About our CIU Club
Chatteris Working Mens Club & Institute Ltd.
Station St, Chatteris, Cambridgeshire PE16 6NA
Tel: 01354 692355
Chatteris is one of four market towns in the
Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, situated in The Fens between Whittlesey and
Ely. It is reputed to have been the last refuge of Boudica as she fled from the
Romans [1]. Its name derives from the Anglo-Saxon Caeteric - Ceto meaning a wood
and Ric, a river. Chatteris was once the site of a Benedictine nunnery, built in
980 by Alfwen the niece of King Edgar. Little of it remains today, although the
"Park Streets" of Chatteris mark the boundary of its walls. In 1115, the
apprentice monk Bricstan was freed by the Queen following a vision of Saint
Etheldreda - he was the first known parishioner of Chatteris. A large portion of
the town was destroyed by a great fire which raged between 1306 and 1310, and
destroyed the nunnery and a large portion of the church, although the current
tower is original. The fire was allegedly started by a boy playing with a
mirror. To the north of the town runs the Forty-foot Drain, a large river also
called Vermuyden's Drain, after the Dutch engineer whose name is associated with
the fen drainage works of the middle of the I7th Century. Several of the older
buildings of the town show evidence of the Dutch architectural style.
More on
Chatteris
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