6. Soham Conservation Area - East Cambridgeshire District Council

used to draw up a new boundary for the Conservation Area, and
provide design guidance relating to new developments, replacement
and new shop fronts and extensions to existing buildings within the
Conservation Area.
4.2 As with many towns and cities Soham is made up of distinct areas of
land use, and this document will look at the character of each area
separately. The section on each area will look at the hard and soft
landscaping; important views; boundary treatments; the scale of
buildings and construction materials and methods.
4.3 This will help to provide the evidence for the design guidance for each
individual area. By dividing up the document in this way, it will make it
easily accessible and understandable for the stakeholders of Soham.
5 Overview of the area
5.1 Soham is essentially a linear village that has resulted from its growth
along the route from Fordham to Ely. It is wider at certain points, in
particular at St Andrew’s Church around which the streets reputedly
follow the enclosure of a Saxon Cathedral. Modern development has
expanded the village, encroaching further upon the Commons to the
east and west towards the old railway.
5.2 The Conservation Area boundary includes the historic north-south
route around which the town has grown and the ‘back lanes’ that run
east and west from the central spine. The main space within the
Conservation Area is the churchyard and adjacent Recreation Ground
that are a pleasant green respite from the busy commercial streets; the
churchyard a quiet secluded area whilst the Recreation Ground is an
open grassed area of activity.
5.3 Because Soham is virtually level, the Church, although it is the focal
point of the village, is not as dominant as it could be and is only visible
at certain points from the village. Longer views of the Church are rare
and it tends to appear quite suddenly at the end of roads such as
Market Street and Churchgate Street.
5.4 The Conservation Area is predominantly residential, with the main
commercial streets being Churchgate Street and High Street, although
the odd commercial property is found along Hall Street and Pratt
Street. Nonconformist Chapels and their associated Sunday Schools
and Manses tend to be located just off the central spine, the exception
being the former Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, which is on Churchgate
Street.
5.5 A large number of inns and alehouses used to line Soham’s streets,
and their past use is often still apparent in the external features of
many of the surviving buildings. Part of the substantial brewery that
opened in the 1880s (and was worked until the 1930s) still survives off
Paddock Street, but is now converted. Only a handful of the large
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