Capturing Cambridge
  • search
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Bishop's Palace, Little Downham, 1914 (photo J H Bullock) (Cambridgeshire Collection)

Bishop’s Palace, (Tower Farm), Little Downham

History of the Bishop's Palace

Listed Building:

Late C15 walls of Bishop of Ely’s Palace to west and north included in fabric of C19 building. Gault brick, C15 red brick; plain tile roof with end stacks and ridge stack to right of centre.

The picture shows the refectory of the Bishop’s Palace, Little Downham, used as a barn in 1914. The palace was constructed by Bishop Alcock towards the end of the C15th. In 1906 H Rider Haggard published an account of his visit to the area.

By 1250 the estate of Downham covered almost 11 square miles, although 10.5 of these were made up of a Deer park of 250 acres and two large fen lakes.

The Palace was damaged in the Civil War and had been largely demolished by the 18th century. By 1746 a farmhouse had been created.

Downham, doorway at Tower Farm (Religious Houses of Cambs, 1988)

Contribute

Do you have any information about the people or places in this article? If so, then please let us know using the Contact page or by emailing capturingcambridge@museumofcambridge.org.uk.

License

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Dear Visitor,

 

Thank you for exploring historical Cambridgeshire! We hope you enjoy your visit.

 

Did you know that we are a small, independent Museum and that we rely on donations from people like you to survive?

 

If you love Capturing Cambridge, and you are able to, we’d appreciate your support today.

 

Every donation makes a world of difference.

 

Thank you,

The Museum of Cambridge