Soham History

Most of this region used to be marshy wetlands, with large lakes or “meres” connected by meandering rivers and surrounded by boggy reed beds that were impassable for much of the year. The name Soham probably originates from the Saxon word “sagt” meaning drenched.

The local inhabitants made their living by fishing and harvesting the reeds for building, establishing small settlements on the many clay “islands” that rise a few metres above the water around them. Soham is just such an island.

The Romans colonised the area and encouraged its settlement by Saxons, who introduced arable farming and developed a trading economy. When the Romans withdrew in the 5th century the Saxons took over many of their buildings and roads. Soham was such a Roman stronghold (there are traces of a Roman cemetery) and grew as a Saxon community, separate from larger communities of the Isle of Ely to the north and Exning to the South.

Felix of Burgundy founded a monastery here around 630 AD, although the Abbey was destroyed during a Danish Viking attack in the 9th century.

Because the wetlands made travelling extremely difficult, the communities of East Anglia enjoyed much independence and were slow to accept the intervention of outsiders. The Normans took more than 10 years to “conquer” the fens and early attempts to take Ely were easily repelled by the Saxons who set fire to the reeds as the Normans advanced. This independence of spirit survived for centuries – Oliver Cromwell, the architect of the English Revolution, lived in Ely and has relatives buried in Soham.

All of this changed in the 17th century when the king encouraged the drainage of the fens by Dutch engineers. The people of the fens resisted this strongly, forming resistance groups that the engineers called “Fen Tigers”. There are many colourful stories of water works being blown up by reed boats full of explosives, houses of engineers being burned to the ground and officials being mobbed in the church in Soham. Despite their resistance, however, the fens were drained, creating vast tracts of fertile land that were ideal for arable farming on a large, almost industrial scale.

Soham tripled in size in the next two centuries and by the 19th century had over 4,000 inhabitants. Although there were many smallholdings, the agriculture of the region was characterised by a small number of very large farms using intense agricultural methods and modern technology. This is still true today. Soham grew as a market town, with mills and distribution centres for local produce, as well as the homes of the many farm employees working around Soham.