Ely
Cathedral city
Ely Cathedral from the south-east
Ely Location within Cambridgeshire
Area	69 sq mi (180 km2) [1]
Population	19,200 (2021 census)
• Density	278/sq mi (107/km2)
Civil parish	Ely
District	East Cambridgeshire
Shire county	Cambridgeshire
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ELY
Postcode district	CB6, CB7
Dialling code	01353
Police	Cambridgeshire
Fire	Cambridgeshire
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	South East Cambridgeshire
Website	Visit Ely
List of places UK England Cambridgeshire 52°23′53″N 00°15′44″E / 52.39806°N 0.26222°E / 52.39806; 0.26222

Ely (/ˈiːli/ ^ⓘ EE-lee) is a cathedral city and civil parish in the East Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about 14 miles (23 km) north-northeast of Cambridge, 24 miles (39 km) south east of Peterborough and 80 miles (130 km) from London. As of the 2021 census, Ely is recorded as having a population of 19,200 (rounded to the nearest 100).^[2]

Ely is built on a 23-square-mile (60 km²) Kimmeridge Clay island which, at 85 feet (26 m), is the highest land in the Fens. It was due to this topography that Ely was not waterlogged like the surrounding Fenland, and was an island separated from the mainland.^[3] Major rivers including the Witham, Welland, Nene and Great Ouse feed into the Fens and, until draining commenced in the eighteenth century, formed freshwater marshes and meres within which peat was laid down. Once the Fens were drained, this peat created a rich and fertile soil ideal for farming.

The River Great Ouse was a significant means of transport until the Fens were drained and Ely ceased to be an island in the seventeenth century.^[4] The river is now a popular boating spot, and has a large marina. Although now surrounded by land, the city is still known as "The Isle of Ely".

There are two Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the city: a former Kimmeridge Clay quarry, and one of the United Kingdom's best remaining examples of medieval ridge and furrow agriculture.

The economy of the region is mainly agricultural. Before the Fens were drained, eel fishing was an important activity, from which the settlement's name may have been derived. Other important activities included wildfowling, peat extraction, and the harvesting of osier (willow) and sedge (rush). The city had been the centre of local pottery production for more than 700 years, including pottery known as Babylon ware. A Roman road, Akeman Street, passes through the city; the southern end is at Ermine Street near Wimpole and its northern end is at Brancaster. Little direct evidence of Roman occupation in Ely exists, although there are nearby Roman settlements such as those at Little Thetford and Stretham.

A coach route, known to have existed in 1753 between Ely and Cambridge, was improved in 1769 as a turnpike (toll road). The present-day A10 closely follows this route. Ely railway station, built in 1845, is on the Fen Line and is now a railway hub, with lines north to King's Lynn, northwest to Peterborough, east to Norwich, southeast to Ipswich and south to Cambridge and London.

Henry II granted the first annual fair, Saint Etheldreda's (or Saint Audrey's) seven-day event, to the abbot and convent on 10 October 1189. The word "tawdry" originates from cheap lace sold at this fair. A weekly market has taken place in Ely Market Square since at least the 13th century. Markets are now held on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, with a farmers' market on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month.

Present-day annual events include the Eel Festival in May, established in 2004, and a fireworks display in Ely Park, first staged in 1974. The city of Ely has been twinned with Denmark's oldest town, Ribe, since 1956. Ely City Football Club was formed in 1885.

History

Pre-history

Roswell Pits^[i] are a palaeontologically significant Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) one mile (1.6 km) northeast of the city. The Jurassic Kimmeridge Clays were quarried in the 19th and 20th centuries for the production of pottery and for maintenance of river embankments. Many specimens of ammonites, belemnites and bivalves were found during quarrying, in addition to an almost complete specimen of a pliosaur.^[7]

