sluice row

[larmet1969]

please can someone help with a querie regarding a place in wisbech called sluice row can anybody tell me whether the place still exists if not were was it and is there anything there now has it changed name if so what to thanks|banghead|

[Marie C..]

Well there was such a place in 1900 as a Pte. Thomas White husband of Mrs White of 99Sluice Row Wisbech , a reservist in the ist Suffolk Regiment lived there before going off to fight in the Boer war. He died 1900. Whether it is there now I do not know but someone will.
Wisbech is more Cambridgeshire than Norfolk and there was a Denver sluice so guess Sluice Row must be near there.
Marie

[Ann.McClean]

Could it have been near the sluice gates where the canal joined the River Nene?

[Kevin Garrad]

Sluice row appears on the 1911 census.
Obviously, I can't tell you more, due to copyright!

[keith.robinson]

Perhaps you could tell more by giving other road names in the same area. The road could have changed name or disappeared.

[Kevin Garrad]

There's not much help there!
Sluice Passage was before, and Cunnington Square both before and after.

Can't find any of these on maps.

Both are mentioned on a website regarding the War Memorial (1914-18).
(www first, then) roll-of-honour.com/Cambridgeshire/Wisbech1914-19.html

[norman long]

Hi, ...with regard to SLUICE PASSAGE, Wisbech...On my birth cert., my parents address is given as 9 Sluice Passage,Wisbech...This was in 1945. It was located very close to the old Wisbech Canal, and there was a sluice into the River Nene nearby. The canal was filled in years ago,ie no longer exists. The area was designated a slum in 1940 ( Cambridgeshire History website ) and people were re- housed...my late grandmother among them. Denver sluice is miles away, and nothing to do with sluice passage. Hope this is of help...Norman Long...Littlehampton West Sussex.

[richard40]

please can someone help with a querie regarding a place in wisbech called sluice row can anybody tell me whether the place still exists if not were was it and is there anything there now has it changed name if so what to thanks|banghead|

google street map Wisbech. A1101 crossing Nene is the point the canal entered the river, there are still several sluices in the area. the old canal followed the route now known as A1101 Churchill Road, the area marked Horse Fair/now the bus station is all re-developed. from Nene Quay through to Market Place are still some very narrow alley's still containing georgian cottages etc, some of these appear un-named now, ie names missing. you really need access to a pre 1950 street map. I live in March but am often in Wisbech, I will try to find out for you when next over there, I have just arrived home from there before reading this entry.

[norman long]

google street map Wisbech. A1101 crossing Nene is the point the canal entered the river, there are still several sluices in the area. the old canal followed the route now known as A1101 Churchill Road, the area marked Horse Fair/now the bus station is all re-developed. from Nene Quay through to Market Place are still some very narrow alley's still containing georgian cottages etc, some of these appear un-named now, ie names missing. you really need access to a pre 1950 street map. I live in March but am often in Wisbech, I will try to find out for you when next over there, I have just arrived home from there before reading this entry.

Thankyou for your reply...very interesting... I have just purchased an O/S map of Wisbech 1900, and it only shows the main roads and streets. It does show three sluices into the R.Nene. I am particularly interested in Wisbech 1940-1960, as my Grandmother lived in Savory Rd, during the 1950's; before that Sluice Passage after being bombed out while at work in her previous home We visited now and then from Ely via March (Bluebell Buses to the Horsefair) I would like a good street map of Wisbech from that era, but have not been able to find one...any ideas where I might obtain one?.......... Norman Long...Littlehampton, West Sussex

[richard40]

