Littleport, Cambridgeshire

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Littleport
St George's Church, Littleport - geograph.org.uk - 112543.jpg
St George's Church
 Littleport shown within Cambridgeshire
Area  28.46 sq mi (73.7 km2) [1]
Population 8,738 [2]
   – density  307/sq mi (119/km2)
OS grid reference TL568868
   – London 67.4 mi (108.5 km)  S
District East Cambridgeshire
Shire county Cambridgeshire
Region East
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town ELY
Postcode district CB6
Dialling code 01353
Police Cambridgeshire
Fire Cambridgeshire
Ambulance East of England
EU Parliament East of England
UK Parliament North East Cambridgeshire
List of places
UK
England
Cambridgeshire

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Littleport is the largest village in East Cambridgeshire,[3] England, approximately 6 miles (10 km) north of Ely and 6 miles (10 km) south-east of Welney. It lies on the Bedford Level South section of the River Great Ouse, close to Burnt Fen and Mare Fen. There are two primary schools in the village; Millfield Primary and Littleport Community school.

The Littleport riots of 1816 were a factor in Parliament passing the Vagrancy Act of 1824.

History

With an Old English name of Litelport, the village was worth 17,000 Eels to the Abbot's of Ely in 1086.[4]

The legendary founder of Littleport was King Canute. A fisherman gave the king shelter one night, after drunken monks had denied hospitality. Following his punishment of the monastics, the king made his host the mayor of a newly founded village.[5]

Littleport was the site of the Littleport Riots of 1816. War-weary veterans from the Battle of Waterloo had returned home, only to find that they could not get any work, and that the grain prices had gone up. They took to the streets and smashed shops and other buildings until troops came to put an end to the riots.[6] St George's church registers were destroyed[7] during the riots. The remaining registers start from 1754 (marriages), 1756 (burials), and 1783 (baptisms). Some original historical documents relating to the riots are held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at the County Record Office Cambridge.[8]

In 2003, a Harley-Davidson statue was unveiled in Littleport to commemorate the centenary of the famous motorcycle company. William Harley, the father of the company's co-founder William Sylvester Harley, had been born in Victoria Street, Littleport, in 1835, before emigrating to the USA in 1859.[9]

Governance

Littleport is a civil parish with an elected council. Parish council services include bus shelters, cemeteries, shared equity housing, local planning consultation, play areas, village halls, and war memorials. Parish council meetings are held in the village hall situated in each civil parish.[10]

The civil parish councils were governed by Ely Rural District council from 1894 until 1974.[11] East Cambridgeshire District Council (ECDC) was formed in 1974 with administration buildings in Ely. The district council collects taxes, provides services such as building regulations and local planning, leisure and tourism, handles issues strategic to the district, and many other services. ECDC is in turn governed by Cambridgeshire County Council which has administration buildings in Cambridge. The county council provides county-wide services such as major road infrastructure, fire and rescue, libraries and heritage, and strategic planning.[10]

The parish is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of North East Cambridgeshire. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It is also part of the East of England constituency of the European Parliament which elects seven MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.

Economy

Thomas Peacock, who founded the gentlemen's tailoring chain Hope Brothers, was born in Littleport in 1829. The first Hope Brothers shirt-making factory was opened in the village in 1882. For a period in the 1940s and 1950s, Hope Brothers were also manufacturers of the England football kit. The factory was eventually taken over by Burberry.[12]

From 1979-1983, Jim Burns guitars were based in Padnal Road in Littleport. They produced guitars such as the Steer, popularized by guitarist Billy Bragg.[13]

Little Ouse

Littleport covers the hamlet of Little Ouse which comes under the Littleport East ward. Little Ouse is now entirely residential: the former pub (the Waterman's Arms) and church of St John the Evangelist have both been converted to private dwellings.[14]

Climate

With an average annual rainfall of 24 inches (600 mm), Cambridgeshire is one of the driest counties in the British Isles. Protected from the cool onshore coastal breezes east of the region, Cambridgeshire is warm in summer and cold and frosty in winter.[15]

Regional UK climate forecasts and historical summaries are available from the UK Met Office.[16][17] The nearest Met Office weather station is Cambridge NIAB.

There are many additional local weather stations reporting periodic figures to the internet. For example, via Weather Underground, Inc.[18]

Climate data for Cambridge (1971-2000 averages)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °F (°C) 44.6
(7.0)		 45.3
(7.4)		 50.4
(10.2)		 54.7
(12.6)		 61.7
(16.5)		 66.9
(19.4)		 72
(22.2)		 72.1
(22.3)		 66
(18.9)		 58.3
(14.6)		 49.8
(9.9)		 46
(7.8)		 57.4
(14.1)
Average low °F (°C) 34.3
(1.3)		 34
(1.1)		 37.2
(2.9)		 39.2
(4.0)		 44.1
(6.7)		 49.6
(9.8)		 53.6
(12.0)		 53.4
(11.9)		 50.2
(10.1)		 44.8
(7.1)		 38.7
(3.7)		 36.1
(2.3)		 43
(6.1)
Average rainfall inches (mm) 1.772
(45.0)		 1.287
(32.7)		 1.634
(41.5)		 1.697
(43.1)		 1.752
(44.5)		 2.118
(53.8)		 1.504
(38.2)		 1.921
(48.8)		 2.008
(51.0)		 2.118
(53.8)		 2.012
(51.1)		 1.969
(50.0)		 21.791
(553.5)
Source: Met Office

Demography

Littleport is 28.46 square miles (73.7 km2) in size making it the largest village in East Cambridgeshire by area. The city of Ely itself has the highest East Cambridgeshire population with Soham second and Littleport third.[1]

Historical population of Littleport[19]
Year 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901
Population 1602 1847 2364 2644 3365 3832 3733 3903 3571 4201 4221
Year 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011
Population 4527 4526 4779 [20] 5182 5291 5293 5673 6282 7521 8738

Census: 1801–2001[1] 2011[2]

Notable people

Local folklore and legends

Black dog hauntings

Littleport is home to two different legends of spectral black dogs, which have been linked to the Black Shuck folklore of the East of England but differ in significant aspects.

Local folklorist W.H. Barrett relates the story set before the English Reformation of a local girl gathering wild mint from a nearby mere who was rescued from a lustful friar by a huge black dog, both of which were killed in the struggle. The local men threw into the mere the body of the friar but buried with honour the dog, which was said to haunt the area after that.[22][23]

Cambridgeshire folklorist Enid Porter relates stories dating from the 19th century of a black dog haunting the A10 road between Littleport and the neighbouring hamlet of Brandon Creek, according to which local residents would be kept awake on dark nights by the sounds of howling and travellers would hear trotting feet behind them and feel hot breath on the back of their legs. Local legend says that the dog was awaiting the return of its owner, who had drowned in the nearby River Great Ouse in the early 1800s. This haunting reportedly came to an end in 1906, when a local resident drove his car into something solid, which was never found, next to the spot where the dog's owner supposedly drowned.[24][25]

See also

Gallery

  • Littleport railway station

  • Bronze statue of a Harley-Davidson motorbike

    Harley-Davidson monument

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Confirmed by the assistant clerk to the Littleport parish council who reiterated that towns have a town council; villages have a parish council
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Beare, Beryl England: Myths and Legends Bath 1999 p.47 ISBN 0752529781
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Area in 1801 26.20 square miles (67.9 km2)
  20. ↑ No census 1941 due to WWII
  21. ↑ William Harley Retrieved 20 March 2015
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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