villagehistory

BAR HILL -- a Short History

During the 1950s, it was realised that the number of houses needed in South Cambridgeshire was such that it could not be absorbed by the city or the existing villages without compromising their essential characters. A number of new villages were therefore essential, and it was decided by the County Council to site the first of these on 350 acres of Bar House Farm in the parish of Dry Drayton north west of the city.

In 1961, Holland, Hannen and Cubitt's were appointed contractors and developers, and Covell, Matthews and Partners, town planners and architects. After complex planning and financial problems had been overcome, outline planning permission was obtained in 1964. This was for a village for 4,000 people, where, amid the houses shops, school and business area, a village green, parkland and play areas would ensure that children could be brought up safely Vehicular traffic would be largely confined to a perimeter road, and a network of footpaths would lead from any house to the central shopping precinct. It would take eight years to complete.

Work began on the site in November 1965, and the first residents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Burry moved in on May 24th 1967. The primary school was finished by the end of 1967,and it opened with two teachers, Mr. Bill Norton, the headmaster and Mrs. Pauline Stelmaszuk, plus 26 children in May the following year. Seven of the 13 shops in The Mall, the shopping precinct, opened during 1968- 69. A unique and novel feature was that all residents would contribute towards a Village Trust which would undertake the provision of a Village hall as well as the maintenance of communal areas. Bar hill finally came of age as a village in May 1969 when it had grown sufficiently to warrant a Parish Council of five members.

The 1970s were a period of rapid growth and change. In 1968, the Ideal Building Corporation, a subsidiary of Trafalgar house Ltd. had bought the site from Cubitt's and also Bar hill Developments Ltd to continue to oversee the development of the village. During the housing boom years of 1970-72, houses were being constructed at more than 200 per year. The 1973 recession was not only to bring about a slow down in house building, but to change completely the face of Bar hill.

In 1972, the closure of Keymarkets supermarket proved a watershed. The developers immediately entered into negotiations with a well-known superstore. Although a Residents Association survey had indicated that the proportions in favour and against a superstore were evenly balanced, 85% opposed its siting in the centre of the village. The superstore which eventually came to Bar Hill village centre was Tesco which opened its doors on Tuesday, June 28th 1977. As well as selling the central area of the village to Tesco, the developers handed over almost all the communal areas of the village (about 120 acres) to the Parish Council together with an endowment with which to build the village hall. The Village Trust was thus dissolved, its functions and responsibilities taken over by the Council.

Despite the uncertainty about its future -- and Bar Hill should have been finished in 1976 -- Bar hill continued its growth into a strong, united community.

In 1965, the Cambridge and Histon Council of Churches decided that a new inter-denominational church should be situated in the new village of Bar Hill. Under the guidance of the Rev. Bill King, a minister in the Congregational Church and one of the early inhabitants of the village, and the Rev. Hugo de Waal (now the Bishop of Thetford) Priest in Charge of Dry Drayton, a church first met in members' houses, then in a builder's hut, and, as numbers grew, in the school. The vision of a multi- purpose Church Centre was realised on October 5th 1972. It was designed that it should be a focus for village activities not specifically associated with the church.

In the summer of 1973, a block of 28 flats built for the Hanover housing Association for retired people was opened. This partly redressed the situation in that the majority of the population was under 40. Even so, in 1975 62% of the population was aged between 18 and 60. At the same time, adjacent to the flats, the Health Centre was opened providing primary health care for Bar Hill and the surrounding villages.

The Village Hall, its running expenses financed, for the most part, by a Social Club meeting in the same premises was finally opened in 1978. On the site of Radegund Farm between the village and the A604, on a site originally allocated for a village college, the Cambridgeshire hotel was opened in 1974 and the adjoining golf course the following year.

Industry as well began to grow in Bar Hill during this decade. For several years after their arrival in 1968, Cambridge Consultants were the Industrial Estate's only resident, others joining them progressively during the early 1970s. The nemesis came downwind from Tesco, when the proliferation of paper bags and tally rolls forced them to move to the Science Park late in 1977. The Trafalgar Way warehousing area received planning permission in 1975.

