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In a quiet Cambridgeshire village there once stood two magnificent houses called Whitefields and Uplands
Recent history
The local folklore is as follows (Or what you can gather from several variations of it)
Both houses were owned by a local self made millionaire named as Mr Ratte, who as half of a sucessful local company called "Ratte & Kett" made a fortune in the Cambridge electronics and computing industry.
The story has it that one night after a furious row with his Wife, Mr Ratte decided to burn both of the houses to the ground, the stories differ slightly here, one says that Mr Ratte blocked his extremely long drive with cars to stop the fire brigade from putting out the fire while another version claims that the fire brigade couldn't get up the drive due to low hanging trees, either way the fire engines had to slowly make their way across a field and by the time they arrived Whitefileds was totally destroyed and Uplands wasn't far behind.
The remains of the Whitefields mansion was demolished and bulldozed into the swimming pool which just leaves the remains of Uplands to be seen today
The Past
In a quiet Cambridgeshire village there once stood two magnificent houses called Whitefields and Uplands
Recent history
The local folklore is as follows (Or what you can gather from several variations of it)
Both houses were owned by a local self made millionaire named as Mr Ratte, who as half of a sucessful local company called "Ratte & Kett" made a fortune in the Cambridge electronics and computing industry.
The story has it that one night after a furious row with his Wife, Mr Ratte decided to burn both of the houses to the ground, the stories differ slightly here, one says that Mr Ratte blocked his extremely long drive with cars to stop the fire brigade from putting out the fire while another version claims that the fire brigade couldn't get up the drive due to low hanging trees, either way the fire engines had to slowly make their way across a field and by the time they arrived Whitefileds was totally destroyed and Uplands wasn't far behind.
The remains of the Whitefields mansion was demolished and bulldozed into the swimming pool which just leaves the remains of Uplands to be seen today
The Past
Uplands was built in 1893 by the Physiologist W.H. Gaskell.
Gaskell was educated at Trinity College Cambridge, receiving his BA in 1869. His key discoveries included the sequence of cardiac contraction, and autonomic control of the heart. He also made progress in mapping the nervous system
He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society in 1882 and in 1889 he won the Royal Medal for his research and in 1908 he wrote "The Origin of the Vertebrates"
Gaskell died at Uplands in 1914
He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society in 1882 and in 1889 he won the Royal Medal for his research and in 1908 he wrote "The Origin of the Vertebrates"
Gaskell died at Uplands in 1914
The Future
Planning permission has been granted to demolish Uplands and build a 99 room 5 star hotel complete with 18 hole golf course.
These artists and architects drawings are taken from the planning permission
Planning permission has been granted to demolish Uplands and build a 99 room 5 star hotel complete with 18 hole golf course.
These artists and architects drawings are taken from the planning permission
Well the above story of the fire isn't entirely true, Uplands burnt down in December 1990, was owned by Keith Farrer, Whitefields burnt down a few years later, totally different incidents, now owned by St.Johns College.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that fella, I do many locations around the UK and if it's not in my locale then I get my history via Google
ReplyDeleteThis is great to see! I had the fortune to fall through what remained of the second floor when I was a teenager growing up in that area. It was my first taste of urban exploring, albeit it a painful one and I treasure it dearly. I'm surprised to see it online as I never thought it had much history. The story we knew back then is that they were burnt down as attempted insurance fraud, a genuine urban myth it seems. Nice to see it documented anyhow. Happy exploring!
ReplyDeleteRattee & kett in Cambridge was a firm of ornamental stonemasons, nothing to do with IT & tech as far as I know - they were purchased by Mowlem in the 1990s & later shut down.
ReplyDeleteThe property was still standing in 1985 and was inhabited by a family for residential use. I used to visit them as a 10 year old at the time.
ReplyDeleteLeading up to the house from the road, was a 9 hole par 3 golf course. To the right of the house, on the front lawn was an outdoor pool. Next to it was a rather grand greenhouse. To tbe left of the house and down a slope, through some trees, was a grass tennis court.
Interesting … you must have visited my family as I lived there then. I wonder who you are!?!
DeleteI'm Rob, used to visit with a friend of mine back then, James.
DeleteI remember using the pool, camping over on the front lawn.
I remember a girl Maxine who lived there at the time.
My mum dad and a group of friends used to go regularly on a Saturday night for a meal and to dance on the small hotel dance floor. Happy times and memories made here, so sad to see.