There is some scattered evidence of Late Mesolithic^[8] to Bronze Age^[9] activity in Ely such as Neolithic flint tools,^[10] a Bronze Age axe^[11] and spearhead.^[12] There is slightly denser Iron Age and Roman activity with some evidence of at least seasonal occupation. For example, a possible farmstead, of the late Iron Age to early Roman period, was discovered at West Fen Road^[13] and some Roman pottery was found close to the east end of the cathedral on The Paddock.^[14] There was a Roman settlement, including a tile kiln built over an earlier Iron Age settlement, in Little Thetford, three miles (5 km) to the south.^[15]

Name

The origin and meaning of Ely's name have always been deemed obscure by place-name scholars, and are still disputed. The earliest record of the name is in the Latin text of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, where he wrote Elge.^[16] This is apparently not a Latin name, and subsequent Latin texts nearly all used the forms Elia,^[17] Eli, or Heli with inorganic H-. In Old English charters, and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the spelling is usually Elig.^[18]

Skeat derived the name Ely from what he called "O Northumbrian" ēlġē, meaning "district of eels".^[19] This uses a hypothetical word *ġē, which is not recorded in isolation but thought by some to be related to the modern German word Gau, meaning "district". The theory is that the name then developed a vowel to become ēliġē, and was afterwards re-interpreted to mean "Eel Island". This essentially is the explanation accepted by Reaney,^[20] Ekwall,^[21] Mills^[22] and Watts.^[23]

But difficulties remain. Bailey, in his discussion of ġē names, has pointed out that Ely would be anomalous if really from ēlġē "eel district", being remote from the areas where possible examples of ġē names occur, and moreover, there is no parallel for the use of a fish-name in compounds with ġē. More seriously, the usual English spelling remains Elig, even in the dative case used after many prepositions, where Elige would be expected if the second element were īġ "island". This is in conflict with all the other island names which surround Ely.^[24]

Problems also remain, as pointed out by historian Mac Dowdy, as the word eel (or similar) did not exist at the time of the founding of Ely,^{[dubious – discuss]} and they were instead referred to as aguilla or anguilles until the 1300s. Mac proposes that instead the city gets its name from the word "Elysium", later shortened to Ely. This is believed as Etheldreda's chamberlain, Ovin, described it as "an ancient place of great spiritual importance to the people of the region, a paradise". This was later changed as Wilfrid's chronicler used the Latin term for Paradise "Elysium".^[25]

Another option, discussed by Miller in Fenland Notes and Queries, is that the name is an old Celtic name deriving either from the Brythonic helig (modern Welsh helyg) meaning willows or heli meaning salt water. Miller construes the name as meaning the singular and thinks it odd a place so abounding in the trees would be called 'a willow'.^[26]

Medieval period

The city's origins lay in the foundation of an abbey in 673,^[27][28] one mile (1.6 km) to the north of the village of Cratendune on the Isle of Ely, under the protection of Saint Etheldreda, daughter of King Anna. St Etheldreda (also known as Æthelthryth) was a queen, founder and abbess of Ely. She built a monastery in 673 AD, on the site of what is now Ely Cathedral. This first abbey was destroyed in 870 by Danish invaders^[29] and rededicated to Etheldreda in 970 by Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester.^[30] The abbots of Ely then accumulated such wealth in the region that in the Domesday survey (1086) it was the "second richest monastery in England".^[31] The first Norman bishop, Simeon, started building the cathedral in 1083.^[32] The octagon was rebuilt by sacrist Alan of Walsingham between 1322 and 1328 after the collapse of the original nave crossing on 22 February 1322.^[33] Ely's octagon is considered "one of the wonders of the medieval world".^[34] Architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner believes the octagon "is a delight from beginning to end for anyone who feels for space as strongly as for construction" and is the "greatest individual achievement of architectural genius at Ely Cathedral".^[35] This gave the cathedral its distinctive shape, earning it the moniker, "The Ship of the Fens". Building continued until the dissolution of the abbey in 1539 during the Reformation. The cathedral was sympathetically restored between 1845 and 1870 by the architect George Gilbert Scott. As the seat of a diocese, Ely has long been considered a city; in 1974, city status was granted by royal charter.

