way across pastures towards
Madingley was probably recorded in 1625. (fn. 88) In
the 1960s the building of Bar Hill blocked the
north part of the Drift. (fn. 89)
The closes of the village, covering 220 a. in
1810, (fn. 90) lay around a network of lanes. (fn. 91) In the
north, beyond Long Lane, those closes perhaps
occupied former open-field furlongs. The village
may have shrunk in the later Middle Ages: c.
1370 up to ten tenants were charged with not
maintaining their customary tenements. (fn. 92) Fallen
houses were often reported later, (fn. 93) while tenants
paid to be excused repairing their dwellings, and
the lord sometimes granted sites on favourable
terms provided that new houses were built
there. (fn. 94) The medieval pattern was disturbed
when much of the manorial closes in the southeast quadrant was thrown together to make a
park in the 16th century, blocking some lanes, (fn. 95) and leaving Park Street running along its northwest side as the main street. By 1800 settlement
had largely shifted west to High Street, leading
north along the village's western side into the
Drift, and there was a gap between the cottages
there and a line of farmsteads stretching from
Duck End east of the park along the Oakington
road. Park Street, which had several bends,
following old close boundaries, was straightened
in the late 20th century. In the 1950s the older
houses in the village included two timberframed plastered farmhouses, originally 17thcentury, remodeled or enlarged partly in brick,
at Cottons Farm on the high street, demolished
in the 1980s, and Crofts Farm by the Oakington
road. There were also c. 6 small cottages, onestoreyed and timber-framed, some thatched, and
mostly 18th-century, while Vine Farm was a
substantial square red-brick farmhouse. (fn. 96)
Figure 5:
Dry Drayton c.1800
In 1810 the village contained 36 houses, divided into 76 dwellings, among then six farmhouses, and there were no houses elsewhere
in the parish. (fn. 97) Afterwards Meadow (later Bar
House), Rectory, Edinburgh, and Scotland
Farms were put up along the western side of
the parish. (fn. 98) The number of inhabited houses
increased from c. 55 in the 1810s to c. 95 by the
1830s and 114 in 1851, mostly in the village.
By 1881 only 90 were occupied, leaving 16
empty. (fn. 99) In 1907 20 cottages were built in two
blocks facing Scotland Farm, (fn. 1) and in 1910 there
were 20 houses and 86 cottages, but by 1931
again only 96 dwellings. (fn. 2) New building raised
the number to over 120 by the late 1940s, and
thereafter it grew steadily to 165 in 1971 and
205 in 1981. (fn. 3) Besides 18 council houses off the
Oakington road and much infilling with houses
and especially bungalows, larger developments
occurred on Pettits Lane to the north-west and
Pettits Close off it. A line of more expensive
houses was built in the 1970s along the road
south from the old Rectory. By then a green,
incorporating part of the former manorial closes,
had been created by the street north of the
church.
