Capturing Cambridge
  • search
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Cottage, Burnt Fen, Prickwillow c.1890 (photo F L Harlock) (Cambridgeshire Collection)

Burnt Fen, Prickwillow

History of Burnt Fen

Houses in the fens were often very remote from each other. Rev. Claude Kingdon in Prickwillow in the fens, Home Mission Field, May 1893, wrote: Many of the wooden dwellings are mere hovels, and with them, as with the more substantially built ones, there is an almost entire absence of straight lines owing to the quaking ground on which thy are built, cracks being visible everywhere, and chimney pots so precariously crooked as to seriously threaten the inmates on gusty nights. These houses are terribly overcrowded, many of them having only two rooms and containing as many as a dozen occupants.

Riddling potatoes, Burnt Fen (MoCX/2000)

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.

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