Holme, Cambridgeshire

In the period 1801 to 1901 the population of Holme was recorded every ten years by the UK census. During this time the population was in the range of 218 (the lowest was in 1801) and 658 (the highest was in 1901).[8]

From 1901, a census was taken every ten years with the exception of 1941 (due to the Second World War).

All population census figures from report Historic Census figures Cambridgeshire to 2011 by Cambridgeshire Insight.[8]

In 2011, the parish covered an area of 4,329 acres (1,752 hectares)[8] and so the population density for Holme in 2011 was 94 persons per square mile (36.3 per square kilometre).

Holme Posts; the column (right) was erected in 1852, the second in 1957

Holme Fen, specifically Holme Posts, is believed to be the lowest land point in Great Britain at 2.75 metres (9.0 ft) below sea level.[9][10]

Before drainage, the fens contained many shallow lakes, of which Whittlesey Mere was one of the largest. The River Nene originally flowed through this mere, then south to Ugg Mere, before turning east towards the Ouse. By 1851, silting and peat expansion had reduced Whittlesey Mere to about 400-hectare (990-acre) and only a metre deep. In that year the mere disappeared, when new drains carried waters to a pumping station and up into Bevill's Leam. The drainage turned both the mere and the Holme Fen into usable farmland, but subsidence followed.

In anticipation of the ground subsidence, the landowner William Wells had an oak pile driven through the peat and firmly embedded in the underlying clay; he then cut the top level with the ground in 1851 and used it to monitor the peat subsidence. A few years later, the oak post was replaced by a cast-iron column (reputedly from The Crystal Palace building at The Great Exhibition of 1851), that was similarly founded on timber piles driven into the stable clay, with its top at the same level as the original post. This is the Holme Post that survives today. As it was progressively exposed it became unstable, and steel guys were added in 1957, when a second iron post was also installed 6 metres (20 ft) to the northeast. The post now rises 4 metres (13 ft) above the ground, and provides an impressive record of the ground subsidence; both posts are standing today.

Holme Fen is the largest Silver birch woodland in lowland Britain. It contains approximately 5 hectares of rare acid grassland and heath and a hectare of remnant raised bog, an echo of the habitat that would have dominated the area centuries ago. This is the most south-easterly bog of its type in Britain.

Holme approximately marks the south-western limit of Stage 2 of the Great Fen Project. The reserve is open to the public throughout the year.

The Victorian Holmewood Hall on Church Street is now a wedding venue owned by Country House Weddings ltd. The current structure was built around 1873 by Scottish architect Willam Young for MP William Wells, the grandson of Admiral Thomas Wells.

During World War II, the Hall was used by US Office of Strategic Services for packing airborne containers to be parachuted into occupied Europe.[11] The OSS called this effort to supply anti-Nazi resistance groups Operation Carpetbagger.[12]

The village sign (above right) shows a man leading a horse towing the Floating Church of Holme that was dedicated to St Withburga by the Archdeacon of Huntingdon on 5 April 1897. The Fenland Ark was the idea of the rector of Holme, Rev George Broke, who thought that a church on a boat could reach families living in remote cottages in the Fen to allow them to worship. The horse-drawn boat or barge was 30 feet (9.1 m) long and about 10 feet (3.0 m) wide; it boasted an altar, a font, a lectern which doubled as a pulpit, and a harmonium. Between 1897 and 1904, 74 baptisms took place on board.[14]