Cherry Hill is the site of Ely Castle which is of Norman construction and is a United Kingdom scheduled monument.^[39] Of similar construction to Cambridge Castle, the 250-foot (76 m) diameter, 40 feet (12 m) high citadel-type motte and bailey is thought to be a royal defence built by William the Conqueror following submission of the Isle from rebels such as the Earl Morcar and the folk-hero Hereward the Wake.^[40] This would date the first building of the castle to c. 1070.^[39]

Henry III of England granted a market to the Bishop of Ely using letters close on 9 April 1224^[41] although Ely had been a trading centre prior to this.^[42] Present weekly market days are Thursday and Saturday and seasonal markets are held monthly on Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays from Easter to November.

Protestant martyrs

Following the accession of Mary I of England to the throne in 1553, the papacy made its first effective efforts to enforce the Pope Paul III-initiated Catholic reforms in England.^[43] During this time, which became known as the Marian Persecutions, two men from Wisbech, constable William Wolsey and painter Robert Pygot, "were accused of not ... believing that the body and blood of Christ were present in the bread and wine of the sacrament of mass".^[44] For this Christian heresy they were condemned by the bishop's chancellor, John Fuller,^[45] on 9 October 1555.^[46] On 16 October 1555 they were burnt at the stake "probably on the Palace Green in front of Ely Cathedral".^[44] In The Book of Ely published in 1990, Blakeman writes that "permission was not given" for a memorial to the martyrs to be placed on Palace Green.^[44] In 2011, a plaque recording this martyrdom event was erected on the northeast corner of Palace Green by the City of Ely Perspective. The plaque is located 2 inches from the pavement floor in an obscure, easily missed corner.^[47]

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell lived in Ely from 1636 to 1646 after inheriting St Mary's vicarage, a sixteenth-century property—now known as Oliver Cromwell's House— from his mother's brother, Sir Thomas Steward.^[52] It is possible to visit this house today.^[53] During this time Cromwell was a tax collector, though was also one of the governors of Thomas Parsons' Charity,^[37] which dates back to 1445^[54] and was granted a Royal Charter by Charles I of England.^[55] The Charity still provides grants and housing to deserving local applicants.^[56]

There was a form of early workhouse in 1687, perhaps at St Mary's, which may have been part of an arrangement made between the Ely people and a Nicholas Wythers of Norwich in 1675.^[57] He was paid £30 per annum to employ the poor to "spin jersey" and was to pay them in money not goods.^[58] A purpose-built workhouse was erected in 1725 for 35 inmates on what is now St Mary's Court. Four other workhouses existed, including Holy Trinity on Fore Hill for 80 inmates (1738–1956) and the Ely Union workhouse, built in 1837, which housed up to 300 inmates. The latter became Tower Hospital in 1948 and is now a residential building, Tower Court. Two other former workhouses were the Haven Quayside for unmarried mothers and another on the site of what is now the Hereward Hall in Silver Street.^[59]

Post-medieval decline

The diaries of writers and journalists such as William Camden, Celia Fiennes, Daniel Defoe, John Byng and William Cobbett illustrate the decline of Ely after the 14th century plague and the 16th century reformation which led to the dissolution of the monastery in 1539.^[60] In the 1607 edition of Britannia,^[iv] chorographic surveyor William Camden records that "as for Ely it selfe, it is no small Citie, or greatly to be counted off either for beauty or frequency and resort, as having an unwholsome aire by reason of the fens round about".^[v] In 1698, Celia Fiennes was writing "the Bishop does not Care to stay long in this place not being for his health ... they have lost their Charter ... and its a shame does not see it better ordered and y^e buildings and streetes put in a better Condition. They are a slothful people and for little but y^e takeing Care of their Grounds and Cattle w^ch is of vast advantage".^[62] Daniel Defoe, when writing in the Eastern Counties section of A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain (1722), went "to Ely, whose cathedral, standing in a level flat country, is seen far and wide ... that some of it is so antient, totters so much with every gust of wind, looks so like a decay, and seems so near it, that when ever it does fall, all that 'tis likely will be thought strange in it, will be, that it did not fall a hundred years sooner".^[63]

