Newmarket Journal Thursday 26th February 1976
Story by Marcia Lawson Pictures by Peter Faulkes

WHEN BLACK SUSAN WAS ONE OF THE MANY ATTRACTIONS
Black Susan of the Evil Eye was just one of the many attractions of Reach in years gone by.

For she was one of the village's seven public houses in the days when Reach was a thriving port and market town.

Then trade from Holland and the Low Countries boomed with 200 to 400 ton barges bringing in leather goods, ironwork and pottery to the centuries old Reach Fair.

They would return home taking clunch, peat, chaff for feeding horses, teazels for cloth knapping and saffron for dyeing, which came from Saffron Walden.

During their stay Black Susan was just one of the pubs they could visit. This was the haunt of Dutch sailors, but there was also the White Horse, Black Swan, Bull, Ship Inn, Uncle Tom's Cabin and Moon & Sixpence.

STRUGGLE

But at the end of the 19th century, trade declined with the start of the railways and the pubs soon closed. And the village, once the gateway from Anglia to the Midlands, via the man made Devils Dyke earthwork, was left to struggle on alone.

Pictured at his home is Mr Colin Washtell, holding an eel-glave, which he believes was attatched to a punting pole to enable people to fish and travel the river at the same time. The photo also shows the houses’s very unusual 18th century fireplace and copper pots which Mr Washtell dug up in his garden.
Today the remote village has one shop and one pub to serve a population of about 280 people. The shop which combines a sub post office. general stores and off licence is run by Kenneth and Norma Peacock. The couple, who moved to Reach from Bury St Edmunds nearly six years ago, pride themselves on being able to supply residents with most of their basic needs. The Dyke's End pub opened in August to quench the thirsts of villages who had been without a pub for seven years. Run by Mr Michael Warrington and his wife Brenda, it gets its name from the fact that Reach lies at the end of Devil's Dyke, which starts at Wood Ditton.

About one third of the residents are relative newcomers to Reach and include doctors, teachers and engineers who work in Cambridge and other local towns.
Kenneth and Norma Peacock run the ’s post office - the only shop in Reach - which -license.

SCHEME

There are no clubs in the village and the little entertainment there is centred on the village hall.

The parochial church council gave the hall to the village in 1974 and it is now run by a committee. Within less, than two years the committee has raised £1,700 for an extensive improvement scheme, which is hoped to be completed by 1978. A new kitchen and new toilets have already been built and the remainder of the £6,500 project includes in providing new flooring, central heating. rewiring and sports equipment. To cut down costs almost all

The committee is now responsible for the running of the annual Reach Fair, which is held on the village green in May and opened by the Mayor of Cambridge. the work has been done voluntarily by committee members and other people in the village.

Those involved include chairman John Robinson, Dennis Badcock (vice chairman), Mrs Anita Foulkes (treasurer and caretaker), and Jeremy Patterson (secretary). Others are: Ernie Cole, Nicholas Hellawell, Christopher Patterson, Mrs Joyce Harrison, Mr and Mrs Wilfred Shorrocks, Bill Estell, Rowland Foulkes, Mr and Mrs Bob Smith, Albert Johnson.

HISTORY IS PRESERVED
The oldest existing house in Reach is believed to have been built in 1516 and had connections with Ely Cathedral. The attractive six bed roomed White Roses belongs to 68 year old Mr Colin Washtell and its garden runs down to Reach Lode. Mr Washtell say that the home,\tab which has its own quay, was once lived in by a boatman who took the Abbot of Ely from Reach to the cathedral city. The abbot, who was also a bishop, had a residence at Ely Place, London, and when in a hurry would travel back to Ely via Reach. Normally he would go through Peterborough, but to make haste, would journey on horseback along the Ickneild Way and along the Devil's Dyke to Reach. From here the boatman would take him along the Lodes to Ely.

White Roses is believed to have later belonged to a merchant and between 1899 and 1947 was the home of successive local clergymen.

Today its history is well preserved due to the care of Mr Washfell and his wife Eve. It has a superbly kept rose garden and a main garden, which houses a quarter of a million bees and an ancient elderberry tree. 

.A view of Reach’s oldest existing house White Roses - the home of retired chartered engineer Mr Colin Washtell and his wife Eve.
Mr Washfell, who is president of the Cambridge and District Organists Association, moved to Reach from Cambridge nearly 25 years ago. He says that then he was considered a stranger, but has, since been accepted into the community and has built pipe and electrophonic organs for churches at Reach, Swaffham Prior and Burwell.

He loves the peace and quiet of Reach and will never leave. "it is an ideal retreat for people who work in Cambridge or towns, but I can understand youngsters who were brought up here moving away to look for the bright lights," he said.

KING LEN A LEGEND IN HIMSELF
A legend in himself is 64 year old Len Warren the one time self appointed King of Reach. Over the years before his abdication in 1969 he made countless claims to fame and fortune. Len, a caretaker at a Cambridge college, claimed his title to the throne of Reach through the murdered 14th century ruler Count Allen. He said that Reach was granted a royal charter of independence by King John in 1201 and that the kingdom included Newmarket and Exning.

In 1966 he threatened to put his kingdom up for sale to either the Americans or Russians when a boundary inquiry over the Cambridge Suffolk border included Reach in its deliberations. And four months later he offered pirate radio stations a free berth in Reach Lode if they were driven off the seas.

In 1967 Len demanded that 1,000 acres of Newmarket Heath should become Common Land and the following year he staked a personal claim to the land. But he decided not to fight his claim through the courts and in July, 1969, wrote to the Prime Minister announcing that he was handing Reach back to the Queen.
Michael Warrington is landlord of the Dykes End pub, which was opened last summer.  

VILLAGE HAS ITS OWN DAIRY

One of the very few surviving family owned dairies is run at Reach by farmer and chairman of the parish council, Mr Ernie Cole. His herd of 30 milking cows provides 150 pints of milk each day to homes in the village and Burwell and the surplus is sold to Unigate Dairies. It is untreated, though tested for tu berculosis and brucellosis, and Mr Cole says it has more flavour and lasts longer than the usual pinta.

He bought the business 32 years ago from Mr Jack Beckett and helping him to run it is his wife Mary and their son John and daugher Mary Badcock.

At work in the milking parlour at Hill Farm are Mr Ernie Cole and his wife Mary. Also pictured is their granson eight year old Mark Badcock
Fifty eight year old Mr Cole, owner of Hill Farm, farms 148 acres and grows crops including cereals, potatoes, sugar beet and carrots.

As chairman of the parish council he is very concerned about the future of the Cambridgeshire Lodes and hopes they will be preserved in their original state.

During the recent icy spell he was one of many people who put on their skating boots and took to the ice on Reach Lode.