Newmarket
Encyclopedia
Newmarket is a market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

 in the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, approximately 65 miles (105 kilometres) north of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. It is generally considered the birthplace and global centre of thoroughbred horse racing
Thoroughbred horse race
Thoroughbred horse racing is a worldwide sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport: Flat racing and National Hunt racing...

, and a future UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the largest racehorse training centre in Britain, and home to most major British horseracing institutions. Five British Champions Series
British Champions Series
The British Champions Series is the premier flat racing championship in Britain, composed of the country's 35 top flat races.The present championship is the 2011 British Champions Series.It is sponsored by the Qatari investment group QIPCO....

 races are held at Newmarket every year.

Newmarket has over fifty horse training stables, two large racetracks, The Rowley Mile and The July Course
Newmarket Racecourse
The town of Newmarket, in Suffolk, England, is the headquarters of British horseracing, home to the largest cluster of training yards in the country and many key horse racing organisations. Newmarket Racecourse has two courses - the Rowley Mile Course and the July Course. Both are wide, galloping...

 and one of the most extensive horse training grounds in the world. The town is home to over 3,000 racehorses, and it is estimated that one in every three local jobs is related to horse racing. The town is home to the National Horseracing Museum
National Horseracing Museum
The National Horseracing Museum of the United Kingdom is located at 99 High Street in Newmarket. Open to the public, it contains collections and records of people and horses involved in the sport of horse racing from its Royal origins to modern heroes...

, Tattersalls
Tattersalls
Tattersalls is the main auctioneer of race horses in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1766 by Richard Tattersall , who had been stud groom to the second Duke of Kingston. The first premises occupied were near Hyde Park Corner, in what was then the outskirts of London...

, the racehorse auctioneers and two of the world's foremost equine hospitals for horse health. The town is surrounded by over sixty horse breeding studs.

Racing

Racing at Newmarket has been dated as far back as 1174, making it the earliest known racing venue of post-classical times. King James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

 (reigned 1603–1625) greatly increased the popularity of horse racing
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

 there, and King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

 followed this by inaugurating the first cup race in 1634. The Jockey Club
Jockey Club
The Jockey Club is the largest commercial organisation in British horseracing. Although no longer responsible for the governance and regulation of the sport, it owns 14 of Britain's famous racecourses, including Aintree, Cheltenham and Newmarket, amongst other concerns such as the National Stud and...

's clubhouse is in Newmarket, though its administration is based in London. In 1967 Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

 opened The National Stud
The National Stud
The National Stud is a United Kingdom Thoroughbred horse breeding farm located two miles from Newmarket. The Stud originated in 1916 as a result of a gift by William Hall Walker of the entire bloodstock of his stud farm in Tully, Kildare town in County Kildare, Ireland...

, a breeding
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...

 centre for thoroughbred horses.

Around 3,000 race horses inhabit Newmarket. By comparison, the human population is of the order of 15,000 and it is estimated that one in three jobs are connected to horseracing in one way or another Newmarket has 3 main sections of Heath, all of which are used to train the racehorses on. "Racecourse side" is located next to the Rowley Mile Racecourse and is a predominately flat area. "Warren Hill" overlooks the town and consists of 3 all weather canters and a multitude of grass canters. "Bury Side" is the name given to the area located near the Bury Road and the railway line. These areas and the surrounding heath
Heath (habitat)
A heath or heathland is a dwarf-shrub habitat found on mainly low quality acidic soils, characterised by open, low growing woody vegetation, often dominated by plants of the Ericaceae. There are some clear differences between heath and moorland...

 is chalk
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....

 downland and has special bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s and animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...

s only suited to this terrain. It is also a very historical area with the remains of 6th century living This hill is part of the chalk formation the Newmarket Ridge
Newmarket Ridge
The Newmarket Ridge is a ridge of low chalk hills extending for over 20 miles, from Bishop's Stortford in Hertfordshire to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, passing through the south-eastern corner of Cambridgeshire....

.

Most of the Newmarket-based racing stables are situated in the centre of the town, where they can easily access the gallops. The town has special horse routes so the horses can reach the gallops safely from the many training establishments occupied by top trainers. Outside the town the land-use is dominated by thoroughbred breeding
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...

