Pre-history Roswell Pits are a
palaeontologically significant
Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) northeast of the city. The Jurassic Kimmeridge Clays were quarried in the 19th and 20th centuries for the production of pottery and for maintenance of river embankments. Many specimens of
ammonites,
belemnites and
bivalves were found during quarrying, in addition to an almost complete specimen of a
pliosaur. There is some scattered evidence of Late
Mesolithic to
Bronze Age activity in Ely such as
Neolithic flint tools, a Bronze Age axe and spearhead. There is slightly denser
Iron Age and
Roman activity with some evidence of at least seasonal occupation. For example, a possible farmstead, of the late Iron Age to early Roman period, was discovered at West Fen Road and some Roman pottery was found close to the east end of the
cathedral on The Paddock. There was a Roman settlement, including a tile kiln built over an earlier Iron Age settlement, in
Little Thetford, to the south.
Medieval period The city's origins lay in the foundation of an abbey in 673, to the north of the village of
Cratendune on the
Isle of Ely, under the protection of
Saint Etheldreda, daughter of
King Anna. St Etheldreda (also known as
Æthelthryth) was a queen, founder and abbess of Ely. She built a monastery in 673 AD, on the site of what is now
Ely Cathedral.This first abbey was destroyed in 870 by Danish invaders and rededicated to Etheldreda in 970 by
Ethelwold, Bishop of
Winchester. The abbots of Ely then accumulated such wealth in the region that in the Domesday survey (1086) it was the "second richest monastery in England". The first
Norman bishop,
Simeon, started building the cathedral in 1083. The octagon was rebuilt by sacrist Alan of Walsingham between 1322 and 1328 after the collapse of the original nave crossing on 22 February 1322. Ely's octagon is considered "one of the wonders of the
medieval world". Architectural historian
Nikolaus Pevsner believes the octagon "is a delight from beginning to end for anyone who feels for space as strongly as for construction" and is the "greatest individual achievement of architectural genius at Ely Cathedral". This gave the cathedral its distinctive shape, earning it the moniker, "The Ship of the Fens".[https://flickeringlamps.com/2015/02/07/the-stunning-ship-of-the-fens-ely-cathedral/ Building continued until the
dissolution of the abbey in 1539 during the
Reformation. The cathedral was sympathetically restored between 1845 and 1870 by the architect
George Gilbert Scott. As the seat of a
diocese, Ely has long been considered a city; in 1974,
city status was granted by
royal charter. .
Oliver Cromwell lived here between 1638 and 1646. Since 1990, the building has been open as the
Oliver Cromwell's House tourist attraction and as Ely's tourist information centre. Cherry Hill is the site of
Ely Castle which is of Norman construction and is a United Kingdom
scheduled monument. Of similar construction to
Cambridge Castle, the diameter, high citadel-type
motte and bailey is thought to be a royal defence built by
William the Conqueror following submission of the Isle from rebels such as the
Earl Morcar and the folk-hero
Hereward the Wake from the
Ely Rebellion. This would date the first building of the castle to 1070. Present weekly market days are Thursday and Saturday and seasonal markets are held monthly on Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays from
Easter to November.
Protestant martyrs Following the accession of
Mary I of England to the throne in 1553, the papacy made its first effective efforts to enforce the
Pope Paul III-initiated
Catholic reforms in England. During this time, which became known as the
Marian Persecutions, two men from
Wisbech, constable William Wolsey and painter Robert Pygot, "were accused of not ... believing that the body and blood of Christ were present in the bread and wine of the sacrament of mass". For this
Christian heresy they were condemned by the bishop's chancellor,
John Fuller, on 9 October 1555. On 16 October 1555 they were
burnt at the stake "probably on the Palace Green in front of Ely Cathedral".
Oliver Cromwell , 1610. The cathedral is dedicated to
St Peter at this time and a windmill
Oliver Cromwell lived in Ely from 1636 to 1646 after inheriting St Mary's vicarage, a 16th century property — now known as
Oliver Cromwell's House — from his mother's brother, Sir Thomas Steward. The house is now open to the public. During this time Cromwell was a tax collector, though was also one of the governors of Thomas Parsons' Charity, and was granted a Royal Charter by
Charles I of England. The Charity still provides grants and housing to deserving local applicants. There was a form of early
workhouse in 1687, perhaps at St Mary's, which may have been part of an arrangement made between the Ely people and a Nicholas Wythers of
Norwich in 1675. He was paid £30 per annum to employ the poor to "spin jersey" and was to pay them in money not goods. A purpose-built workhouse was erected in 1725 for 35 inmates on what is now St Mary's Court. Four other workhouses existed, including Holy Trinity on Fore Hill for 80 inmates (1738–1956) and the Ely Union workhouse, built in 1837, which housed up to 300 inmates. The latter became Tower Hospital in 1948 and is now a residential building, Tower Court. Two other former workhouses were the Haven Quayside for unmarried mothers and another on the site of what is now the Hereward Hall in Silver Street.
