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Faizan-e-Madinah Mosque

2006

Information

The Faizan-e-Madinah Mosque was opened in Gladstone Street in 2006. It has a prayer area which accommodates over 2000 people. It has been partitioned to provide a separate dedicated women’s prayer area. There is also a Wudu area on each floor (including shower facilities). As well as prayers and community events the Mosque host Nikah (wedding) services, which are an important element of the Islamic faith. The building contains a library room with English, Arabic and Urdu texts and other meeting rooms. These rooms are used for Islamic and Urdu lessons for children who attend the Mosque. Its 30-metre green dome is thought to be one of the largest in the UK. It was six years in the planning and cost over £2.5m to build, which was raised entirely through donations from the local community. The building regularly welcomes visits from local schools and opens its doors during Heritage Open Day weekends.





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Brick Town to New Town, Local, Faizan-e-Madina, Mosque, Central, Religious Education, 2000s, Places of Worship, Religious, Religion, Twenty First Century,

Foundation of the First Abbey

655AD

Information

A monastery was founded on the current Cathedral site on the north bank of the River Nene in Saxon times. At that time the area was called Medeswell, later Medehamstede. This translates as 'the home or farmstead in the water meadows'. The monastery was founded by Peada, son of King Penda of Mercia. It was completed by Peada’s brother Wulfhere. At that time Mercia was a pagan Saxon kingdom, but as part of a marriage contract with neighbouring Christian Northumbria, Christian missionaries were allowed to found a religious house here. The original monastery may have been built of timber, but seems to have been later replaced in stone. These original monks were Celtic Christians.





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Saxons, Vikings, & Normans, Local, King Penda, Medehamstede, Mercia, monastry, Peada, Central, History, Places of Worship, Monarchs, Religious, Religion, Anglo-saxon,

A Monk Drowned in the Fens

1104

Information

The Annals of the Abbey of Thorney recorded important events for the monks of Thorney Abbey. In 1104 they stated a monk named Master Walter, and five servants, were shipwrecked and drowned in the mere called Saltana. Mere is an old name for a lake. The lake, now drained, was probably south of Whittlesey. The annals do not state how the monk drowned, but monastic clothing is not particularly well-suited to swimming.





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Saxons, Vikings, & Normans, Local, Abbey of Thorney, Master Walter, Thorney, Whittlesey, History, Religious, Death, Religion, Norman,

Chronicle Writers (and a Wild Hunt)

1127

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Much of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was written at Peterborough Abbey in this period. It is one of the key sources for medieval history. Today it is preserved in the Peterborough D and E Manuscripts. Another chronicle was written here by a monk called Hugh Candidus, which tells the story of the abbey. One tale he told was of a corrupt abbot, Henry d'Angély, who was a rather godless and worldly man. He planned to loot Peterborough of its wealth. As a result a dread portent followed in the form of a spectral 'wild hunt' sent to terrorise the area. 'In the very year in which he came to the abbey, marvellous portents were seen and heard at night during the whole of lent, throughout the woodland and plains, from the monastery as far as Stamford. For there appeared, as it were, hunters with horns and hounds, all being jet black, their horses and hounds as well, and some rode as it were on goats and had great eyes and there were twenty or thirty together. Many men of faithful report both saw them and heard the horns...'    





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Medieval, Local, Anglo Saxon Chronicle, Cathedral, Henry d'Angely, Hugh Candidus, Central, History, Places of Worship, Religious, Myths & Legends, Religion, Medieval,

Royal Visitors to Peterborough

1461

Information

The abbey and town were sacked by a Lancastrian army led by Queen Margaret of Anjou during the Wars of the Roses. The abbey was in the orbit of Fotheringhay Castle, the main seat of the House of York. Both the future Edward IV and Richard III would have visited the monastery as children. Royal visitors to Peterborough Abbey were very common – as well as those mentioned above they have included: Henry III in 1268, Edward I in 1302, Edward II in 1314 (twice), Edward III in 1326, then annually 1332-6, Henry IV in 1392 & 1394, Henry VI in 1452 and Henry VII in 1486.





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Medieval, Local, National, Fotheringhay Castle, Lancastrian Army, Margaret of Anjou, Peterborough Abbey, War of the Roses, Central, History, Monarchs, War, War, Medieval,

Cromwell Comes to Stay

1643

Information

The Cathedral was ravaged during the English Civil War when Peterborough, a town with Royalist sympathies, was taken by Colonel Oliver Cromwell. Nearly all the stained glass windows were destroyed and the altar and reredos, cloisters and Lady Chapel were demolished. Much of the Cathedral’s library was destroyed by Cromwell’s troops, by being burnt in the cloisters. The Royalist newsbook ‘Mercurius Aulicus’ describes it thus: ‘It was advertised this day from Peterburgh, that Colonell Cromwell had bestowed a visit on that little City, and put them to the charge of his entertainment, plundering a great part thereof to discharge the reckoning, and further that in pursuance of the thorow Reformation, he did most miserably deface the Cathedrall Church, breake downe the Organs, and destroy the glasse windowes, committing many other outrages on the house of God which were not acted by the Gothes in the sack of Rome, and are most commonly forborn by the Turks when they possesse themselves by force of a Christian city.’  Cromwell spent a month in Peterborough, lodging in the Vineyard at the back of the Cathedral Precincts, allegedly with concussion from having hit his head whilst galloping under a low gateway. Recent archaeological evidence has been found of Cromwell’s troops being camped in the Cathedral grounds.





