Chatteris
Had a population around 5000

​During the Second World War in this area, most people lived in small gas-lit places. There were few cars and even fewer bright lights. Towns were grey brick, dull, quite isolated working settlements with most people employed within easy reach of their homes, often in agriculture or crafts and industries related to the rich soil of the Fens. A town, population of around 5,000 during the war, very much the centre of a rich agricultural area. Many people were employed on the land and Chatteris was famous for its carrots and providing services for the agricultural industry. The long main road ran through the town and many fine domestic buildings gave an indication of its wealth from farming. There was a railway station on the St Ives to March line. In 1939 the Cromwell School opened. The town became nationally known when Chatteris lad, Eric ‘Boy’ Boon, also known as ‘The Fen Tiger’ won the British Boxing Lightweight title in 1939, a title he held until 1943. Download our Chatteris information leaflet here!

Then and now

‘Mr Carter used to bring our milk in a big, I don’t know what they were called, like very tall vat things. And he’d have 4 different containers – half a pint, pint, 2 pint, 3, and you’d watch him do that. Then the baker used to come round from Bonnets, right down London Road.’

"Very good exhibition and lovely to see something of the old Chatteris" Public Visitor

Busy Chatteris high street 1945

‘..there was no end of public houses, but a lot of them…it’s like my Grandmother and Grandfather’s – you’d go in, in the passage, the tap room was on the left hand side and the living room was on the right.’

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