Cheveley
| Cheveley | |
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 Cheveley
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| Cheveley shown within Cambridgeshire | |
| Population | 1,990 (2011) |
| OS grid reference | TL684607 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Newmarket |
| Postcode district | CB8 |
| EU Parliament | East of England |
The village of Cheveley is situated in the county of Cambridgeshire and lies about four miles east-south-east of the market town of Newmarket. The population of the civil parish was 1,990 at the 2011 Census. Cheveley falls within the local government district of East Cambridgeshire. Geographically, Cheveley stands on the third highest point in Cambridgeshire at 127 metres (417 ft) above sea level. The attractive hamlet of Cheveley Park is a mile from Cheveley.
It is the home of Cheveley Park Stud.
The trees of the Duke of Rutland's old park, a ducal domain no more, spread over into the roadway and gardens of this wooded outpost of the county near the Suffolk border. A linear village, Cheveley's non-residential land-use consists almost entirely of paddock land used by studs, the most notable being the Cheveley Park Stud after which the Cheveley Park Stakes are named. See thoroughbred breeding.
By the road outside the church, in memory of the men who did not come back, stands a soldier with bowed head in a niche below a cross. The Jacobean Rectory has great (possibly 18th-century) iron gates, said to have come from the Alington family's seat at Horseheath.
The fine aisleless church, in the shape of a cross, has a 600-year-old tower beginning square and ending with eight sides, a turret rising from the ground, with a winding stairway to the belfry and a summit once used for beacon fires. The fine arches with clustered pillars on which the tower rests are the glory of the church indoors, recalling the days when there were four guilds here, each guild keeping a light burning on these piers. Three of the four brackets for the lights are still here, one carved with a face and one a grotesque little fellow with his legs doubled behind him.
The church belongs to England's three great building centuries, and still has the oak screen set in its chancel arch 600 years ago. The choir-stalls are 'modern' with fine carvings of dogs, fishes, birds, bats, dragons, and a wolf. There are two Jacobean chairs, and a richly inlaid one of cypress wood, the seat opening to form a chest; it is thought to be the throne of a Venetian Doge of the 14th century. A little glass in a transept window is older still. The painted font is 19th-century, most unusual in its blaze of colour, a new dress in mediaeval style.
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