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Tudors & Stuarts, Local, Cathedral, Civil War, Mercurius Aulicus, Oliver Cromwell, Royalists, Central, History, Archaeology, Places of Worship, Revolutionaries, War, War, Stuarts,

Cross-Country Trade in Full Swing

4000-2000BC

Information

Although evidence of Neolithic people is light in Nene Park in comparison to other areas in the country, there are some tantalising clues to the lives of people who lived here several thousand years ago. During archaeological digs, knapped flints have been found, including some near to Longthorpe Roman fortress, suggesting that Longthorpe was considered an important place for people throughout a long period of time.   One particularly interesting insight into Neolithic people in the Nene Park area has been opened up by the discovery of an axe made out of greenstone, along with its polishing stone. In keeping with around a quarter of all Neolithic polished stone axes found in the UK, this one began its life at Langdale in the Lake District. This suggests that Neolithic Britain was more well-connected than we might first imagine.





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First Settlers, Local, Axe, Greenstone, langdale, Longthorpe, Neolithic, Longthorpe, History, Archaeology, Prehistoric,

Farming at Nene Park

200-300AD

Information

A clue to life as a Roman in Nene Park are the remains of a large timber barn on Roman Point. It was probably used for furnace and smithing work for making small tools. Also close by are evidence of a well and a shallow tank. Experts think they could be for making salt from the then-tidal flow of the River Nene. These features were part of a larger farming complex, which is known to archaeologists as Lynch Farm. Roman Point can be visited at Ferry Meadows and is situated north of the visitors' centre.





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Romans, Local, Ferry Meadows, Lynch Farm, Nene Park, Roman, Smithing, Orton Longueville, History, Parks, Roman,

Bridging the Gap

1716

Information

Milton Hall was built in the 1590s to the west of Peterborough and periodic phases of work to the house and surrounding parkland continued until the 1790s. The bridge that straddles the Nene nearby was built in 1716 from Barnack stone and is a Grade II listed structure. It sits on the site of an old ferry crossing point (Gunnerswade Ferry) needed for the Barnack stone when local cathedrals were being built 900 years ago. The more modern bridge we see today, Milton Ferry Bridge, was an important transport link for those travelling onto the Great North Road from the south bank of the river, although there was a toll, with which Daniel Defoe was not pleased: “Near this little village of Castor lives the Lord FitzWilliams. His Lordship has lately built a very fine stone bridge over the River Nyne, near Gunworth, where formerly was the ferry. I was very much applauding this generous action of my lord’s, knowing the inconvenience of the passage there before, especially if the waters of the Nyne were but a little swell’d, and I though it a piece of publick charity; but my applause was much abated, when coming to pass the bridge (being in a coach) we could not be allow’d to go over it, without paying 2s. 6d. of which I shall only say this, That I think ‘tis the only half crown toll that is in Britain, at least that I ever met with.”





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Markets to Railways, Local, Castor, Daniel DeFoe, Milton Ferry, Milton Hall, Castor, Longthorpe, Transport, Artists, Transport,

Notorious Highwayman Hanged

1605

Information

On this day the notorious highwayman Gamaliel Ratsey was hanged. He was born in Market Deeping, the son of wealthy Richard Ratsey. Unfortunately  as a young boy he went off the straight and narrow. In 1600 he enlisted in the army which accompanied Sir Charles Blount to Ireland but his time fighting did not cure him of his wicked ways. On his return to England in 1603 he robbed the landlady of an inn at Spalding. He was caught but escaped from prison, stealing a horse. He entered into partnership with two well known thieves named George Snell and Henry Shorthose and went on to commit many acts of highway robbery in Northamptonshire (which at the time included Peterborough). Ratsey’s exploits were notorious but were also characterised by humour, generosity to the poor and daring. On one occasion, near to Peterborough, he robbed two rich wool merchants then ‘knighted’ them as Sir Walter Woolsack and Sir Samuel Sheepskin. On another, whilst robbing a Cambridge scholar he extorted a learned oration from him. He usually wore a hideous mask leading him to be called ‘Gamaliel Hobgoblin’. Ben Jonson wrote in The Alchemist (Act I, Scene 1) of a “face cut….worse than Gamaliel Ratsey". Due to his generosity to the poor and the tales surrounding him, he became something of a folk hero and was the subject of several ballads. Sadly for Gamaliel, within two years his partners betrayed him to officers of the law and  on the 26th of March he was hanged in Bedford.





Tudors & Stuarts, Local, GamalielRatsey, Highwayman, MarketDeeping, Tudors, History, Criminals, Crime, Stuarts,