Walking Westings Meadow

Long ago, between the villages of Maxey and Etton, Helpston, Glinton and Northborough, in the north-west corner of what's now Cambridgeshire, there was a place known as Westings Meadow. It lies roughly between the Maxey Cut and South Drain, though Westings was there long before these ruler-straight waterways were dug…

To complete the survey about our exciting new Westings Meadow community heritage project click here.

It was early in 2022 that I first came across a reference Westings Meadow, with an image of a map dated 1580*. I’m one of Langdyke Countryside Trust’s Artists in Residence, and looking at the map I immediately realised that three (now four) of Langdyke’s nature reserves now sit on the same site as Westings Meadow once did! I was intrigued, and decided to find out more. Since then, working with Sarah Lambert who's my co-Artist in Residence and also a ecologist and photographer, and with help from many local experts, we have been exploring the place and delving in to its history. Through our blogs, photography, maps, stitch and sculpture we are sharing the stories we find.


Back in Medieval and Tudor times, the 500+ acres of Westings Meadow was divided in to small plots owned by many different people. Each year they would take their harvest of hay, after which anyone from the surrounding villages could use the land to graze their sheep and cattle. It was an intricate, regulated farming system aimed at making best use of the land for everyone’s benefit. Archaeological excavations led by Francis Pryor in the 1980s showed that Neolithic communities grazed their sheep here too, whilst archive satellite images show evidence of Romano-British farms, Bronze Age ditches and more!** Visiting in person, you can find ancient willows marking the north-eastern boundary, and elsewhere there are even remnants of the 16th century meadow banks and echos of an old pond!


The western end of Westings Meadow is marked by Lolham Bridges. John Clare loved this place. He would come here each winter to marvel at the sight of the river in flood, and his name is even carved under one of the bridges! There are carvings on other old bridges around Westings Meadow too - at Etton there are outlines of shoes, a hand, the church and a plough! John Clare records it was their way of passing the time while keeping an eye on their sheep?

In the early 1800s, as part of the Enclosures Act, Westings Meadow was divided up with a ruler. Over the following years its gentle meandering rivers and soft meadow edges were transformed, until straight lines came to dominate the landscape.


Nowadays, Westings Meadow is in another period of radical change. In the mid 1950s the Maxey Cut flood relief channel was built to protect nearby towns and villages from devastating floods the like of which had been experienced earlier that decade. And then quarrying for grave began on a larger scale than before. The earth was stripped back field by field, to reach the gravel deposits below, allowing exceptional access to the rich archaeology below.

After quarrying, the land is generally returned to farming or restored for the benefit of nature. This restoration is vitally important, on a local and national scale. It means that in spring Lapwings have space to nest, while in winter tens of thousands of Starlings delight us with their intricate murmurations as they fly over Westings Meadow! There’s a growing population of Glow-worms, and one of Britain’s rarest moths lives here too - it’s a little black and white day-flying beauty called the Four-spotted moth. It’s good to know that these wild treasures have secure long-term homes. The Maxey Cut has become home to many creatures too, with Goosanders now regularly nesting on the Cut, migrating Sea Trout, Lamprey and more!


Today some say that this landscape is a little bit ‘unremarkable’… but as we’re discovering, this forgotten Meadow is remarkably full of rich history, fascinating topography and precious wildlife.

There has been such enthusiasm to hear more about Westings that we’re now working with Art Pop-up, an award winning community arts organisation based in Stamford, to develop a community heritage project that will celebrate the stories of this long-forgotten meadow and those that have worked and cared for it.? We’d be delighted if you’d help us shape the project and secure the funding it needs by completing this very short survey (takes 5 minutes or less). And if you can remember the Maxey Cut being built, or have worked this land and have stories you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you!

In autumn 2025 it’ll be exactly 185 years since John Clare walked through Westings Meadow and wrote about what he saw, and next year is the 70th anniversary of the Maxey Cut - so this is the perfect time to celebrate this very special part of our local countryside!

There will be further details of how you can get involved when the project starts in 2026. Meanwhile you can join in via social media by following Kathryn on Instagram / Facebook.


These images are part of an ongoing series capturing walks on the historic site of an ancient meadow. Each image is a digital collage of photographs taken on a single walk, sometimes with hand-drawn elements too. They capture the essence of the place on that day and the details that caught my eye.



*Tracey Partida (2014) “Drawing the Lines: A GIS study of enclosure and landscape in Northamptonshire” (Doctoral dissertation, University of Huddersfield)

**Archive satellite images are freely available online, including via GoogleEarth and at https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/wayback

All images are copyright and may not be used without written permission of the artist.