Local Walk 4 - Sawston

It is convenient for us to start at Whittlesford Lawns and from here we proceed down Church Lane to the Church (see Local Walk 2); we take the footpath to Sawston from here this time.  Along the way we can see the site of the old Spicers Paper Mill; paper / printing has been one of Sawston's two major industries over the last 200 years (the other is Leather, see later) and what we see is topical as Chinese IT giant Huawei has now acquired this site and has plans for a new £1 billion research and development centre here....  

We cross the railway line and A1301 before walking along the roads of the north part of Sawston; there has been substantial development in Sawston since the end of the Second World War and, more recently, a number of large housing estates have been constructed. We pass Sawston Village College; this was the first ever village college to be built in the UK and was an idea conceived by Henry Morris in 1930 as a regional centre combining school, adult education and social/cultural needs (our daughter was a pupil here). Next to it is the Marven Centre, used by various local organisations and as Sawston Cinema, and Sawston Community Hub.

We walk down the High Street to a road junction with War Memorial with the 15 foot tall Sawston Giraffe behind it; this was carved from an old tree by a local tree surgeon. Nearby is the Mary Challis House and Garden; part of the Challis Trust, it was left to the people of Sawston for them enjoy and is manned by volunteers - the Victorian Gardens there are beautiful and well worth a visit when open. We walk up Church Lane to see Saint Mary's Church and the iron gates of Sawston Hall, a privately owned Grade 1 listed Tudor manor house whose whole estate is screened off by trees; I have never seen it at all in all my years in the area! 

We head further up the High Street to Tannery Road, named from Sawston's former second major industry (Leather); from here you can see the outsides of the Hutchings & Hardings Tannery - the company is now a leading chamois manufacturer.  The whole site is now Grade 2 listed, but many of the buildings are in a perilous state; English Heritage and  the Industrial Buildings Preservation Trust have both declined interest and the local district council is now considering the use of this part of the green belt for housing.....

We double back to the footpath opposite Prince William Way and take this to reach the A1301 again; we cross this and the railway line before heading back to Whittlesford via Whittlesford Mill - this is now the Hamilton Kerr Institute, a department of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.Read more