Dry Drayton's inns included the Five Bells,
opened after 1810, where the Oakington road
met the Huntingdon turnpike. Recorded from
1841 it became solely a farmhouse after 1912. (fn. 4)
In the village itself were the Three Horseshoes,
recorded from the 1760s, and the Black Horse,
open by c. 1780, which both survived into the
1930s. (fn. 5) Only the Black Horse remained in 1985. (fn. 6)
A clubroom for the labourers' Shepherds
friendly society had been built behind the
Queen's Head beerhouse by 1876. (fn. 7)
In the late 19th century the village Feast was
held on the three days after the first Monday in
July, shortly after the patronal feast of St. Peter
and St. Paul. It included booths and dancing
along High Street, after a cricket match. (fn. 8) A
village cricket club was mentioned in the 1890s. (fn. 9)
The Feast was eventually replaced by an annual
horticultural show in August, organized from
1948 by the local allotments society, which
included until 1974 a gymkhana held at Scotland
Farm. (fn. 10) There was a reading room by 1899. (fn. 11) In
1913 the parish council tried to revive it at the
disused Baptist chapel. (fn. 12) A First World War
hut, long used as a village hall, (fn. 13) was replaced
with a specially built one in 1967. (fn. 14) In the 1960s
the village had two sports and four social clubs. (fn. 15)
A newly formed village association revived the
traditional Feast, after a 30-year gap, in July
1976. (fn. 16)
Bar Hill. The new village, (fn. 17) established on
350 a. of farmland sold by Chivers Ltd. in
1959, (fn. 18) was planned to be a self-contained and
partly self-supporting community, growing to
1,200 dwellings and a population of 4,000 over
15 years. The houses, intended to be leasehold,
were to be laid out on closes running inward
from a perimeter road and surrounding a central
green, which in 1982 covered 11 a., (fn. 19) with an
adjacent shopping center and public buildings,
while 13 a. in the northern corner were reserved
for an industrial estate. Despite opposition from
Cambridge city council, which feared loss of
business, (fn. 20) the plan was approved in 1964. (fn. 21)
Work began, after a sewage plant had been set
up in Lolworth, (fn. 22) in December 1965 on building
the first 350 houses. (fn. 23) The first inhabitants
arrived in May 1967, (fn. 24) and by 1968 there were
200 resident families. (fn. 25) Because growth was
slower than expected, Cubitts, the original developer, sold the project in 1968, when only 180
houses had been completed, to Trafalgar House.
Building was interrupted for 18 months while
new houses were designed in cheaper and more
conventional styles, expected to sell better. (fn. 26) The
whole northern quadrant of the site was allotted
to industry. (fn. 27) Rapid growth followed in the early
1970s, when c. 200 houses a year were being
built. The north-eastern section was thus filled
up, while 160 other houses were put up further
west. (fn. 28) By 1975 there were 599 houses in all. (fn. 29)
Development continued more slowly on the
south-western and south-eastern sections, where
estates of 50-159 houses were projected in the
late 1970s, (fn. 30) and others of 200-250 in the early
1980s, (fn. 31) even though building was sometimes
delayed because of objections to the monotonous
design and over-crowded layout. (fn. 32) About 1980
a dozen more expensive houses were built beyond the perimeter road on high ground overlooking the golf course, at Crafts Hill to the
south-east. (fn. 33) The new parish council, which
provided 65 allotments in 1975-6, (fn. 34) in 1976 took
over, as trustee for the village, the freehold of
the 650 houses then completed, (fn. 35) and set about
enfranchising leaseholds. (fn. 36)
By 1980 the northern quadrant had been filled,
partly with small factories, of which there were
five by 1971, (fn. 37) partly with extensive warehouses,
planned from 1971 and enlarged steadily in
number and size from 1973. (fn. 38) A shopping mall,
opened in the new village center in 1968, then
contained 14 shops, among them a supermarket (fn. 39)
which closed in 1976. (fn. 40) The residents found that
the shops included too many specialist ones, and
too few selling basic necessities. (fn. 41) In 1977 Tesco
opened a very large store with extensive parking
on a site west of the earlier shopping center. (fn. 42)
The Cambridgeshire Hotel by the main road
was opened with 100 rooms in 1973-4. To it was
attached an 18-hole golf course opened in 1975
on 135 a. below Crafts Hill bought in 1970. (fn. 43)
Despite doubts about the new settlement's
character and likelihood of success, (fn. 44) it had
within a few years won the affection of its
inhabitants, (fn. 45) and was provided with numerous
social and sporting clubs. (fn. 46) From 1970 it had its
own public house in the shopping centre. (fn. 47) A
school was opened in 1968, (fn. 48) and a church in
1972. (fn. 49) In 1976 the developer gave £50,000 of
the £130,000 needed to build a village hall, (fn. 50)
completed in 1979, (fn. 51) and in 1981 the disused
Bar House Farm was converted for a youth
centre. (fn. 52)