The photo on the left was taken looking along The Shade towards Soham on the Ely Road.

 
The Shade runs from Townsend ( Hall Street ) out of Soham leading towards Ely. We have often wondered why an open and treeless common as it used to be should bear this name, but from a bit of research we found that its original name perhaps should have been ''A SHADE''   meaning ''the opposite'' an open sunlit place in the middle of a plain, whether on high ground or low. It must be clear of trees, and generally there is a pond in the middle. On a map of 1656 its location is the same, no name is given, only being described as The Way To Ely, leading out of Soham towards Ely widening into an area called The Townes End Sheate, with the Townes End Closes on one side and the Townes North Closes on the other. Also on a map of 1841 but no name given. but in 1841 as you travelled out of Soham along The Shade its name changed to Turnpike Road further along near the Barcham turnoff.

The following story was sent to us by Mr. Derek Barker.
Your reference to the commons reminded me of the stories my mother used to tell me of fetching the cows from Qua Fen Common in the morning (often in darkness) for milking and then taking them to the Shade which was the day common.  I well remember huge herds of cattle stampeding along the Ely road when the flies had been biting particularly hard.  The cowherd at the time was one-legged and never without his bottle of beer, usually wrapped in a sock.  I suspect he was often like Boy Blue in the nursery rhyme.