ECONOMIC HISTORY.
Land in Fen Ditton
was under the plough c. 970, and in 1035 the
manors at Ditton and Horningsea each provided
2 weeks of food renders for Ely abbey. (fn. 13) In 1086,
when the manor was assessed with Horningsea
manor, there were as many ploughteams on the
demesne as on the peasants' land. (fn. 14) In 1251 the
bishop of Ely had 305 a. of arable in demesne
divided into 18 separate parcels scattered in
the open fields of Fen Ditton, and another
319 a. divided between 15 separate parcels in
Horningsea. (fn. 15) In 1356-7 the bishop's demesne
in the two parishes comprised c. 500 a. of arable,
and 24 a. of pasture. (fn. 16) The size of the demesne
farm remained relatively stable in the period of
episcopal ownership; in 1606, shortly after the
sale of the manor, the demesne in both parishes
comprised 400 a. of arable, 25 a. of meadowland,
and 24 a. of pasture. (fn. 17) There were six open fields
in the parish from the Middle Ages to the
17th century: (fn. 18) in the west lay Whatloe and
Leadenhall fields; in the centre Abbots Ditch,
Little Ditton, and Swansbridge fields; and in
the east High Ditch field. (fn. 19) In the early 18th
century Whatloe field contained Upper, Middle,
and Lower furlongs. By 1800 Whatloe and
Leadenhall fields had been taken into severalty
as far east as the Cambridge road, with the newly
enclosed land in them belonging mostly to the
manorial estate. (fn. 20)
In 1251 in the whole of the bishop's manor
there were 18 freeholders, 27 half yardlanders,
16 cottars, and 34 cotterells. (fn. 21) The freeholders'
annual rents ranged from 6d. to 6s. each, while
three of them also performed ploughing, ditching works, and harvest boons. The half yardlanders were subject to a range of customary
obligations, and performed weekwork. They
also had to maintain the lord's sheepfold and
barns. Each cottar paid 1s. in rent annually,
owed one day's weekwork, and had to keep their
sheep in the lord's fold and to provide two men
for their lord at harvest. At the bottom of the
social scale the cotterells had dwellings with
little land attached to them. Besides owing
labour services, they paid rents of 3d. to 1s.
In 1279 18 freeholders paid the bishop an
aggregate rent of 19s. 8d., as well as owing labour
services and customary rents; (fn. 22) nine free cottars
owed the bishop labour services and rents ranging from 2d. to 2s. a year. If the 29 villeins were
the successors of the half yardlanders, their
labour services had been reduced since 1251.
The 18 crofters owed the same labour services
as the cottars had in 1251. The 24 cotterells
owed various annual labour services, including
reaping ½ a. of the lord's corn and one day's
stacking, and each rendered 6d. In addition 6
free cottars paid their lord, William Muschet,
rents of between 6d. and 5s.
In the Middle Ages and during the 16th and
17th centuries there was piecemeal inclosure
primarily in the western half of Fen Ditton. (fn. 23) In
the late 1660s several farms ranged in size from
c. 70 a. to c. 180 a. In the late 18th century two
farms, with lands divided between both parishes, had over 200 a. each, another four had c.
100 a. each, and several other farms had c. 40 a.
each. (fn. 24) In 1796 one estate had 43 a. of inclosed
land in Leadenhall field and 47 a. in Abbots
Ditch field. (fn. 25) The inclosure of Fen Ditton parish
was effected under an Act of 1807. By then
1,155 a. of the parish had already been enclosed,
including both the former open fields in its
south-west and probably, since the late 17th
century, the former common fens in the northwest. Only 666 a., mainly in the surviving open
fields, remained to be enclosed under the award
executed in 1817. (fn. 26) After inclosure the principal
landowner's estate, then owned by the legal
representatives of Thomas Panton, was concentrated in the west of the parish, with c. 381 a.
included in Fen Ditton Hall farm; the Jenyns
estate, c. 221 a., was divided into two portions,
one in the former Abbots Ditch field, the other
in High Ditch field; and four other estates
ranged between c. 100 and c. 221 a. (fn. 27) Fen Ditton
Hall farm was regarded as one of the most compact farms in the country in 1817, with half its
acreage being given over to arable, and the other
half to meadowland, pasture, and timber
resources. (fn. 28) In 1941 Fen Ditton Hall had 608 a.
of farmland in Fen Ditton parish, and 85 a. in
Horningsea parish. Other important holdings
lying along the old Horningsea road north of
Fen Ditton village were Poplar Hall and Biggin
Abbey farms, both of which were divided
between Fen Ditton and Horningsea parishes in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Along
Newmarket Road lay a further three farms, the
largest of which was Greenhouse farm, first
recorded in 1825, with c. 225 a. in the mid 19th
century, and c. 450 a. in 1960. (fn. 29) Quy Water farm
had c. 150 a. between 1851 and 1941. In 1941
six farms in the parish totalled c. 1,260 a., and
in 1961 there was 1,130 a. of arable in all. Each
of these farms had a ratio of arable to pasture of
approximately 3:1, except for Quy Water farm
with a ratio of 7:1.
