Cherry Hinton


Cherry Hinton is a suburban area of the city of Cambridge, in Cambridgeshire, England. It is around southeast of Cambridge city centre.

History

The rectangular parish of Cherry Hinton occupies the western corner of Flendish hundred on the south-eastern outskirts of the city of Cambridge.
There are some pictures and a description of the parish church at the Cambridgeshire Churches website.
Cherry Hinton has an entry in the Domesday Book:
"Hintone: Count Alan. 4 mills."
The War Ditches are the remains of an Iron Age hill fort where a massacre took place, now mostly lost to quarrying.

Geography

Cherry Hinton lies about southeast of Cambridge city centre, and falls within the Cambridge City boundary but is geographically separated from it by the grounds of Cherry Hinton Hall, the airfield and the flooded chalk pits. The village itself is fairly compact. North of the village is Cambridge Airport; to the East is Fulbourn; to the South is Cherry Hinton Pit, a nature reserve formed from old chalk pits and then the Gog Magog Hills which rise to 75 metres. Outside the residential area the land is open farmland, with relatively few trees.

Demography

Substantial housing estate developments, both local authority and private have taken place in the village over the last 50 years.
Housing is typically suburban with 2,200 people per square kilometre; 40% of housing being semi-detached and 60% being owner-occupied.
In 2001 the population of the village was made up of 1,600 people under 16, 4,950 aged 16 to 59, and 1,750 over 60.

Economy

In common with changes in the post-war years most of the residents in employment work outside the village, in Cambridge and elsewhere. There are small industrial units scattered throughout the area, together with a thriving high-street with a selection of shops and small businesses. Marshall Aerospace, the aircraft maintenance company and owners of Cambridge Airport, to the North, has been a major employer in recent decades.
In 2001 the economically active population was estimated at 4,186. Unemployment was given as 2.4%.
The village has three business areas: an industrial estate at the end of Coldham's Lane at the northern end of the High Street, and the Peterhouse Business park on the South-Eastern edge. The former site includes companies such as Inca Digital, Semitool, Storage King, and Carl Zeiss. The Peterhouse park includes the head office of the world-famous ARM processor designer, labs for the Human Nutrition Research Centre, and the head office of Cambridge Water. Lastly, Fulbourn Hospital is being redeveloped as a technology park, and houses many smaller companies, with offices of Illumina, Staffords, Syngeta, i2, Cambridge Light Technology, Boult Wade Tennant, Scientia, Ware Anthony Rust, and others.

Transport

There are sufficient road links to Cambridge and the surrounding area; nearly 60% of the population travel to work by motorised vehicle and 25% travel to work by foot or bicycle; it takes 20 minutes to cycle into the centre of Cambridge at a moderate pace, or 15 minutes to the railway station.
Cherry Hinton High Street has a long-standing traffic calming system consisting of a series of chicanes, traffic islands and mini roundabouts that sometimes causes traffic jams. The hope is that drivers seeking a through route will use Yarrow Road instead.
There is a railway through the village but no extant station; the nearest open railway stations are Cambridge itself, Shelford, and Dullingham. From Cambridge there are regular services to Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, King's Lynn, Norwich, Ipswich, and Peterborough. Up to the 1960s there was also a station at the far end of Fulbourn Village.

Cycle and Footpaths

Three non-road paths can be used to avoid traffic for part of these journeys. Daws Lane is a track leading from Sidney Farm Road to Snakey Path at a small bridge over Cherry Hinton Brook. The path meanders West beside the brook until it reaches the road called Burnside, which leads to Mill Road. Raised about 3' above water level the path is frequently used by cyclists and walkers. On the far, North, side of the brook, the flooded chalk pits are visible for most of their length.
Another path, known as "The Tins", runs on the north side of the flooded chalk pits. It starts in Railway Street, cutting across Orchard Estate. Passing on in front of the Holiday Inn and Norman Way it then passes over the railway on a footbridge and on beside the Territorial Army centre. It meets Burnside somewhat closer to Mill Road than Snakey path, at the White Bridge.
There is also cycle path provision on various roads in the area, notably Cherry Hinton Road, Fulbourn Road, Teversham Road, and Airport Way.

Buses

Citi 1 bus from Fulbourn to Arbury and the Citi 3 bus from Yarrow Road Tesco to Whitehill Estate/Fison Road combine for a frequency of a bus into the centre every 5 minutes, with an average journey time of approximately 20 minutes. Both of these services stop at the railway station and the Citi 1 additionally serves Addenbrooke's Hospital. A less frequent service runs from St. Andrew's Church at the end of Coldham's Lane to the Beehive Retail Park and into town.

Public services

There are two health centres in the village, one of which has a practice shared with Brookfields Health Centre on Seymour Street, Cambridge, the other is shared with "The Surgery" of Mill Road.
In the High Street there are a number of shops including a Tesco Express supermarket, a newsagent, Children's society charity shop, a Sue Ryder charity shop, a hairdresser, a barber, a bakery, two pharmacies, a cycle shop, a craft shop, two turf accountants and a post office. There is also a Tesco superstore towards Fulbourn. Meals are available at the Sitar Indian restaurant, the Golden Pizza Chinese/Pizza Takeaway and the Cherry House Chinese Takeaway & Chip Shop, as well as from the bakery which provides a variety of filled rolls and hot snack products during the day.
There is a village hall and sports leisure centre adjacent to the village library, with services currently operated by GLL on behalf of the City Council. The sports centre offers badminton, 5-a-side football, basketball as well as exercise classes and room hire. The village has a well-appointed recreation ground situated on the high street. Here children's play equipment and football fields for local fixtures are provided. It also has a park and children's play area, including paddling pools and tennis courts, in the grounds of Cherry Hinton Hall, which hosts the internationally recognised annual Cambridge Folk Festival.
Cherry Hinton mostly falls within the jurisdiction of Cambridge City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council for Local Government Services although the easternmost parts are managed by South Cambs District Council.

Schools

Cherry Hinton C of E Primary School is situated on the High Street just next to the level crossing and near to St. Andrew's church. In September 2011, the school changed from an Infant School for children aged between 3 and 7 years to a Primary School for 3- to 11-year-old children. It is a Church School, founded by Trust Deed, and has 'Foundation' Governors, appointed by the Church of England. The school has been rated grade 2 school. Mary Waters, mother of Pink Floyd bass guitarist and lyricist Roger Waters, taught there during the 1950s and early 1960s.
Colville Primary School is situated on Colville Road. It opened in the mid-1950s as a Junior School for 7 - 11 year-olds.
Other primary schools, opened after the two above, include The Spinney Primary School, close to the village centre, and Bewick Bridge Community Primary School.
Secondary schooling for most children is at Netherhall School on the south west edge of the village, or alternatively at St Bede's Inter-Church Comprehensive School.
Independent schools in the village area include Cambridge International School and Holme Court School.

Cultural references

, to the East of Cherry Hinton was built as an asylum in the mid-19th century between the village and Fulbourn. Until recently the main Victorian building was used as a psychiatric hospital. It is this hospital which gave rise to the lines "Strong men have run for miles and miles, When one from Cherry Hinton smiles;" in the poem The Old Vicarage, Grantchester by Rupert Brooke.
The settlement of Cherry Hinton gave its name to the Cherry Hinton Stakes a horse race for two-year-old thoroughbred fillies. This Group Two event run over a distance of 6 furlongs on the July Course at nearby Newmarket Racecourse in early July was renamed the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes in 2013.