Line of abandoned railway seen from Fleam Dyke
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Line of abandoned railway seen from Fleam Dyke by John Sutton as part of the Geograph project.
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Line of abandoned railway seen from Fleam Dyke
Image: © John Sutton Taken: 21 Jan 2011
Not many railways have been closed for 160 years. The Chesterford to Newmarket direct line opened in 1848, connecting Newmarket with London. Three years later a line was built from Cambridge, through Cherry Hinton and Fulbourn, joining the Newmarket & Chesterford just south of Six Mile Bottom. The N&C south of Six Mile Bottom was then closed. It shows here as a diagonal line of trees and bushes crossing in the middle distance. The white speck on the horizon is the tower of Great Wilbraham church. Fleam Dyke is a defensive earthwork built over a period of 150 years from the 5th to the 7th centuries, extending 5km across open chalk land from the edge of the (then undrained) fens at Fulbourn to forested land near Balsham. It is one of four similar earthworks in the area, the longest being the Devil’s Dyke a few kilometres to the north.
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Image Location
Latitude
52.171052
Longitude
0.26015