Post-medieval decline The diaries of writers and journalists such as
William Camden,
Celia Fiennes,
Daniel Defoe,
John Byng and
William Cobbett illustrate the decline of Ely after the 14th century
plague and the 16th century
reformation which led to the
dissolution of the monastery in 1539. In the 1607 edition of
Britannia,
chorographic surveyor William Camden records that "as for Ely it selfe, it is no small Citie, or greatly to be counted off either for beauty or frequency and resort, as having an unwholsome aire by reason of the fens round about". In 1698, Celia Fiennes was writing "the Bishop
[Simon Patrick] does not Care to stay long in this place not being for his health ... they have lost their Charter ... and its a shame [the Bishop] does not see it better ordered and ye buildings and streetes put in a better Condition. They are a slothful people and for little but ye takeing Care of their Grounds and Cattle wch is of vast advantage". Daniel Defoe, when writing in the Eastern Counties section of ''
A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain'' (1722), went "to Ely, whose cathedral, standing in a level flat country, is seen far and wide ... that some of it is so antient, totters so much with every gust of wind, looks so like a decay, and seems so near it, that when ever it does fall, all that 'tis likely will be thought strange in it, will be, that it did not fall a hundred years sooner". The prison reformer
John Howard visited Ely and described the conditions in The Gaol:- "This gaol the property of the bishop, who is lord of the franchise of the Isle of Ely, was in part rebuilt by the late bishop about ten years ago; upon complaint of the cruel method* which for want of a safe gaol, the Keeper took to secure his prisoners (*This was by chaining them down upon their backs on a floor, across which were several iron bars and iron collar with spikes about their neck). The gaoler John Allday did not receive a salary". He records that the number of debtors outnumbered the number of felons in the prison. On his way to a Midlands tour, John Byng visited Ely on 5 July 1790 staying at the Lamb Inn. In his diary he writes that "the town [Ely] is mean, to the extreme ... those withdrawn, their dependancies must decay". The
Ely and Littleport riots occurred between 22 and 24 May 1816. At the Special Commission assizes, held at Ely between 17 and 22 June 1816, 24 rioters were condemned. Nineteen had their sentences variously commuted from
penal transportation for life to twelve months' imprisonment; the remaining five were executed on 28 June 1816. An outbreak of
cholera isolated Ely in 1832.
Victorian and twentieth-century regeneration by
W. W. Collins published 1908 showing northeast aspect of
Ely Cathedral in the background with the
Almonry—now a restaurant and art gallery—in front of that and the 1847
corn exchange building, Work commenced in 1845 and was completed nearly thirty years later; most of the work was "sympathetically" carried out by the architect
George Gilbert Scott. The only pavement
labyrinth to be found in an English cathedral was installed below the west tower in 1870. For over 800 years the cathedral and its associated buildings — built on an elevation above the nearby fens — have visually influenced the city and its surrounding area. Geographer John Jones, writing in 1924, reports that "from the roof of King's Chapel in Cambridge, on a clear day, Ely [cathedral] can be seen on the horizon, distant, an expression of the flatness of the fens". In 1954, architectural historian
Nikolaus Pevsner wrote "as one approaches Ely on foot or on a bicycle, or perhaps in an open car, the cathedral dominates the picture for miles around ... and offers from everywhere an outline different from that of any other English cathedral". Local historian Pamela Blakeman reports a claim that "Grouped around [the cathedral] ... is the largest collection of medieval buildings still in daily use in this country".
Liberty of Ely The abbey at Ely was one of many which were refounded in the Benedictine reforms of King
Edgar the Peaceful (943–975). The "special and peculiarly ancient" honour and freedoms given to Ely by charter at that time may have been intended to award only fiscal privilege, but have been interpreted to confer on subsequent bishops the authority and power of a ruler. These rights were reconfirmed in charters granted by
Edward the Confessor and in
William the Conqueror's confirmation of the old English
liberty at Kenford. this provided an explanation of the bishop's royal privileges and judicial authority, which would normally belong to the sovereign; but legal authorities such as
Sir Edward Coke did not completely endorse the form of words. These bishop's rights were not fully extinguished until 1837. The
hundreds covered by the liberty were
Carlford,
Colneis,
Plomesgate,
Loes,
Wilford and
Thredling. ==City status==