, studs occupying large areas in every direction. Around 70 licensed trainers and more than 60 stud farms operate in and around Newmarket. Dalham Hall Stud (the headquarters of Darley), Cheveley Park Stud (which local lore claims was once owned by King Canute), and Banstead Manor Stud (Headquarters of Juddmonte Farms) are well-known examples all which can be found in the village of Cheveley
Cheveley
The village of Cheveley is situated in the county of Cambridgeshire and lies about four miles east-south-east of the market town of Newmarket. Cheveley falls within the local government district of East Cambridgeshire. Geographically, Cheveley stands on the third highest point in Cambridgeshire at ...

, three miles (5 km) from Newmarket.
The town has two race courses situated on Newmarket Heath, these are the Rowley Mile and the July Course. The two courses are separated by the Devil's Dyke
Devil's Dyke, Cambridgeshire
The Devil's Dyke is an earthwork in the English county of Cambridgeshire. It consists of a long bank and ditch that runs in a south-east direction from the small village of Reach to nearby Woodditton...

. This large earthwork starts in neighbouring Woodditton
Woodditton
Woodditton is a village and civil parish in East Cambridgeshire, England. The other settlements in the parish are Ditton Green, Little Ditton and Saxon Street. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 1,789 people....

 (sometimes spelt as Wood Ditton) and ends in Reach
Reach, Cambridgeshire
Reach is a small village and civil parish on the edge of the fenland in East Cambridgeshire, England.Reach is located at the north end of Devil's Dyke, about west of Burwell. The dyke split the settlement in two until part of it was refilled to create the current Fair Green in the 18th century...

, a distance of over 8 miles (12.9 km).

The development of painting on sporting
Hunting and shooting in the United Kingdom
Hunting and shooting have been practised for many centuries in the United Kingdom and, in some areas, are a major part of British rural culture...

 themes in the early eighteenth century was centred on the Newmarket Racecourse and the three founders of the sporting school, John Wootton
John Wootton
John Wootton was an English painter of sporting subjects, battle scenes and landscapes, and illustrator.-Life:Born in Snitterfield, Warwickshire , he is best remembered as a pioneer in the painting of sporting subjects – together with Peter Tillemans and James Seymour – and was considered the...

, James Seymour
James Seymour
James Seymour was an English painter, widely recognized for his equestrian art.Seymour was born in London. His father was an amateur artist and art dealer, whose other business dealings afforded young Seymour the leisure time to study art on his own, either his father's or the art at the...

 and Peter Tillemans
Peter Tillemans
Peter Tillemans was a Flemish painter, best known for his works on sporting and topographical subjects. Alongside John Wootton and James Seymour, he was one of the founders of the English school of sporting painting....

, painted many scenes of the racecourse and its environs.

Save Historic Newmarket

The Save Historic Newmarket
Save Historic Newmarket
Save Historic Newmarket is grassroots organisation based in Newmarket, Suffolk, with the stated aim of preserving the town as the centre of British horseracing and a potential World Heritage Site....

 group, an organisation dedicated to maintaining the town's unique heritage as the world headquarters of racing, has become increasingly vocal in recent years. The group, composed of local residents, supports sustainable development in the town and aims to make Newmarket a more attractive destination for visitors.

Transport

Newmarket railway station is on the Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

 - Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds is a market town in the county of Suffolk, England, and formerly the county town of West Suffolk. It is the main town in the borough of St Edmundsbury and known for the ruined abbey near the town centre...

 - Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...

 rail line, formerly belonging to the Great Eastern Railway
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia...

 (later part of the LNER). Newmarket's first railway was a line built by the Newmarket and Chesterford Railway and opened in 1848 (known as the "Newmarket Railway"). It branched off the London - Cambridge main line at Great Chesterford
Great Chesterford
Great Chesterford is a medium sized village and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. It is located north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and about north of London.- History :...

 and ran about 15 miles (24.1 km) north eastwards. There was an attractive terminus in Newmarket, with intermediate stations at Bourne Bridge
Bourne Bridge railway station
Bourne Bridge railway station served Little Abington, Great Abington, Pampisford and Babraham in Cambridgeshire. It closed in 1851, along with its line which was one of the earliest line closures in England....

, Balsham Road
Balsham Road railway station
Balsham Road railway station served Balsham and Fulbourne in Cambridgeshire. It closed in 1851, along with its line which was one of the earliest line closures in England.Former Services-References:...

 and Six Mile Bottom
Six Mile Bottom railway station
Six Mile Bottom railway station is a disused railway station on the Ipswich to Ely Line between and . It served the village of Six Mile Bottom, until closure in January 1967. The station buildings and platform remain as a private residence...

