The only discernible flicker of drama on a sunny Thursday morning in the tranquil Cambridgeshire village of Grantchester is when a gust sweeps a charming steel bucket off the lid of a wheelie bin (a tasteful royal-blue wheelie, at that).
The crash startles those outside The Blue Ball Inn overlooking the idyllic Grantchester Meadows, where the Bloomsbury set once lolled by the River Cam. But sleepy serenity is quickly restored. Or so it seems.
This is, after all, the medieval village and conservation area that hosts filming for the eponymous ITV detective drama, Grantchester (formerly starring James Norton), in which sleuthing vicars might appear cosy as toast, but tension never prickles too far behind its picket fences.
And so it appears in the real-life village, too – its quaint thatched cottages masking a long-running drama of their own. A drama that, last week, peaked (some might argue farcically so) in the theatre of London’s Royal Courts of Justice, where villagers found themselves a long way from their daffodils, battling a threat they claim puts their beautiful home at risk: a cycleway.
On March 25, a three-day judicial review opened at the High Court, hinged around Grantchester Parish Council’s objection to the construction of a greenway – a route for cyclists, walkers and horse riders – through the heart of its village, linking nearby Haslingfield to Cambridge.
The case was brought against Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) – the committee behind the Haslingfield Greenway, made up of representatives from Cambridgeshire County Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council – not because the parishioners (who raised £55,000 for their days in court) object to greenways, but because they insist the section through Grantchesterwill will destroy its unique aesthetic and character.
Crucially, they also allege that, in a 2022 meeting with councillor Bridget Smith (then a GCP executive board member), they were “promised” it would be re-routed if villagers overwhelmingly objected – which they did in a subsequent public consultation by 73 per cent. It’s a “promise” that the GCP insists was never made.
The court case essentially boiled down to a “they said, we said” row around whether the alleged “promise” not to “impose” the greenway on the village had been “clear and unambiguous”. If found so, the parish council’s legal team say the decision to build a greenway “through Grantchester” should be subject to a quashing order.
Either way, it’s safe to say that recollections from that meeting vary.
‘If I was the judge, I’d have said, “Why is this in court?”’
In fact, Judge Mrs Justice Lieven struggled to contain her exasperation at times. “This is just verging on insanity,” she uttered on day one, after an intense cross-examination more befitting of a criminal trial than a judicial review. “There is an incredibly narrow issue of fact as far as I can see here,” she said. “It will merit very few questions.”
How wrong she was.
Summing up concluded on March 27, after an intense 30 pages of cross-examination by Mr Charles Streeten, who was representing the GCP – and Mrs Justice Lieven reserved judgement. She hasn’t given a timescale for making her decision, but the parish council’s legal team think it might be months.
In the village on Thursday, as summing up was closing, villagers expressed dismay at the escalation.
“If I was the judge at the end of the first morning I’d have said, ‘Why is this in court?’,” says Ray Steward, 75, while perched in The Rupert Brooke pub (named after the former Grantchester-dwelling poet).
Indeed, on the face of it, a greenway seems positive. A spokesperson for the GCP explains: “The 12 greenways in Cambridge would introduce more than 150km [93 miles] of new, improved and safer routes for people to get around the local area.”
Certainly some visitors (mostly non-Grantchester residents) support this view. Take cyclist Steven, 70, who stops outside the cafe, for example. He can’t talk for long, he’ll get chilly; helmet on, shades down, he says: “I think it would be useful. The other option is going up the A10, and through the busier parts there you have to be careful – some bits there’s cycle paths and some, it’s non-existent. It would be safer [to have a cycle path], I think. A lot of people come to this village anyway – I don’t think it would bring that many more.”
But the problem is not visitor numbers, Steward insists. After all, the history, beauty and now TV fame of the village is already attracting more people than ever to Grantchester and, on a midweek morning, there’s a smattering of day trippers tightening their backpacks here. “We are on series 10 [of the show] – it’s not going to make any difference,” he laughs. His wife Judy, 75, adds: “It’s always going to be popular; we are not worried about suddenly another 600 cyclists arriving.”
Key concerns for most are safety and appearance
They argue that there won’t be many more visitors, rendering the cost and impact of implementing the greenway needless. Estimates predict a 25 per cent rise in visitors, but, in real terms, the villagers say this doesn’t equate to big numbers. For one Grantchester section, Burnt Close, for example, cycle usage per 24 hours would potentially go from 26 journeys to 33 – just seven more. Although on another key stretch, the Broadway, a narrow road bordering the Meadows, the uplift is estimated to rise from 148 to 185.
Instead, the key concerns for most are safety and appearance; the rural idyll eroded by signage and markings, road humps, lighting: “Yellow paint all over the place.”
Peter Scrase, 82, has lived in the village for 55 years – first in the vicarage that appears on TV (“They put up fake wisteria when they film”), now in another rectory (Grantchester has three).
He describes the narrowness of the roads, especially the Broadway, where parked cars hem Charterhouse Terrace – 1870s cottages with charming front gardens dotted with hyacinths. “If you are getting out of a car and you have a cyclist coming, you could have a very nasty accident,” he says.
Even on this quiet morning, cars regularly back up eight-strong to allow others to pass, and the double decker number 18 to St Neots stands off with traffic as it navigates double bends. Scrase doesn’t believe a greenway will reduce cars. “That traffic is nothing to do with Haslingfield,” he says. “At 7am, it’s [people] trying to avoid the M11 junction.”
Scrase stresses this is an “important conservation area, a unique village… a breathing space for people,” before adding: “The greenway will be unsightly.”
The Blue Ball Inn’s landlord, Toby Joseph, 65, agrees. “It’s total madness. The road is not adequate to cope with a cycle route,” he says. Even as a business-owner he sees little advantage: “We are blessed by cyclists from Cambridge, but this would cater for something like 10 cyclists a day from Haslingfield.
“There are days when sometimes the village is a little full. I don’t object at all, but this cycleway isn’t to bring tourists and visitors, it’s to enable people to commute from Haslingfield and they can do that perfectly adequately today.”
The latter argument is the one made by the parish council, which claims other routes already exist and favours improving the pathway through the Meadows. In fact, plenty of cyclists pedal it today under circling red kites.
Philip Driver, 65, from nearby Great Shelford, has walked to Grantchester for lunch. He is an “avid cyclist” and agrees “that would do the job”.
‘It needs to be as short as it can be to encourage people to use it’
But sitting in The Orchard Tea Garden with her newborn, Dr Emily Gomersall, 34, who lives in Haslingfield, disagrees. She cycles to Cambridge with her children, and her husband commutes by bike.
Currently they go over “bumpy” farmland with a permit, then join the roads in Grantchester anyway. She says the greenway would be safer and more direct. “I think there are other longer options, but it’s already quite a long cycle, and I think it needs to be as short as it can be to encourage people to use it,” she says. The route currently takes her husband 25 minutes, and she believes seven or eight minutes could be shaved.
But where cyclists’ wheels will turn now rests some 60 miles away in Mrs Justice Lieven’s hands.
“We now await the judge’s decision and will comment further once legal proceedings have concluded,” said the GCP. The parish council declined to comment at this stage.
Mrs Justice Lieven herself might need a relaxing cycle through the Grantchester Meadows after this case concludes.