SOHAM’S long-awaited new primary school is in need of a new name, and residents are being asked for their help.

The Staploe Education Trust, the partnership led by Soham Village College that will manage the new school, heard on 20 December that it had approval to open the new facility, set to be located in The Shade.

With permission in place, and the first intake set for September, the trust is looking for the views of young people; parents and community stakeholders as they look for a name for the school.

Four names have so far been been proposed, each with a particular connection to Soham and its history. The Shade; Northfield Windmill; Equiano and William Case Morris.

For more information about these proposed names and an opportunity to have your say, visit www.sohamvc.org.uk and follow the link to the consultation document.

The deadline for responses is 12pm on January 29.

The Shade:

Those with long memories or a good knowledge of local history are aware that there was a boys’ school in Soham, built in 1875. It was called The Shade School.

The school was renamed Soham County Junior Mixed School in 1958 but was always known locally as The Shade. The county junior was closed in 1991 when its pupils transferred to The Weatheralls.

Northfield Windmill:

Northfield Windmill, also known as Townsend or The Shade Windmill, is situated at the north end of Soham.

It was converted and moved to its present location in 1830 and is one of the smallest mills in Cambridgeshire. Soham once had many more windmills but all but the remaining two had been demolished before the 1960s.

Equiano:

Olaudah Equiano was an African slave who gained his freedom and became an activist for the abolition of slavery in the 18th Century.

He was married at St Andrew’s Church, Soham, on April 7, 1792. Slavery was still in force at the time of their marriage and a mixed marriage was rare.

William Case Morris

The Reverend William Case Morris was born in Soham on the February 16, 1864. After the death of his mother in 1868, when he was just four-years-old, his father decided to leave Soham in search of a new life in South America. He was so horrified by the terrible poverty of the street children whilst living in Buenos Aires in Argentina, that he dedicated the rest of his life to helping them.

He went on to found a network of children’s homes across Argentina saving thousands of youngsters from abject poverty and a life on the streets and became known as Dr Barnardo of Argentina.