Thankyou for your reply...very interesting... I have just purchased an O/S map of Wisbech 1900, and it only shows the main roads and streets. It does show three sluices into the R.Nene. I am particularly interested in Wisbech 1940-1960, as my Grandmother lived in Savory Rd, during the 1950's; before that Sluice Passage after being bombed out while at work in her previous home We visited now and then from Ely via March (Bluebell Buses to the Horsefair) I would like a good street map of Wisbech from that era, but have not been able to find one...any ideas where I might obtain one?.......... Norman Long...Littlehampton, West Sussex
Hi Norman, I have made a first attempt today, without success, to establish exactly where sluice passage was, I spoke to a man from Elm, this was actually on the old canal, he seemed to recollect in his childhood the canal ran into the Nene, sluice shown on map, at freedom bridge, the only road at that time close by being Nene Quay, running paralel to the canal was he believed canal road, off this road were quite a few alley's with very old slum cottages, all demolished when Freedom Bridge was built and canal filled in giving rise to the extremely busy through route that is now Churchill road. the town bridge prior to this was the one adjacent to the Clarkson memorial. to recap, your site of interest is either swallowed by the roundabout, a supermarket, or the bus station and car park. I will endeavour to find out more when next in Wisbech either at the museum or council offices. Richard.

[larmet1969]

hi there if you want an idea of the type of place sluice passage was there are some lovely pictures in the new cradle to the grave book by lilian ream theres a pic of a sluice passage but not savory road although if you put it into google street map it still exists great to hear stories of wisbech as this is a main interest of mine i will check all the publications to see wether savory road appears in any of them if you go onto cambridgeshires council web site and search for lilian ream collection theres a vast amount of old pics of wisbech there

[Jan1954]

I have a copy of the book Cambridgeshire Living Memories (http://www.parishchest.com/index.php?cmd=viewproduct&cat=&id=P90203&pageOffset=0) and there are some great photgraphs of Wisbech in it, including the Clarkson Memorial (taken in 1955 and mentioned in post #10), the Market Place (1955 & 1965), the High Street (1955), the Canal (1955), which shows rows of houses as well as the Hope Inn, and Leach's Mill (1955).

Worth getting a copy if you have ancestors from Cambridgeshire.

[richard40]

Hi Norman, visited Wisbech Library and Museum today. 1 map only showing Sluice Passage, no photo's of area concerned but a very good description given in the Library, they were mainly 2 up two down cottages built circa 1740/50 with no facilities ie shared toilets, pump water up until the 1930's when stand pipes were introduced there, workers cottages of early Georgian standard, actually deemed unsuitable in early 1900's but still lived in until around 1950 when demolished, a very poor standard indeed.
Your ordinance survey map you quoted shows the canal joining the river Nene, Sluice Passage was actually situated approximately 50 yards from the bridge called Sluice Bridge. come back from the bridge on the canal on the town side, the first possible turn was Sluice passage and led into Cunnington Square that in turn sided to the right to Albion Terrace this was Wisbech Workhouse, your family lived about 100 yrds from there. Sluice Passage is now the site of Horsefair car park as is most of what I have described, sadly your parents were living in the most run down part of the whole town, very little detail has been saved of it in the public domain here, anything has to be gleaned from old folk who were living here pre 1950 and had witnessed it themselves. Richard

[norman long]

To richard40...thankyou for the email with the details of the whereabouts of sluice passage. I tried to send you a reply but there was a problem with recipient domain, and I suspect you haven't seen my messages. The details you have given me will be entered into my family history file. Now I know where my first few weeks of life were spent after being born in the Lynn Rd Maternity hospital in 1945. I just wish that I wasn't so far away, as Wisbech library would have much of interest for me. Thankyou once again for the generous contribution to the Sluice passage/Row mystery. Norman Long, Littlehampton, West Sussex.

[richard40]

To richard40...thankyou for the email with the details of the whereabouts of sluice passage. I tried to send you a reply but there was a problem with recipient domain, and I suspect you haven't seen my messages. The details you have given me will be entered into my family history file. Now I know where my first few weeks of life were spent after being born in the Lynn Rd Maternity hospital in 1945. I just wish that I wasn't so far away, as Wisbech library would have much of interest for me. Thankyou once again for the generous contribution to the Sluice passage/Row mystery. Norman Long, Littlehampton, West Sussex.
If you had been born just after you were it would probably have been in the workhouse I mentioned as it was turned into the Clarkson maternity wing of the hospital until it's demolition. If you do reach Wisbech library and the museum are in adjacent buildings. glad to be of help.