Fleet Hargate
A designated conservation area, steeped in history
Local History
- “Fleot" was Anglo-Saxon for “place to which the tide flows”.
- Tales abound of Dick Turpin stabling his horse at the old Bull Inn in Fleet Hargate and hiding in the chimney!
- An old 18th century rhyme records a hazardous past:
Be you going, be you coming, [rhymes with woman]
Be you man, be you woman,
Be you early, be you late,
Be aware of Flete Hergate
- Of the local population, most are concentrated around the ancient coastal route known as the Hergate, giving its name to Fleet Hargate.
- The Meridian passes through Fleet Fen, marked by a stone on Langarygate.
Fleet Light Railway
Circa 1910, a light railway was built by the wealthy Worth family to carry goods from their numerous farms to the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway station on Eastgate/Hallgate. Take a stroll down the Park and you will in fact be walking along the old narrow gauge light railway line. Turn into the mowed paddock at the end of the line and you will see the old station platform, from which the farm produce was
loaded onto the branch-line trains, destined for the capital and beyond! The rail tracks are no longer there, but it makes a wonderful on-site walk. So, take a seat on one of the benches and enjoy the scenery and imagine days gone by!