Cross Keys Hotel, 12 - 16 Market Hill , Chatteris, PE166BA

Description

The Cross Keys Hotel in Chatteris is a 16th Century Coaching Inn in a pleasant Fenland Town set between the two cathedral cities of Ely and Peterborough.

Surrounded by rich farmland known as the Covent Garden of England. Chatteris is the Gateway to the Fens.

During the Medieval period the town was dominated by Chatteris Abbey a small Benedictine nunnery dedicated to St Mary built in 980 by Alfwen the niece of King Edgar and one of only eight nunneries mentioned in the Domesday Book. Throughout its existence the abbey was comparatively poor compared to other foundations due to a lack of royal patronage and a consequent lack of tithe estates. As a result the abbey survived the first wave of closures during the Dissolution of the Monasteries but was surrendered to the king s commissioners in 1538 by which time there were eleven nuns in residence.

Later fires in 1706 and 1864 destroyed most medieval and Georgian architecture and a large proportion of the town s listed buildings date from the Victorian period onwards. However many of the pasture fields on the outskirts of the town have evidence of ridge and furrow farming practices although these are under threat by current building proposals.

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 17th century. Several of the older buildings of the town show evidence of the Dutch architectural style.

Chatteris is a market town and has possessed this designation since 1834 although an earlier market existed in the town which was discontinued due to poor roads in 1808. A small market is still held every Friday. Following the Beeching Axe Chatteris railway station formerly on the St. Ives extension of the Great Eastern Railway was closed in March 1967.

It is believed Samuel Pepys stayed here in September 1663 as did the wild man Oliver Reed.