Haddenham Station c1890 (CambsCollec)

Haddenham Station

History of Haddenham Station

See The Ely and St Ives Railway, P Pye, 1982.

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The Soundscape of Old Haddenham
Letter to Lorna Delanoydated 20 August 1991

“when the coal-fire smoke would beat down in the High Street, and farm horses would shiver; it was then they said it would rain,—and it did! There were sounds too, equally evocative, from those long ago days; from the north wind which brought to us the time of day from the Church clock, and sometimes the plaintive sound of a train-whistle, from the distant station over the hill, announcing the arrival or departure of the ‘Grunty Fen Express!’ More near at hand was the clangour of the shop door-bell from Peter’s shop, and the clink of the smith-hammer on the anvil, when Walt Miller was punching square holes in a red-hot piece of iron,—later to become a horse shoe!”

Commentary
This is one of the finest descriptions of everyday Haddenham before modernisation. It records sounds, weather signs, transport, retail trade and blacksmithing from living memory.

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