Industries 157 



Recently, a branch of Messrs S. W. Smedley & Co. has been estabhshed 

 at Wisbech, the northern fruit and vegetable centre of the County. The 

 main attraction was the strawberries of the Wisbech district, and the plums 

 and greengages growing around Ely. 



Agricultural Implements. \i\ this agricultural setting, it is not umiatural 

 to find a number of firms manufacturing agricultural implements. As 

 early as 1884, the Falcon Works (Jolin Baker Ltd.) at Wisbech were 

 notable for the invention and manufacture of com- and seed-dressing 

 machines, at a time when mechanism was only slowly being introduced 

 into agriculture. Firms like Messrs Kidd of Willingham and Messrs Lack & 

 Sons Ltd. of Cottenham have also a long history as agricultural engineers ; 

 while the chaff cutters of John Maynard of Whittlesford have reached 

 many parts of the world. Prominent, also, are Messrs Edwards & Sons 

 of Wisbech and Messrs Macintosh & Sons Ltd. at Cambridge. The only 

 iron foundry now in the district is that of John Hart at Cottenham. 



Quarrying. Three geological formations are of importance in Cambridge- 

 sliire industry. The Chalk contributes flints, chalk for hmebuming and for 

 cement, and the soft building stone known as clunch. Surviving bursar's 

 accounts show that when the Cambridge colleges were being built, con- 

 siderable amounts of stone were obtained from Haslingfield, Barrington, 

 Cherry Hinton, Reach, and Burwell. The stone for the Great Gate at 

 Trinity came from Burwell and Cherry Hinton; that of the Gate of 

 Honour at Caius came from Reach. Clunch was also much used in interior 

 decoration; examples may be seen in the fan-tracery of the Lady Chapel 

 at Ely Cathedral, or in St John's College Chapel. Quarries are still to be 

 found along the line of tliis outcrop (Burwell Rock, or Tottenihoe Stone) 

 in the Lower Chalk. Many of the old quarries at Isleham and elsewhere 

 are now disused, but clunch is still dug for road-making. 



The Lower Greensand furnishes an easily dressed stone, known as 

 Carstone, wliich has been used for houses and churches, but there is no 

 great quantity, and it has seldom been carried for long distances. 



Brick and Cement Works. The clays of Cambridgeshire have given rise 

 to pottery and brickworks. The potteries have disappeared but the brick- 

 works are very active. The bricks are of two kinds : the Gault produces a 

 yellowish grey brick, very common in Cambridge itself; wlule the 

 Jurassic Clays yield red bricks. At Cambridge, Ely, and Whittlesea, there 

 are a number of weU-estabhshed brickworks. Clay mixed with chalk also 

 provides material for cement works at Shepreth, Meldreth, and Barrington, 

 and for the British Portland Cement works at Coldham's Lane, Cambridge, 

 with a weekly output of about 2000 tons. Then, in addition, there are 

 several concrete manufacturers such as the Cambridge Concrete Co. of 



