The Woodman
Barley Town House
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Barkway Park Golf Club Nuthampstead Road, Barkway   SG8 8EN Phone 01763 849070  They don't have a web site at the moment.
Contact Nicola Barker, Secretary
Nuthampstead Airfield
Nuthampstead (Nr Barkway)
Royston
Herts
SG8 8NA
Phone: 01763 848172
07850 569364 (mobile)
Fax: 01763 84801

 The Woodman 17th century inn, has many fine features; the first and most noticeable being the well maintained bar, which is warm and friendly, with open fires and plenty of character, serving real ales and other popular drinks. About a mile from Barkway.



Barley The Town House A perfect wedding venue


It is a well known fact that the American Bomber Command were based in East Anglia alongside the other Allied Forces. It was late in 1942 when the first Bomb Groups of the USAF's Eighth Air Force arrived. They occupied bases in Alconbury, Bassingbourn, Kimbolton, Molesworth initially which were later followed by Glatton. More bases and more aircraft became prevalent and the war was taken to Germany.
The American Forces paid a heavy price as can be seen by the World War II Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, located at Madingley, which is three miles west of Cambridge on A1303. The site, covering thirty and a half acres in land area, was donated by the University of Cambridge. It lies on a north slope with wide prospect. The west and south sides of the cemetery are framed by woodland. There are 3,812 American military dead buried there. On the wall running from the entrance to the chapel are inscribed the names of 5,126 Americans who gave their lives in the service of their country, but whose remains were never recovered or identified. Most of these died in the Battle of the Atlantic or in the strategic air bombardment of Northwest Europe during World War II.
From the raised dais, where the American flag flies as you enter the cemetery, the extending pathway, with its reflecting pool stretches, eastward. From this pathway the headstones in the burial area form a sweeping curve across the green lawn. Along the south side of the pathway is the Wall of the Missing. At its far end is the chapel containing two huge military maps, stained glass windows bearing the State Seals and military decorations, and its mosaic ceiling with a memorial to the American Air Force's Dead.
In the summer the cemetery is open to visitors daily from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and in the winter from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.




Cambridge was important long before the University existed. Here, at the meeting of dense forests to the south and trackless, marshy Fens to the north, was the lowest reliable fording place of the River Cam, or Granta. In the first century BC an Iron Age Belgic tribe built a settlement on what is now Castle Hill. Around AD40 the Romans took over the site and it became the crossing point for the Via Devana which linked Colchester with the legions in Lincoln and beyond. The Saxons followed, then the Normans under William the Conqueror, who raised a castle on a steep mound as a base for fighting the Saxon rebel, Hereward the Wake, deep in the Fens at Ely. The motte of William's castle still stands and Ely Cathedral is visible from the top on a clear day.

The first scholars didn't arrive in Cambridge until 1209 and another 75 years passed before Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founded Peterhouse, the first college. Clare (1326), Pembroke (1347), Gonville and Caius (1348), Trinity Hall (1350) and Corpus Christi (1352) were established in the first half of the fourteenth century. Ten more colleges were founded during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, including Christ's (1505), King's (1441), Queens' (1448), Jesus (1496), St. John's (1511), Trinity (1546), and Emmanuel (1584).



The magnificent cathedral at Ely, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity, lies at the center of what was once a thriving monastic community, first founded in 673 by Saint Etheldreda, a Saxon Queen of Northumbria. During the first period of the monastery, both men and women were housed in the surrounding buildings, a joint community of prayer and worship which had three successive women leaders.
The Danes invaded in 870 and the monastery was refounded in 970 as part of the Benedictine Order. Once again, the monastery was destroyed by invaders - the Normans this time, who attacked Ely as the last stronghold of the Saxon hero, Hereward the Wake - and once again, it was refounded under Abbot Simeon, who set about rebuilding in the Norman style in about 1080. The earliest surviving parts of the present Cathedral, the North and South Transepts, the South Door and the Nave, date from this time. The sole remnant of the Saxon church being a large fragment of the base of a cross in the south aisle. The Norman church was erected not only as a tribute to God, but also as a way of proclaiming the new rulers' dominance - the huge stone buildings going up all over the country confirming their permanence and confidence.




The National Stud was founded in 1916 when Colonel Hall Walker, later Lord Wavertree, offered his bloodstock to the British Government on the condition that it purchased his breeding establishment at Tully in County Kildare, Ireland. His stud included more than 40 well-bred mares and had bred King Edward VIIs Epsom Derby winner Minoru, the Oaks winner Cherry Lass and many other top-class horses. The Government accepted the offer on the understanding that the maintenance of first-class foundation stock would ensure the breeding of high quality light horses for the Army.
Great success followed, with the stud breeding the Classic sire of the 1920's and 1930's, Blandford, and the Classic winners Royal Lancer, Big Game, Sun Chariot, Chamossaire and Carrozza and such performers as Sturdust, Blue Train and Hopeful Venture. Big Game and Sun Chariot were both leased to King George VI, for whom they won four of the five Classics in 1942.
The stud remained at Tully until 1943, when the property was handed over to the Irish Government. The bloodstock was then transferred to the Sandley Stud in Dorset and, in order to accommodate additional stallions, the Stud's facilities were expanded after the Second World War by the acquisition of a stud at West Grinstead in Sussex.
In 1963 a radical change of policy was made when it was decided that the stud should sell its mares and become a stallion station.
Neither Sandley nor West Grinstead were large enough to accommodate sufficient stallions for this purpose, so they were both sold and a brand new, purpose-designed stud was built on 500 acres of land at Newmarket obtained from The Jockey Club on a 999 year lease.
Peter Burrell, one of several outstanding Directors of the stud, and in charge at that time, travelled widely to study stud layouts and design and as a result of his efforts many of the most progressive ideas were incorporated in the plans for the new National Stud.

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