The prison reformer John Howard visited Ely and described the conditions in The Gaol:- 'This gaol the property of the bishop, who is lord of the franchise of the Isle of Ely, was in part rebuilt by the late bishop about ten years ago; upon complaint of the cruel method* which for want of a safe gaol, the Keeper took to secure his prisoners (*This was by chaining them down upon their backs on a floor, across which were several iron bars and iron collar with spikes about their neck). The gaoler John Allday did not receive a salary'. He records that the number of debtors outnumbered the number of felons in the prison.^[64]

On his way to a Midlands tour, John Byng visited Ely on 5 July 1790 staying at the Lamb Inn.^[65] In his diary^[vi] he writes that "the town is mean, to the extreme ... those withdrawn, their dependancies must decay".^[66] Recording in his Rural Rides on 25 March 1830, William Cobbett reports that "Ely is what one may call a miserable little town: very prettily situated, but poor and mean. Everything seems to be on the decline, as, indeed, is the case everywhere, where the clergy are the masters".^[67]

The Ely and Littleport riots occurred between 22 and 24 May 1816. At the Special Commission assizes, held at Ely between 17 and 22 June 1816, twenty-four rioters were condemned. Nineteen had their sentences variously commuted from penal transportation for life to twelve-months imprisonment; the remaining five were executed on 28 June 1816.^[68] An outbreak of cholera isolated Ely in 1832.^[69]

Victorian and twentieth-century regeneration

Ely Cathedral was "the first great cathedral to be thoroughly restored".^[74] Work commenced in 1845 and was completed nearly thirty years later; most of the work was "sympathetically" carried out by the architect George Gilbert Scott.^[75] The only pavement labyrinth to be found in an English cathedral was installed below the west tower in 1870.^[76][77]

For over 800 years the cathedral and its associated buildings—built on an elevation 68 feet (21 m) above the nearby fens—have visually influenced the city and its surrounding area. Geographer John Jones, writing in 1924, reports that "from the roof of King's Chapel in Cambridge, on a clear day, Ely can be seen on the horizon, 16 miles (26 km) distant, an expression of the flatness of the fens".^[78] In 1954, architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner wrote "as one approaches Ely on foot or on a bicycle, or perhaps in an open car, the cathedral dominates the picture for miles around ... and offers from everywhere an outline different from that of any other English cathedral".^[79] Local historian Pamela Blakeman reports a claim that "Grouped around  ... is the largest collection of medieval buildings still in daily use in this country".^[80]

Liberty of Ely

The abbey at Ely was one of many which were refounded in the Benedictine reforms of King Edgar the Peaceful (943–975).^[81] The "special and peculiarly ancient"^[82] honour and freedoms given to Ely by charter at that time^[83] may have been intended to award only fiscal privilege,^[84] but have been interpreted to confer on subsequent bishops the authority and power of a ruler.^[85] These rights were reconfirmed in charters granted by Edward the Confessor and in William the Conqueror's confirmation of the old English liberty at Kenford.^[85] The Isle of Ely was mentioned in some statutes^[vii] as a county palatine;^[viii] this provided an explanation of the bishop's royal privileges and judicial authority, which would normally belong to the sovereign; but legal authorities such as Sir Edward Coke did not completely endorse the form of words.^[87] These bishop's rights were not fully extinguished until 1837.^[88]

City status

As the seat of a diocese, Ely has long been considered a city, holding the status by ancient prescriptive right: the caption to John Speed's 1610 plan of Ely^[50] reads "Although this Citie of Ely", and Aikin refers to Ely as a city in 1800.^[89] When Ely was given a Local Board of Health by Queen Victoria in 1850, the order creating the board said it was to cover the "city of Ely".^[90] The local board which governed the city from 1850 to 1894 called itself "City of Ely Local Board", and the urban district council which replaced it and governed the city from 1894 to 1974 similarly called itself "City of Ely Urban District Council".^[91][92]

Ely's city status was not explicitly confirmed, however, until 1 April 1974 when Queen Elizabeth II granted letters patent, to its civil parish.^[93] Ely's population of 20,256 (as recorded in 2011)^[94] classifies it as one of the smallest cities in England;^[95][96] although the population has increased noticeably since 1991 when it was recorded at 11,291. Its urban area brings Ely into the ten of smallest sized cities (1.84 sq mi—4.77 km²), but by city council area it is much larger in coverage (22.86 sq mi—59.21 km²) than many others.

