Madingley has the feel of an estate village because, for most of its history, that is what it was. The great house at its centre, Madingley Hall, was begun in 1543 by Sir John Hynde and finished by his son in the 1590s. When the park was enlarged around 1728, the village was split in two: a smaller group of houses by the church to the south and another around the green. With around 210 residents at the 2011 census it is still a small place, and building work here is mostly about looking after what is already standing.
A village shaped by one owner
Because the parish was in single ownership, the number of homes was held steady for a long time. There were 65 dwellings in 1841, and the figure was usually kept at 55 to 60 until the 1930s. Very few buildings survive from before 1800. Later additions were modest: infilling, mostly at the north end of the street, a council estate off Church Lane, and the conversion of farm buildings into homes around 1980.
Some of the most recognisable buildings came out of that estate tradition. The village hall of 1910 is thatched, and the Three Horseshoes, now a restaurant, is a thatched building with some pargetted plasterwork.
Fifteen listed buildings in a small conservation area
Madingley’s conservation area, covering the village and the park, was designated in 1976. It contains 15 listed buildings. The hall and stable courtyard are Grade I: a mansion of clunch and red brick patterned with burnt-brick diaper work, with limestone dressings. The University of Cambridge has owned it since 1948. The church of St Mary Magdalene and the Manor House are both Grade II*, and the Grade II list includes Brook House, the old school, 31 High Street and 16 to 18 Cambridge Road, as well as the hall’s lodge, icehouse and kitchen garden wall.
In a village this tightly protected, much of the useful work is refurbishment and repair rather than new building: replacing rotten joinery, rebuilding a garden wall in matching brick, or sensitive carpentry on an old roof. Where a listed building is involved, consent from South Cambridgeshire District Council comes before the work, not after.
Clay ground on the hill
The parish sits where the land levels out at the foot of a hill. The Victoria County History records Lower Chalk in the south-west and gault in the north-east, both largely covered by boulder clay heavy enough to have once carried extensive woodland. Heavy clay is something to plan around when designing foundations, particularly near the mature trees that give Madingley its character.
A&F Building Services dates back to 1993 and carries full insurance. Our own people do the work, which matters on a small job in a sensitive setting where one firm should be accountable from start to finish.
