Local Sights...

We Will  Remember Them…

Mixed Media
Linda Wayman

Featured in the Over News November 2022

Harry Wren, Private 21403

Born in Sussex in 1895, my Grandfather left school at 14 to work on the family farm.

In the summer of 1915, out walking with his girlfriend, a stranger ran up and presented him with a white feather. Although Harry was involved in the production of essential crops, he felt obliged to sign up without delay. After a period of basic training, he left for foreign shores on the SS Simla. Over the course of the war Harry served in four different regiments and saw active service in Egypt, Italy and France. 

In his diary, Harry recorded…

I enlisted in Brighton, Sunday 1st July 1915. Little did I think then what army life was like or else I should not have been so anxious to join up.

First of all I must say, it has been the most unpleasant, trying and unhappiest time of my life. While I am writing this, I am sitting outside of the trench, shells are going overhead by the hundreds and I wonder if I shall be one of the lucky ones to see the end of it all… I am sorry to say that there is many a brave chap that has found his last home out here.

Harry was wounded twice…shrapnel narrowly missed his  spine and he suffered a gunshot wound to his knee. On being demobbed, although Harry‘s ambition was to become a train driver, he returned to working on the farm; the family couldn’t manage without his help. 

In 1919 Harry married his sweetheart and went on to welcome two children, Joy and Norman, my Father. In 1976, Harry died peacefully at home, just a few miles from the family farm.  

Linda Wayman

Autumn in Over

Giclee Print
John Riddle
Unframed £30

Into the Lanes

Watercolour
John Riddle
Unframed £40

Winter in  Grantchester

Giclee Print
John Riddle
Unframed £20

View from the Meadow, St Ives

Watercolour
John Riddle
Unframed £40

Fen Drayton Lakes

Pastel
Janet Stockley

Duce’s Pond

Pen & Pencil
Janet Stockley

4 Hilton Street

Watercolour & Pencil
Linda Wayman

Over Church in a Different Light

Watercolour
Cynthia Bidwell

And, as featured on the front cover of Over News, April 2022…

In 1254, after a licence was obtained from the bishop of Ely, St Mary’s was built on the site of an old Saxon Church. Constructed almost entirely from Barnack limestone, this was brought by river along Chain Ditch to the head lake behind the Church. The size of the building and its decoration demonstrates the village’s wealth from the sale of woad, the Suffolk wool trade and goods sold at St Ives market.

Outside, gargoyles in the shape of beasts and strange monsters incorporate a spout; this conveys water from the roof and away from the side of the building. The large porch is considered of perfect proportions and the 156 foot spire is one of the highest in Cambridgeshire.

Inside there is a Jacobean pulpit with canopy and a carved medieval rood screen; in the chancel, a collection of misericords were brought from Ramsey Abbey after its dissolution by Henry Vlll in 1539. 

 A misericord is a small wooden structure on the underside of a seat; it acts as a shelf to support a partially standing person during long periods of worship.

Duce’s Pond

Anne Beavis
Watercolour

Featured in Over News August 2022

Duce’s Pond in Fen End is an Over village parish pond but the locals called it Duce’s Pond after Joseph “Joe” Duce (our great grandfather) who looked after the pond whilst he was the publican of the adjacent Hare and Hounds Pub.  The pub closed in 1909 as the brewery deemed it was no longer viable; Joe then made a living making and repairing fruit ladders and wheelbarrows for the many local growers. After his death in 1915 his son Joseph Richard Duce (our grandfather) carried on with the carpentry business from the house and also kept beehives.

As a child I remember there being eels in the pond and I did fall in a few times fishing for tiddlers and tadpoles. Locals were used to seeing cattle being driven along Fen End and stopping to drink in the pond but my aunt told me of one day when she looked out of the window and saw an elephant amongst the cows!   A travelling circus was visiting the village green and the elephant had been walked to Duce’s Pond for a long drink. An old village saying was that there was a drink for both man and beast (a pub and a pond) on every road in and out of Over.   

Cynthia Bidwell and Carole Cowley (nee Duce)

Over Past & Present

Watercolour
Anne Beavis
Sold

Roof-scape - Sycamore Farm, Over

(Taken from the footpath leading into the Orchard)
Helen Culnane
Acrylic

And, as featured in the Over News May 2022…

Sycamore Farm is a listed building, thought to be around 1700 in origin and with ‘later alterations’. Prior to the late 1890s it was known as ‘Over House’ and in the census of 1901, is recorded as two dwellings. February 1824, the property was auctioned at the Admiral Vernon and was possibly bought by Nathaniel Gifford; in 1839 he mortgaged the property to John Dodson of Swavesey for £1,600. Around 1896 when the Watts family moved in, a Sycamore tree was planted in the grounds. 

A Fenland Scene

Watercolour
Cynthia  Bidwell

Garden Shed

Acrylic on Canvas Using Palette Knife
Cynthia Bidwell

Over Village Sign

Watercolour
Cynthia Bidwell

St Mary’s Church Entrance

Pencil & Pen
Janet Stockley

Over Green

Pencil & Pen
Janet Stockley

Featured in the Over News June 2022…

Linda Wayman’s Father-in-law, Clarence, 1917-2003, recalled going to the Green during school break times. A popular pastime was cricket…but with deposits left by the cows that regularly grazed there, plus the village pond at the corner of Long Furlong and Willingham Road, one had to be careful. A mucky ball was not popular, nor were dirty shoes with teacher, Mr Webb.

