Why visit Isleham
Townapedia lists 3 museums and landmarks, 5 parks and trails, 4 places to eat and 1 place to stay in and around town.
Highlights include Isleham Hoard, Isleham Nature Reserve and Fordham Woods.
Weather in Isleham
Forecast from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0). Full forecast
About Isleham
Isleham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Cambridgeshire. It is part of the Fens. It has three pubs.
From the Wikipedia article Isleham (this version), under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Museums and landmarks3
Isleham Priory
Monument and historic site
Isleham Priory Church is the best example in England of a small Norman Benedictine priory church, surviving in a surprisingly unaltered...
Parks, trails and playgrounds5
Restaurants and cafes4
Where to stay1
History
Its name seems to come from Anglo-Saxon Gísla hám = "the home of the hostages". It seems that in Anglo-Saxon societies the position of a hostage from one political group held by another political group, was sometimes more or less voluntary, and the meaning of the word could slip into "representative".
The Priory of St Margaret of Antioch was founded in the village in 1090. It was always an alien priory run directly from France and, as such, was dissolved in 1414. It was later used as a barn and is now looked after by English Heritage.
St Andrew's parish church is a Grade I listed building. It was the burial site for ancestors of the Peyton family. Descendants of Peytons visit the church and obtain rubbings of the brasses decorating the Peyton monuments. The church continues to be restored with the help of donations from Peyton families in the UK and USA. Isleham Hall on West Street is a building associated with the Peyton family, and dating from the 16th century.
On 3 May 1850 Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon was baptised in the river Lark. A stone marks the location.
From the History section of Isleham on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
More about Isleham
Geography
Isleham is located in the Fens of south-east Cambridgeshire. The western parish boundary is formed by the Crooked Ditch or Crooked Drain, the eastern boundary largely by the Lea Brook and the north by the River Lark. The village lies on the B1104 from Prickwillow to Chippenham. Isleham is twinned with Nesles in France and Magdala in Germany.
Arts and culture
In 1975 Mary Chamberlain published the book Fenwomen, an account of the lives of women in the village of Gislea - which was a pseudonym for Isleham.
In 2015, English rapper Dirty Dike released his fourth album which included a track entitled "Isleham Swamp". Dirty Dike has referenced Cambridgeshire and the Fenland in several of his tracks.
From the Wikipedia article Isleham, under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Churches and places of worship5
Shopping1
Schools, colleges and libraries1
Map of Isleham
20 places. The map loads OpenStreetMap tiles when you open it.
Getting there and nearby towns
RAF Mildenhall (MHZ) is the nearest airport with scheduled flights listed in OpenStreetMap, 4 miles away.
- Mildenhall 4 mi east, about 7 min by car
- Exning 6 mi south, about 9 min by car
- Newmarket 7 mi south, about 11 min by car
- Ely 7 mi northwest, about 12 min by car
- Stretham 8 mi west, about 13 min by car
- Witchford 9 mi west, about 15 min by car
- Wilburton 10 mi west, about 16 min by car
- Hockwold cum Wilton 10 mi northeast, about 16 min by car
- Weeting 12 mi northeast, about 19 min by car
- Bury St Edmunds 14 mi southeast, about 23 min by car
Drive times are estimates from straight-line distance, not routes.
Towns near Isleham
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Sources and licences
- GeoNames (CC BY 4.0): population, coordinates, regions and time zone
- Mapillary (see each image): photos
- OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0): places, airports, map data
- Wikidata (CC0 1.0): elevation, founding date, time zone, website, landmarks and historic places
- Wikimedia Commons (see each image): photos
- Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0): overview and history text
Photo credits
- Isleham Nature Reserve 4, Dudley Miles, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, adam2, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, adam2, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, adam2, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, adam2, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, adam2, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Street-level photo, adam2, CC BY-SA 4.0
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