During the weekend of 21st and 22nd of May 1977, Bar Hill celebrated the tenth anniversary of the first residents moving into the village. As a community, Bar Hill had plenty to be proud about, despite the hostility and cynicism "the county's disaster area" being leveled against it in the Cambridge Evening News and in other publications. At a time it should have been finished, however, it was only about 40% complete. (In 1975, there was a population of 1,673 residents occupying 599 homes in the village. Twenty two organisations met regularly at the school and Church Centre.)

The 1980s was a period of consolidation rather than expansion. In 1982, fifteen years after the arrival of its first residents, the village was still not

complete. Chestnut Rise, Thruffle Way, Hillcrest, Watermead, part of The Spinney, Field View and Little Meadow had not been built. These were, however, to be completed during the next six years, and in 1989, 23 years after development began, 15 years after it should have been finished, the last brick was laid

From a community point of view, Bar Hill's success story continued. The last of Bar Hill's community buildings took shape; a branch library took its rightful place near the school gates. The Village Hall and Social Club provided a focus for recreational and leisure activities in the village, and, like the Church Centre and school, were hives of activity throughout the week. In 1982, over 40 organisations held meetings on a regular

basis. Several football teams, a cricket club, tennis club, karate, golf and sports club (at the hotel), netball and ladies keep fit were among the sporting organisations in the village. During the decade, the population reached 5,000, with an increasingly broadening age range. The number of children at the school reached 300 and beyond, and the those at the Pre-school Playgroup, originating back in 1967, reached saturation point and the Sunshine Playgroup opened early in the decade.

Domino Printing Sciences, one of the world's foremost manufacturers of laser printers, had been founded in Bar Hill in 1978, and in 1989 moved to large, purpose-built premises in Trafalgar Way. They joined the Cambridge Optical Company, another of the hi-tech companies proliferating around Cambridge, who had established premises there in May 1987. Trafalgar Way had now ceased to be merely a warehouse area, and premises here as well as on the original industrial estate were now full and thriving. Parts of the latter were showing signs of age and neglect by both the owners of the premises and the land they occupied, particularly the former Cambridge Consultants premises which stood by the perimeter road in forlorn abandonment.

The 1990s started with a celebration of God and finished with one of Mammon. By the end of the 1980s, the congregation of Bar Hill Church had outgrown the Church Centre. A large new church, over three times the size, was planned, and in 1991 opened with a fanfare of praise, attended by members of the original participating churches (the Anglican, Methodist, United Reformed, Baptist, and the Society of Friends) and the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1997, Bar Hill was thirty years old and marked it with a week-long series of events. Those residents who had been in the village for much of this time could look back with feelings of achievement and satisfaction. The Residents Association, which had its inaugural meeting on October 20th 1967, continued to publish the Bar Hill News, one of the country's foremost local newsletters, and organised the annual Summer Fetes and November 5th firework celebrations . Many of the 15,000 trees planted in this time had matured, absorbing it into the south Cambridgeshire landscape like any village which had existed for a thousand years. The barbed comments leveled at it during the early years had now ceased, though descriptions like 'the Tesco village' or the 'houses around Tesco', or, by Estate Agents, 'this estate or development' were constant irritants.

Dominating the decade was the theme of the Tesco re-development. originally announced in 1992, plans ebbed and flowed between Tesco, the Parish Council, Bar Hill residents and the District Council. Finally once again, the centre of the village is a gigantic building site: the store will be switched round 90 degrees, the shops re-located where the store now stands, and the original shopping precinct demolished to create additional car-parking space. No one knows whether the sum of over a million pounds received from Tesco as a result of the sale of parcels of land to them will strengthen or fracture the sense of community which has served the village so well throughout its history. Whether the additional traffic and the road-widening necessary to accommodate it will make Bar Hill a less congenial place to live in, or the promised landscaping will ameliorate the harshness of the vast car-park in the centre of the village, only time in the early years of a new century will tell.