Three walks:
The final three walks of this section from Cambridge to Isleham are the last three on the main Trail from the Lincolnshire border to the Suffolk border.
1 (29) Wicken to Soham – due 2026
2 (30) Soham to Fordham – due 2026
3 (31) Fordham to Isleham – published
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Walk 1 (29): Wicken to Soham
Due 2026
and
Walk 2 (30): Soham to Fordham
Due 2026
Starting in the village Wicken, this walk then takes you across the extensive, flat ‘plain’ of what was once the bed of the ancient Soham Mere, to finish in the town of Soham. The ‘little travelled’ route across the mere gives you a fascinating insight into the, now vanished, landscape of the mere and its surrounds. This was a huge wetland area that provided a good living for the people of the surrounding settlements. Now drained and farmed, the footprint of the mere still remains in the lake marl deposits that have survived on top of the peat over much of the area. he name of Soham itself probably has its origins in Anglo Saxon words for wet, drained areas. As you walk along the eastern side of the area of the mere, nearing Soham, you cross Soham Lode, the modified course of the River Snail. The walk from Soham to Fordham passes more of the Soham Commons, crosses the River Snail and has an optional detour into Fordham Nature Reserve.
Walk 3 (31): Fordham to Isleham
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In partnership with The Isleham Society & Friends of Isleham Nature Reserve
‘Start along a chalk stream, stroll through the fen to a historic village and end at a major fenland river’
The route: ‘From the village on the River Snail to the village near the River Lark – the last walk on the Fen Edge Trail’
6.5 miles (10.4 km)
This walk is the last on Cambridgeshire’s Fen Edge Trail, which takes you from the border with Lincolnshire in the north west to the border with Suffolk in the south east. Fordham is a bustling village on the fen edge which boasts a chalk stream (The Snail). The route takes you alongside the Snail into the fen, passing the site of Roman building remains before entering Isleham, a village packed with history. Here, the walk passes the ancient Priory -the Church of St Margaret of Antioch, a scheduled monument (and Local Geological Site) of old Lime kilns and the impressive 12th century church of St Andrew before heading back out into the fen. Finally, you reach the end of the Fen Edge Trail at the Washes of the River Lark. The geology is mostly on the Grey Chalk with the prized Totternhoe Stone outcropping in Isleham, which is pockmarked with shallow quarries that date from pre-Medieval times.
Landscape and Geology
The bedrock here is Chalk, with a thickness of 33 metres (including 1m+ of Cambridge Greensand at its base) being found in a well dug in 1934 by a pumping station on the Fordham to isleham road. Under it lies the Gault clay, which is at the surface further north west. Much younger deposits, from the Pleistocene ‘Ice Age’ and the recent Holocene, overlie the Chalk in just a few places on the walk. The start of the walk is on the narrow band of the Totternhoe Stone, which is a hard layer of Chalk that forms the boundary between the oldest, lowest Chalk bedrock, the West Melbury Marly Chalk, and the Zig Zag Chalk. The walk then follows the small valley of the River Snail, infilled during the last few thousand years with Alluvium, a fine material carried along by the current. The next section passes over West Melbury Marly Chalk, a soft, clay-rich Chalk which can often be seen ploughed up in the fields.
The walk crosses a small patch of river sands and gravels from the 2nd Terrace and then the large area of 1st Terrace to the north. These river terraces comprise a complex series of deposits, mostly sands and gravels, that have been left by strongly-flowing river channels, precursors of the current Cam-Ouse system. As the river cut down at various times, the deposits formed a gradually lower (and younger) set of (roughly defined) terraces as the topography changed. All four terraces occur in this area; the higher parts of eastern Fordham lie upon the sands and gravels of the 3rd and 4th Terraces. Due to reworking of the material, the ages of the various spreads of gravel are difficult to assess but radiocarbon dating of fossils and other organic material has produced dates, covering both cold and warmer periods, from c.300,000 years ago to the end of the last glaciation c.20-12,000 years ago. In the marshy conditions of the last several thousand years (the Holocene), Peat formed over much of the (relatively impermeable) marly Chalk and the gravels, but now remains only in small patches; this includes some thin ribbons along the previous courses of water channels, which carved incised “valleys” into the Chalk, shown by the southward detours of the 5m contour.
After climbing back over the 5m contour, onto the Zig Zag Chalk above the Totternhoe Stone, the walk then goes back down the succession of the Chalk and onto the Peat and Alluvium in the valley of the River Lark.
THE ISLEHAM SOCIETY
Thanks to the Isleham Society for help in developing this walk. The Isleham Society encourages an interest in the village and its surroundings with a particular focus on history and heritage. The society also initiates and contributes to events which benefit the village community.
© Cambridgeshire Geological Society