Cherry Hinton Hall
A Grade II listed house of 1839 and its parkland, home to the Cambridge Folk Festival.
Cherry Hinton Hall is a country house with parkland, in the Cherry Hinton district south of Cambridge; the city council owns and runs it. The house is Grade II listed. Local families use the park in summer, and the park hosts the annual Cambridge Folk Festival.
A Victorian country house
John Okes (1793-1870), who worked as a surgeon at Addenbrooke's Hospital, had the hall constructed in 1839 on land he had been acquiring since the early 1830s. Okes laid out the gardens and enlarged the ornamental water, fed by springs on the property; he stocked it with trout and pike. After his death in 1870 the estate was sold to the Cambridge University and Town Waterworks Company.
Later residents
One of the company's directors, Charles Balls (born 1810 in Cambridge, died 1892), was a leather merchant who served as Mayor of Cambridge in 1858 and 1859. He lived at the hall until 1888. By 1902 the doctor Richard Thomas Lyons was resident. The council bought the house and land in the 1930s.
Practical notes
The park is open to the public, with community activities held there. Check the festival's own announcements for event days, when access can differ.