The Guided
Bus has received a lot of negative press over the years.
However running alongside the concrete rails is a brand new
bridleway. I’d like to say the beauty of the route for
cyclists is that it is flat because of the old railway but
we’re in the fens here so it could be nothing but flat.
The cache name can be interpreted in two ways:
- The Guided Bus should stop you getting stuck in the traffic
jams of the A14
- The cache is right next to the Chivers
Factory, famous for their Jam
The Chivers family are believed to have descended from Huguenots
who settled in Cottenham at the end of the 17th. century. They
first appeared in Histon when John Chivers, father of Stephen, came
to live at 59/61, Cottenham Road with his brother and sister around
1817.
Shortly after his marriage in 1850, Stephen bought an orchard
next to the railway line. Stephen now had easy access to London and
northern markets. When his sons William 18 and John 13 were old
enough in 1870, he sent them to open a distribution centre at
Bradford. The boys soon noticed that their main customers were jam
manufacturers. In 1873, which just happened to be a fruit glut
year, they convinced their father to allow them to make their first
batch of jam in the barn off Milton Road ; now site of St.Georges
Close. Within two years Victoria Works were built on the orchard
site. At first stone jars of two, four and six pounds were
produced. By 1885 the still rare glass jars were used. To ensure a
permanent, not seasonal, experienced workforce, they diversified
into marmalade, closely followed by the first clear, commercial
desert jelly in 1889. All the year round employment encouraged
further diversification into lemonade, mincemeat, custard powder
and Christmas puddings. In 1895 Chivers became Europe’s first
large scale commercial canners, using their own design. This was an
achievement which has been frequently overlooked by historians!
More history of the Chivers Family and the factory can be found
at: http://www.hisimp.net/history/hishist4.htm
Congratulations, FTF goes to