Governance

Parliamentary

For elections to the UK Parliament, Ely is part of the South East Cambridgeshire constituency.^[97]

Local government

There are three tiers of local government covering Ely, at parish (city), district, and county level: City of Ely Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council, and Cambridgeshire County Council.

Regular elections take place to the City of Ely Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council. The civil parish is divided into four wards called Ely North, Ely South, Ely East and Ely West. Fourteen councillors are elected to the parish council. The East Cambridgeshire District Council is also based in Ely.^[98] For elections to the East Cambridgeshire District Council the four wards of Ely South, Ely East and Ely West each return two district councillors; and Ely North returns three.^[99] For elections to the Cambridgeshire County Council the city returns two councillors. ^[100]

Administrative history

The city was governed by a local board from 1850 until 1894, when it became the City of Ely Urban District Council, which then operated from 1894 to 1974. The Isle of Ely County Council governed the Isle of Ely administrative county that surrounding and included the city from 1889 to 1965. In 1965 there was a reform of local government that merged the county council with that of Cambridgeshire to form the Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely County Council. In 1974 as part of a national reform of local government, the Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely County Council merged with the Huntingdon and Peterborough County Council to form the Cambridgeshire County Council.^[101] The City of Ely Urban District Council became the City of Ely Council, a parish council which covers the same area but with fewer powers, and the East Cambridgeshire District Council which covers a wider area.

Geographyedit

Geology and topographyedit

The west of Cambridgeshire is made up of limestones from the Jurassic period, whilst the east Cambridgeshire area consists of Cretaceous (upper Mesozoic) chalks known locally as clunch.^[102] In between these two major formations, the high ground forming the Isle of Ely is from a lower division Cretaceous system known as Lower Greensand which is capped by Boulder Clay; all local settlements, such as Stretham and Littleport, are on similar islands. These islands rise above the surrounding flat land which forms the largest plain of Britain^[ix] from the Jurassic system of partly consolidated clays or muds.^[29] Kimmeridge Clay beds dipping gently west underlie the Lower Greensand of the area exposed, for example, about one mile (2 km) south of Ely in the Roswell Pits.^[104] The Lower Greensand is partly capped by glacial deposits forming the highest point in East Cambridgeshire, rising to 85 feet (26 m) above sea level in Ely.^[105]

The low-lying fens surrounding the island of Ely were formed, prior to the 17th century, by alternate fresh-water and sea-water incursions. Major rivers in the region, including the Witham, Welland, Nene and Great Ouse, drain an area of some 6,000 square miles (16,000 km²)—five times larger than the fens—into the basin that forms the fens.^[106] Defoe in 1774 described the Fens as "the sink of no less than thirteen Counties".^[107] On 23 November of that year, Church of England cleric and Christian theologician John Wesley, wrote of his approach to Ely after visiting Norwich: "about eight, Wednesday, 23, Mr. Dancer met me with a chaise carriage and carried me to Ely. Oh, what want of common sense! Water covered the high road for a mile and a half. I asked, 'How must foot-people come to the town?' 'Why, they must wade through!'"^[108] Peat formed in the fresh-water swamps and meres whilst silts were deposited by the slow-moving sea-water.^[7] Francis Russell, Earl of Bedford, supported by Parliament, financed the draining of the fens during the 17th century, led by the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden; the fens continue to be drained to this day.^[109]

Climateedit

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.^[110] Regional weather forecasting and historical summaries are available from the UK Met Office.^[111][112] The nearest Met Office weather station is Cambridge.^[x] Additional local weather stations report periodic figures to the internet such as Weather Underground, Inc.^[113]