In the mid 14th century equal proportions of
maslin and barley were grown on the episcopal
manor, but the acreage of wheat was only a fifth
as large. (fn. 30) Between 1870 and 1910 the acreage
given over to cereals, primarily wheat and
barley, increased from c. 650 a. in 1870 to c.
740 a. in 1910, before falling back to c. 670 in
1930. (fn. 31) A local agricultural society encouraged
the growth of root crops in both Fen Ditton and
Horningsea parishes: the acreage in Fen Ditton
increased from c. 335 in 1890 to c. 602 a. in 1910,
before declining to c. 161 a. in 1930. Between
1870 and 1930 the acreage under grass rose from
c. 350 a. to 485 a. In 1961 in the parish there
was 398 a. of barley, 202 a. of wheat, 180 a. of
sugar beet, and 250 a. of meadow.
In 1315-16 two shepherds worked in Fen
Ditton. (fn. 32) A sheepwalk recorded in the 18th century, when it ran through the western portion of
the parish between Abbots Ditch and High
Ditch field to the east, was almost certainly in
existence earlier. (fn. 33) In 1870 there were 1,080
sheep in Fen Ditton, but by 1890 numbers had
halved, (fn. 34) and between 1930 and 1941 they
declined further from 294 to 192; in 1960 there
were no sheep at all. (fn. 35) Between 1870 and 1960
the number of cattle increased from 59 to 223:
in 1960 all the cattle were Herefords, save for a
herd of shorthorns at Fen Ditton Hall farm. In
the late 17th century there was a piggery east of
Fen Ditton Hall. (fn. 36) Between 1890 and 1960 the
number of pigs fluctuated between 91 and 170.
Up to the mid 20th century and beyond poultry
farming increased in importance: between 1930
and 1941 numbers of fowl doubled from 771 to
1,724, and in 1960 there were 2,519 fowl in the
parish, primarily at Greenhouse and Quy Water
farms.
A watermill in Fen Ditton, recorded in 1527, (fn. 37)
may be the same as that extant in 1669 and 1733,
but not recorded thereafter. (fn. 38) A water-powered
papermill at Fen Ditton, the second recorded in
England, was erected for the bishop of Ely by
a German paper-maker and builder called
Remigius between 1550 and 1554. It stood on
the edge of Whatloe fen, at the junction of
Ditton Walk and Newmarket Road. (fn. 39) Leased by
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, until the
late 1550s, it was replaced no later than 1591 by
a new mill which passed in 1600 to the Crown
with Fen Ditton manor, and thereafter belonged
to the Willyses and their successors. (fn. 40) In 1824
it was no longer in operation, but in 1886 was
used as a malthouse. (fn. 41) In the late 1980s it was
converted into offices.
Between 1811 and 1831 three quarters of the
adult male population worked on the farms,
which employed 34 people in 1811, 75 by 1831. (fn. 42)
Between 1841 and 1861 the number of farm
labourers rose from 76 to 138, but by 1881 had
fallen to 126. (fn. 43) In 1941 39 men and 2 boys were
employed as farm labourers. (fn. 44)
The number of blacksmiths, masons, bricklayers, carpenters and other tradesmen declined
from 22 in 1841 to 8 in 1861, before rising to 16
in 1881. (fn. 45) In the early 20th century the village
had several shops, but in the late 20th century
it had only one village shop with post office, an
antiques shop in the former Fen Ditton school
building, and tea-rooms at Riverside cottage. A
few 'cottage' industries became established in
the parish, including Caroline Watt Designs,
which in 1978 employed 35 outworkers to produce toys, largely sold in the U.S.A. That firm
was no longer in business in 2000. (fn. 46)
In the late 20th century industrial development was concentrated in the south-west of the
parish, within Cambridge's boundaries since
1934. In 1944 Pye Telecommunications established its Fen Ditton Lane works at the junction
of Newmarket Road and Fen Ditton Lane. (fn. 47)
Although the company initially produced radio
communications equipment for military purposes, after 1945 it moved into civil work,
pioneering the development of radios for use in
taxis and other commercial vehicles. From 1977
Pye's main activities were carried out at the
factory on St. Andrew's Road in Cambridge,
and in 1981 the Fen Ditton Lane works was
closed, following the takeover of the company
by Phillips.
Marshall's engineering works was mainly in
Teversham parish, (fn. 48) but a few of its hangars and
workshops are within the boundaries of Fen
Ditton. In 1986 planning permission was given
to Marshall to develop an 11.4 a. (4.6 ha.) site
on the north of Newmarket Road for a new
hangar to accommodate up to three Boeing 747
aircraft. (fn. 49) The proposal was opposed by Fen
Ditton and Teversham parish councils and the
Cambridge Preservation Society on the grounds
of noise, traffic congestion, and the defacing of
the sky-line, but supported by the Cambridge
Chamber of Commerce, airline companies, and
aircraft manufacturers. Permission was granted
after a Public Enquiry but this hangar was not
built because the contract was lost due to the
delay in obtaining planning permission.