Relhan Collection : 216 Fen Ditton. Biggin Abbey Farm

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>The Biggin belonged to the bishops of Ely from C12, with permission to enclose and crenellate it 1276, and was a summer residence of the bishops of Ely during C13 and C14, close to the Cam and set within an older moat, a convenient distance from Cambridge and accessible to Ely and Cambridge by boat. Royalty as well as bishops sometimes visited, especially Henry III and Edward I, and much business undertaken at the cost of quantities of food for the Court, at the expense of the parish of Fen Ditton. The C14 building was residential, not religious, and there seem to be no signs of maintenance, and by 1478 just paid a pension to the bishop of Ely’s physician. After the Dissolution in C16 it became a farmhouse which, in C17 was remodelled to include an internal chimney stack and winding stone staircase. There is a useful drawing made by William Cole of what remained in 1768. In the late C20 its clunch and freestone walls were rendered with cement but walls and ground floor ceiling beams survived. Thorough restoration work is currently (2020) in progress. </p><p>English Heritage Listing; Chadwick 1955; Palmer 1932; VCH 2002</p></p>