Economy
The marshes and meres surrounding the village supported fishing since Saxon times, at least until significant draining during the 17th century. Eels were plentiful in the waters in and around the Isle of Ely (Eel–ey). In 1086, Little Thetford was worth 3,250 eels to the nearby abbots. In one year, 1087, it was written that 52,000 eels were caught in and around the city. The islands in this landscape supported pastures; whilst reeds, peat, and rushes were harvested from the wetlands. As the land was drained, arable farming became the dominant activity, as it is today.
Little Thetford played a part in the coprolite mining rush of c. 1858–1900. Coprolites are phosphate-rich fossils found 2 and 10 feet (0.61 and 3.0 m) below the surface in 33 feet (10 m) deep by rarely more than 5 miles (8.0 km) wide Gault clay beds. When mixed with sulphuric acid, the coprolite forms a fertiliser. One author attributes the Stretham coprolite pit, in Little Thetford, as being owned by John Bailey Denton, 1814–1893, the surveyor and civil engineer. The site was worked from 1866. Mainly local labour was used in shovelling the coprolite from the pit, for washing and sorting. In 1871, six percent of the population of Little Thetford worked at the pit. The coprolite was transported to the James Fison (now Fisons Ltd) factory in Thetford, Norfolk, by river and then onwards by railway.
The Three Horseshoes, now a residential property, was one of seven public houses known to be within the village boundaries since the mid-19th century. The British Beer and Pub Association estimated in 2001 that "six rural pubs close each week". There was a public house at Little Thetford, the Fish and Duck, situated along the river nearer Stretham; it closed sometime during 2006, and the owning company dissolved on 11 May 2010. There is a combined newsagent, post office, and grocery store in Stretham, 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the village. The one remaining local store is the recumbent bicycle shop, D.Tek, on the main street.
The average distance the village population travels to work, by any means, is 13.6 miles (21.9 km). Most residents commute to Cambridge, although some villagers use the 75-minute Fen Line commuter service to London from Ely railway station, 2 miles (3.2 km) away. There is a train every 30 minutes during peak time.
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Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“War. Fighting. Men ... every man in the whole realm is in the army.... Every man in uniform ... An economy entirely geared to war ... but there is not much war ... hardly any fighting ... yet every man a soldier from birth till death ... Men ... all men for fighting ... but no war, no wars to fight ... what is it, what does it mean?””
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
“Unaware of the absurdity of it, we introduce our own petty household rules into the economy of the universe for which the life of generations, peoples, of entire planets, has no importance in relation to the general development.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)