View as Sawston Mystery Cache

Sawston boasts its Village College, the first ever, built in 1930. Village colleges were the brainchild of Henry Morris, the then Chief Education Officer for Cambridgeshire, who had a vision of a school that would serve the whole community, stem migration from the countryside to the towns, and provide a decent education to pupils. The other 13 are Cottenham, Linton, Impington, Melbourn, Burwell, Swavesey, Bottisham, Melbourn, Comberton, Soham, Witchford, Gamlingay and Bassingbourn.

Sawston Hall is a grade 1 listed Tudor manor house with a long history. The Hall was re-built by Sir John and Edmund Huddleston between 1557-1584 with the help of a license granted by Queen Mary to use stone from Cambridge Castle.  This was built in 1068 by the conquering Normans as a timber and masonry motte and bailey fortress overlooking the small settlement of Grantabridge. All that remains of the site now is the artificial motte. Was this a Tudor example of recycling??

Mary Tudor was succeeded by her sister, Elizabeth, who was strongly Protestant. This meant that the Catholic Huddlestons found themselves persecuted. It became illegal to house or help Catholic priests, and made life difficult for anyone admitting to being a Catholic. For this reason, the Hall was constructed with several secret priest's holes, places where a priest could remain hidden if the house was being searched by pursuivants, officers of the law, looking for them. Many old Catholic houses were built with these secret hiding places, but the priest's hole at the top of the spiral staircase in Sawston Hall is reckoned to be one of the finest examples in the country.

Henry Huddleston was implicated in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot and very lucky just to lose some of his estates - rather than his head!