Swavesey Market Square

Pencil & Pen
Janet Stockley

Featured in the Over News, March 2022…

From left to right across the page, The White Horse Inn, Swavesey Newsagents and the Nook, just three of the historic buildings to be found in Market Street, often referred to as Market Square. In the 13th Century, a licence was granted to hold a weekly market there plus a yearly fair; it is thought the market lapsed around 1738. Barges from the Ouse came up into the dock at Market Street and in 1794, coal was still being unloaded near the cottage known as the Coal House.

Blossom in Turn Lane

Wstercolour
Anne Beavis 

On the Allotment, Mustill’s Lane

Watercolour
Anne Beavis

Sandpit Pond

Pen & Pencil
Linda Wayman

Clifton Cottage

Watercolour
Anne Beavis

The Old Black Horse’ (20-22 High Street)

Watercolour
Anne Beavis

And, as featured in the Over News,  July 2021…

With a Dutch influence and built over three floors, ‘The Old Black Horse’ probably dates back to the 1600s. By 1837, records show it was a public house. Then, as one of seven licensed properties which served Over’s population of 899, when landlord James Norman applied to renew his licence, it was refused and the pub closed in 1921. As the address suggests, the building, (up until the sixties), was originally two properties under one roof...which some villagers may remember. The Black Horse Barn, a dwelling to the left, was originally a barn which belonged to the house.

Ghost of The Trinity Foot

Pastel & Chalk
Sue Hazel

As featured in the Over News June 2021…

This atmospheric drawing was inspired by old photographs when the landmark public house was long derelict and ghostly. Standing at the junction of Boxworth End and the A14, (formally the A604 dual carriageway), it was demolished in 2017 to make way for the A14 improvement scheme.

Built in the1840s, it was originally known as The New Inn. It’s only water supply came from an outside pump and wooden shutters on the lower windows provided security at night. In 1925 when it became part of Greene King, the stables were converted to a garage with petrol pump. As on duty policemen were not permitted to visit public houses, the landlord regularly left a bottle of beer for collection by the pump. During the Second World War, families sat outside to watch convoys of tanks and army lorries roll past.

In the 1960s, the pub was sold to Whitbread. Renamed the Trinity Foot, it was completely renovated and an extension built at the east end. Before it closed in 2008, many will have enjoyed a meal in its restaurant.

Swan House

Watercolour
Sue Sedzikowski

And, as featured in the Over News, April 2021…

'Sue’s painting of Swan House in the High Street, is one of the oldest dwellings in the village. In 1637 John Webb sold the property to Thomas Wallman for £22.  At one time it served the village as The White Swan Public House; what is now the front garden was used as a car park by parishioners attending Church. 

St Mary’s in the Spring

Watercolour
Anne Beavis

Sunset at the Manderson Trust

  Watercolour
Anne Beavis
Sold
Spot the Wildlife

St Mary’s Church

Photograph
Jan Riddle

Over Windmill

Watercolour
John Riddle

And, as featured on the front cover of the Over News, February 2022…

The Heart of Over

  Photograph
Jan Riddle
See top right hand Cloud

Mustill‘s Lane

 Acrylic on Canvas
Helen Culnane
Framed 34x34cm £35

Moonlight on Mare Fen

Watercolour
John Riddle

A Flooded Overcoate, December 2012

Watercolour
Sue Sedzikowski 

Richard’s Sheds on the Allotment

Acrylic
Helen Culnane

Over Church from the Fen

Acrylic
Helen Culnane

Lily on Sandpit Pond

Acrylic
Helen Culnane

Over Fen

Acrylic
Helen Culnane
Sold

Over Windmill

Watercolour
Cynthia Bidwell

Rape in the Fen

Acrylic
Helen Culnane

The Cat in Wayman’s Yard

Acrylic
Helen Culnane

And, as featured  on the front cover of the Over News, April 2021…

For some, the iconic High Street site will be remembered as an active builders yard which in the 1960s, employed around a dozen men. In its hey day, the business encompassed painting, decorating and undertaking; coffins constructed on-site were transported in a horse drawn, glass covered hearse.

Station Road, Over

Watercolour
John Riddle

Station Road, Over

Watercolour
John Riddle

Poplar Farm, The Lanes

Watercolour
John Riddle

And, as featured in the Over News, March 2021…

With his painting of Poplar Farm, John has captured a moment in time. The building was originally part of a farm which had a yard stretching down to the Primary School. In the 1970s it was converted to a pub which included Lucy Locket’s restaurant; in 2009 it became a residential property.

To the left is ‘Sunnyside’ bungalow; in 2016 this was replaced by a semi-detached property.

Mare Fen in Flood

Watercolour
Anne Beavis
From a photograph, courtesy of Jan Riddle

Over Windmill

IPad & Apple Pencil
Linda Wayman

And, as featured in the Over News, October 2021…

Using materials salvaged from an old smock mill, Over windmill was built by Samuel Froment in the early 1850s. A black tarred, three storey tower mill, it has two doors at ground level, a basement and cast iron windows on the lower two floors.

The Froment family worked the mill until 1875 when it was purchased by Jonathon Parish; he added a steam engine and in 1894 passed the mill to his son William. From 1912 to 1929 the mill was worked by William Mustill. In 1960 and in a state of disrepair, it was bought by experienced millwright, Chris Wilson. At that time, with mills across the country being broken up, Chris purchased redundant equipment and set about restoring the mill.   

In 1969 the mill was back in working order. With two sets of millstones, a centrifugal flour dresser, grain cleaning equipment, elevators and a dynamo to power the lighting, Over is one of the most complete mills in the country. Chris has repaired and repainted the four sails which are currently laying in the mill yard; he hopes to have them reinstated before the end of the year.