Thorney, Cambridgeshire

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Thorney is a village about 8 miles (13 km) east of Peterborough in the City of Peterborough unitary authority, England, on the A47. Historically it was part of the Isle of Ely, which was considered part of Cambridgeshire but was transferred into the former county of Huntingdon and Peterborough and remained part of the Peterborough district into the transfer to Cambridgeshire and when it became a unitary authority in 1998.

Its long awaited new road bypass opened in Winter 2005. The opening of the bypass has made the village much quieter.

Its primary school is the Duke of Bedford Primary School.

Tracing its roots back to around 500 AD when it started out as a Saxon settlement, the existence of Thorney Abbey made the settlement an important ecclesiastical centre for a long period of time, and the village is still the most northerly point of the Anglican Diocese of Ely.

A community of Walloon protestant refugees, originally from areas of Flanders that are now northern France, was settled here in 17th century with their own church and minister, employing the ruins of the abbey for services in their own language.[1] The Walloons had expertise in fenland drainage.

Much of the village was built at the command of the Dukes of Bedford, who wished to have a healthy place in which their estate workers could live. In the mid 19th century many buildings were added to the designs of the architect S.S. Teulon, himself a descendant of Huguenots. This explains the uniformity of the housing in the original centre of Thorney.

The windmill on the outskirts dates from 1787 and contains six floors. It originally had six sails. During the war 4 German prisoners of war stayed there.

The village had a Thorney railway station on the old Peterborough to Wisbech line. The station and the line were closed in the early 1960s. Little evidence to suggest a rail link now remains, apart from level crossing gates at the side of Station Road. These gates are apparently not the original ones, the original being much larger.

[edit] Recreation

Rugby Pitch

[edit] Famous people

Pam Sly - 1,000 Guineas winning trainer in 2006 with Speciosa, the first British female trainer to win a Classic race.
Alec Goodman - Grand National winning jockey 1852 on Miss Mowbray & 1866 on Salamanda, lived here, farming at Bar Pasture Farm, English Drove Farm and Willow Hall Farm, although born in Upwell on 30th July 1822. First farmer on Thorney Estate to introduce steam ploughing in 1865. Moved to Nottinghamshire in 1879. Retired to Leamington Spa in 1884.
Ron Jacobs - Rugby Union - played for England, Barbarians and Northampton. President of the RFU 1984 who took England on tour to South Africa also farmed in Thorney. Thorney RUFC play at Ron Jacobs Field.