.

Three years later the first nine miles (14 km) or so of this line, the stretch from Great Chesterford to Six Mile Bottom, was superseded by a more viable section linking Six Mile Bottom directly with Cambridge, and so the Great Chesterford - Six Mile Bottom section closed in 1851, one of the earliest closures in British railway history (the former Bourne Bridge station is believed to have been partly incorporated into a public house just across the road from a station opened later on another line - Pampisford
Pampisford
Pampisford is a village, south of Cambridge, on the A505 road near Sawston, Cambridgeshire, England.Pampisford Hall, the principal house of the village, was rebuilt to the designs of George Goldie for James Binney, whose descendants still live there...

, on the now-closed Cambridge - Haverhill
Haverhill, Suffolk
Haverhill is an industrial market town and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England, next to the borders of Essex and Cambridgeshire. It lies southeast of Cambridge and north of central London...

 - Sudbury
Sudbury, Suffolk
Sudbury is a small, ancient market town in the county of Suffolk, England, on the River Stour, from Colchester and from London.-Early history:...

 route). With the development of other rail lines the Newmarket terminus was replaced by the present through station in 1902; it was used as a goods station until 1967 and demolished in 1980.

A short distance to the north east is the 1,100 yard Warren Hill tunnel. North of the tunnel, a separate station, Warren Hill, was built for raceday use.

In late 2006, Newmarket introduced a Park and Ride
Park and ride
Park and ride facilities are car parks with connections to public transport that allow commuters and other people wishing to travel into city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system , or carpool for the rest of their trip...

 service running from Studlands industrial estate to the town centre, whilst at the same time parking charges were introduced to the town.

Geography

The area of Suffolk containing Newmarket is nearly an exclave, with only a narrow strip of territory linking it to the rest of the county. Historically the town was split with one parish - St Mary - in Suffolk, and the other - All Saints - in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

. The Local Government Act 1888
Local Government Act 1888
The Local Government Act 1888 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales...

 made the entirety of Newmarket urban sanitary district part of the administrative county of West Suffolk
West Suffolk
West Suffolk was an administrative county of England created in 1889 from part of the county of Suffolk. It survived until 1974 when it was rejoined with East Suffolk. Its county town was Bury St Edmunds....

.

The 1972 Local Government Bill
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....

 as originally proposed would have transferred the town (and Haverhill) to Cambridgeshire. The Local Government Commission for England had suggested in the 1960s that the border around Newmarket also be altered, in West Suffolk
West Suffolk
West Suffolk was an administrative county of England created in 1889 from part of the county of Suffolk. It survived until 1974 when it was rejoined with East Suffolk. Its county town was Bury St Edmunds....

's favour. Newmarket Urban District Council supported the move to Cambridgeshire, but ultimately the government decided to withdraw this proposal and keep the existing boundary, despite intense lobbying from the UDC.

Education

Unlike most of England, which operates a two tier school system, state education in Newmarket and its catchment area
Catchment area (human geography)
In human geography, a catchment area is the area and population from which a city or individual service attracts visitors or customers. For example, a school catchment area is the geographic area from which students are eligible to attend a local school...

 is a three-tier
Three-tier education
Three-tier education refers to those structures of schooling, which exist in some parts of England, where pupils are taught in three distinct school types. A similar experiment was also trialled in Scotland....

 system. Newmarket College takes pupils at age 13 from two middle school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

s, Scaltback Middle School and St Felix CEVC Middle School. In the summer of 2008, St Felix suffered a major fire.. There are four primary schools in the town which educate children until age 9. Suffolk County Council is undertaking school reorganisation across the county. This will see the closure of middle schools in the town by September 2012 with children transferring to the upper school at age 11.

Newmarket is home to both an Air Training Corps Unit and an Army Cadet section.

Sports

  • Newmarket has a football team called Newmarket Town
    Newmarket Town F.C.
    Newmarket Town F.C. is an English football club based in Newmarket, Suffolk. The club are currently members of the Eastern Counties League Premier Division and play at Cricket Field Road.The club is affiliated to the Suffolk County FA.-History:...

