Borough Fen

Borough Fen is a civil parish in the City of Peterborough unitary authority in Cambridgeshire, England. The parish is to the north of Peterborough city centre, just below the county border with Lincolnshire. Much of the land in the 19th century was owned by Sir Culling Eardley, 3rd Baronet, a strong supporter of the local boys' school. The land has predominantly been used for agriculture and cattle farming which is still a significant employment sector today.Local areaThere are 54 dwellings in the Parish of Borough Fen. All but one of the dwellings are whole houses, bungalows, or semi-detached houses. This a similar pattern across the region in nearby Peterborough and the East of England as a whole where the percentage of whole houses is very high. Borough Fen is a very green and open parish with large farmhouses. There are no terraced urban-style roads and no apartment buildings. There is a lack of retail shops in the parish, although they can be found in the neighbouring towns of Crowland and Newborough.HistoryPopulationBefore 1811 the nearby Parish of Newborough was a tract called Borough Fen Common. Once Newborough became a parish some of the population was returned to Borough Fen explaining the rise in population between 1801 and 1811 shown in the population graph below. Population increased substantially between 1921 and 1931 a key era in the further industrialisation of England. This population rise coincides with the creation of The London Brick Company in Peterborough who by 1935 were producing 60% of the local industry output employing workers in the surrounding areas.