ReplyDeleteThe Uplands was designed in 1892 by my great grandfather, Horace Field, for the Cambridge physiologist, Walter Holbrook Gaskell. I think he also designed Whitefield (not Whitefields) in for another Cambridge physiologist, Hugh Kerr Anderson. H K Anderson commissioned him to design a house in 1900 and was living at a house called Whitefield in Great Shelford between 1901 and 1907. But I have never seen an old photo of Whitefield so I can't match it to the drawing of the house he designed for H K Anderson. I am very keen to see an old photo of Whitefield if anyone has one.
ReplyDeleteWhitefields and Uplands where totally different houses and burnt down under completely different circumstances. Uplands was owned by Cambridge self made millionaire Mr Farrer/Fuller and was burnt down due to bankruptcy and for insurance fraud
ReplyDeleteThe family lived there the some years and then turned the place into an upmarket Restaurant NOT a hotel! Uplands was a HUGE place had seven bedrooms all with en suites which is why there is so many baths! there was also a three bedroom cottage. A couple of months before the fire, plans were in place to extended the house to make it a hotel but NOT the Mandarin one! The family had huge lavish piss up parties there, that I remember!! It became a case of living the good life too much and jumping to the next big business deal. There were a lot of bust-ups up there in the later years and things got very desperate and messy indeed! Two attempts were made in the space of a week to burn Uplands down! He simply couldn't burn it down quicker enough! Graham Woods of wWitefields bought the shell to prevent further development happening next door to him. Ravers began appearing and it become a hotspot for vandals. He hated living there as it was just him his and his two dogs and decided he'd redevelop the whole site both his own house and uplands and create a country club and golf course but planning was never approved. He moved to Germany and sold the whole site including Uplands and his house to St johns. Whitefields was left vacant which gave vandals two new playgrounds! Minor fires where caused and then a big fire took hold and Whitefields was destroyed. the house was demolished very quickly and pushed into swimming pool, Uplands however was left alone due to protected habitat using it as their home years before hand. It's such a shame that greed and stupidity brought two of the areas most magnificent property's down. I believe the family still live in Shelford and in fact on Hinton Way.
As the son of Graham Wood, I can confirm that you are incorrect. The facts surrounding what happened are far from your comments. It was indeed the stupidity of local planners and council that lead to the sad demise of the site.
DeleteWhat really happened? There is such mystery about these properties. Do any photos exist? I've even tried the central libraries files, no avail I wish I could see old photos of the places
DeleteHi yes this is true my uncle Graham Wood moved to Germany since deceased but I have fond memories of holidays at whitefields and do have photos of it and us there. My cousin moved out lived on Hinton way but recently sold and moved to Newmarket
Deletecan you share these photos?
DeleteAnd now uplands has been knocked down, I went there Saturday nothing remains, just a pile of ruble, so sad, wish there were photos of how it looked originally. If you're planning an explore its pointless nothing remains 😔
ReplyDeleteWent there again this weekend, both sites Whitefield and uplands are completely locked off you can't get in. So I snuck through the woods at the back and both have suffered the same fate, uplands is now a pile of rubble just like Whitefield. I couldn't find the pill box on the upland site I think that's gone too, roll on the ugly golf hotel 😪
ReplyDeleteAny chance anybody has photos of these houses before the fires? Never seen Whitefield and only uplands as a shell nothing is on Google
ReplyDeleteMy parents were friends of the Stops family who lived at Whitefield. It was a lovely house with an indoor swimming pool, a party room with a bar and a grand piano and it had a Huge staircase. I did have some photos but too many house moves unfortunately. I was a school boy then - I’m in my 60s now
ReplyDeleteFurther to my previous comment
ReplyDeleteI believe Mr Stops bought Whitefield from a local Builder in great shelford called Walker, this company still exists and they may have pictures of the house.
My father Mr Stokes bought this property in the 1960’s we lived there for a No of years l have quite a few pictures and happy memories of our family living there . It’s very sad to see it go to such a bad state .
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know who posted the previous comment since I am also a daughter of Mr. Stokes and I too have extremely fond memories of living there for many years until we moved to Eire. There were four daughters. It was a beautiful house - the gardener lived in one of the two cottages that was part of the estate. I have no idea what happened to them.
ReplyDelete