    . In recent time the club has had a successful FA Vase
    FA Vase
    The Football Association Challenge Vase is an annual football competition for teams playing below Step 4 of the English National League System...

     run, reaching the quarter finals in 2005/06.
  • Newmarket has an amateur jousting
    Jousting
    Jousting is a martial game or hastilude between two knights mounted on horses and using lances, often as part of a tournament.Jousting emerged in the High Middle Ages based on the military use of the lance by heavy cavalry. The first camels tournament was staged in 1066, but jousting itself did not...

     team which in 2001 became the first such team to win successive Eastern League titles.

Notable people

  • Thomas Elsdon Ashford
    Thomas Elsdon Ashford
    Thomas Elsdon Ashford was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces....

     VC
    Victoria Cross
    The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....

    , (1859 – 1913), recipient of the Victoria Cross
    Victoria Cross
    The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....

     during the Second Anglo-Afghan War
    Second Anglo-Afghan War
    The Second Anglo-Afghan War was fought between the United Kingdom and Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the nation was ruled by Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai dynasty, the son of former Emir Dost Mohammad Khan. This was the second time British India invaded Afghanistan. The war ended in a manner...

    , was born in Newmarket.


Famous residents of Newmarket include jockey Frankie Dettori
Frankie Dettori
Lanfranco "Frankie" Dettori, MBE is an Italian horse racing jockey and celebrity. Dettori has been Champion Jockey on three occasions and has ridden the winners of more than 500 Group races.. He has had many successes in his role of stable jockey to Godolphin Racing...

 and trainers Sir Michael Stoute
Michael Stoute
Sir Michael Ronald Stoute is a Barbadian British thoroughbred horse trainer in flat racing. Stoute, whose father was the Chief of police for Barbados, left the island in 1964 at the age of 19 to become an assistant to trainer Pat Rohan and began training horses on his own in 1972...

, John Gosden
John Gosden
John Gosden is a racehorse trainer. Having trained over 2,000 winners since his return to England in 1989, including winners of the Breeders' Cup Classic, the Derby, the King George, the 1,000 Guineas and the St. Leger, he is generally considered one of the most successful racehorse trainers of...

 and Sir Henry Cecil
Henry Cecil
Sir Henry Richard Amherst Cecil is a successful English horse racing trainer who has had many winners in the Epsom Derby, 1,000 Guineas and 2,000 Guineas, Epsom Oaks and the St. Leger Stakes....

. Newmarket is the birth place of 2008 Olympics cycling Silver Medalist Ross Edgar
Ross Edgar
Ross Edgar is a Scottish track cyclist who represented Scotland at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games, where he won a gold medal in the team sprint riding with Chris Hoy and Craig MacLean...

 and Brit Award winner Dina Carroll
Dina Carroll
Dina Carroll is an English singer of Scottish and African American descent who had a string of hits from the late 1980s to the early 2000s.-Early career:...

.

Twin towns

Lexington
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...

, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (Note: the towns are only twinned through horse-racing, and beer servery) Maisons-Laffitte
Maisons-Laffitte
Maisons-Laffitte is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the north-western suburbs of Paris from the center....

, France Le Mesnil-le-Roi
Le Mesnil-le-Roi
Le Mesnil-le-Roi is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is about from Saint-Germain-en-Laye....

, France Welshpool
Welshpool
Welshpool is a town in Powys, Wales, or ancient county Montgomeryshire, from the Wales-England border. The town is low-lying on the River Severn; the Welsh language name Y Trallwng literally meaning 'the marshy or sinking land'...

, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 Gowerton
Gowerton
The village of Gowerton is situated about 4 miles north west of Swansea city centre, Wales. Gowerton is often known as the gateway to Gower. Gowerton's original name was Ffosfelin...

, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...


See also

  • Lambourn
    Lambourn
    Lambourn is a large village and civil parish in the northwestern part of the ceremonial county of Berkshire in England. Its metropolitan district has a population of 4,017, and is most noted for its associations with British National Hunt racehorse training....

     and Malton
    Malton, North Yorkshire
    Malton is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The town is the location of the offices of Ryedale District Council and has a population of around 4,000 people....

     - two other racehorse training centres in England.
  • Newmarket sausage
    Newmarket sausage
    The Newmarket Sausage is a sausage made to a traditional recipe from the English town of Newmarket, Suffolk. There are two very different types of Newmarket Sausage because two different family butchers claim the name. Both are very popular and sold around the United Kingdom in supermarkets and...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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