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Early Times

March is situated on the second highest island in Fenland and took its name from the fact that it was situated on the edge or boundary of the fens. Evidence of both Neolithic and Iron Age peoples has been found at March. The modern town of March grew from two small hamlets, Merche, which developed around the church of St. Wendreda and Mercheford the more industrialised area near the river.

The earliest record of March is in the year 652 when Tonbert, Prince of the Girvii, who were the early fen men, married Etheldreda and gave the Isle of Ely to her as a dowry. On Tonbert’s death these lands passed to his widow who later founded the Abbey at Ely and to which she endowed all her property. The Isle of Ely, including March, remained in possession of the Abbey until the year 1109 when Ely became a Bishopric. The lands and revenues of the monastery were then divided between the Abbey and the Bishop – and March, a chapelry of Doddington, became part of the Bishops share. Doddington remained in the possession of the Bishops until 1601 when Queen Elizabeth in the 44th year of her reign took the living at Doddington and the Manor. She then granted both to Sir John Peyton the elder, for £3,000 and a fee farm rent of £74. The Reverend C.E.Walker (Rector of St. Wendreda’s in the late 19th century) refers to this purchase in his book Records of a Fen Parish. It seems that Queen Elizabeth had exchanged these estates for other lands. The Bishop did not want to lose Doddington (as it was the richest parish in the country with an income of £10,000 per annum). After he received a rather curt note from the Queen threatening to unfrock him if he did not comply, he accepted.

The Romans

The Romans built a causeway to the north of the island and villas and settlements have been found at both Grandford and Flaggrass and more recently near to the Church of St Wendreda in the south of the town. To the east of March, at Stonea, as well as an Iceni settlement, a grand Roman Villa was discovered. Archaeology suggested that this was the site of a great battle and it is now thought to have been where Boudicca made her last stand with her tribe against the Roman invaders. The largest ever hoard of Iceni silver coins was found in the 1980s at Field Baulk, March, which is not too far from Stonea.

Tudor and Stuart Times

Mercheford was the commercial area. From Tudor times goods and people were transported to and from the town by water and a minor port developed until the river trade diminished when the railway arrived in 1847. Many of the tiny riverside cottages that still exist today were built along West End and Nene Parade during the ports heyday in the 16th, 17th, 18th,and 19th centuries. A canal called the ‘Hythe’ linked Merche and Mercheford; this allowed the transportation of goods between the two hamlets.

During the Civil War, which started in 1642, five counties banded together to form the ‘Eastern Association’ of which March became an important part. Four earth forts were built to protect the area from the

Parliamentarians. The remains of one fort, where a troop of cavalry were housed and known locally as ‘The Sconce’ still exists on Cavalry Park.

Constant flooding in winter and the mosquitoes in summer made life a misery for fen people. But all changed during the 17th century when the Fens were finally drained. Earlier attempts had been made by the Romans and in the 15th century under the direction of John Morton, Bishop of Ely. Attempts in the 17th century were scuppered during the civil war. In 1649 the 5th Earl of Bedford together with a group of influential men known as ‘the adventurers’ put into operation a grand scheme to drain ‘The Great level’, as the fens were then called, once and for all. Vermuyden’s scheme was unpopular with the inhabitants, for they believed it would take away their livelihood and common rights. Gangs of Fenmen known as ‘Fen Tigers’ opposed the work and tried to destroy it, but with limited success.

Once the drainage work had finished a very rich productive land was revealed. The Fen folk found they had food and livestock to spare and in 1669 the lord of the manor successfully petitioned King Charles II to be allowed a weekly market to sell their produce. Two annual fairs, each lasting three days, one at Whitsuntide to deal in horses and the other at Michaelmas to sell meat, was granted at the same time. The lord of the manor offered the town folk ‘Bridge Green Common’ for their market and this has remained the Market Place to this day.

Victorian Times

The 19th century saw the rapid development of March. A workhouse erected in 1828 at Eastwoods, an area off St Peter’s Road, was closed and sold to help finance the new Union Workhouse in Doddington established in 1834. After cholera struck the town in 1849, many people died and the Local Board of Health was formed to bring about change. A Government Report ordered after the epidemic helped to bring about the first Public Health Act.

In 1856 the Doddington Rectory Division Act was passed in Parliament, but could not be implemented during the lifetime of the lord of the manor, Algernon Peyton, who was also the Rector. After his death in 1868 the Act came into force and the ancient parish of Doddington was no more. The Act allowed the division of the large parish to be divided into seven smaller ones; Doddington, Benwick, Wimblington and the four parishes of March, St Wendreda’s, St John’s, St Mary’s and St Peter’s.