College Green
At some stage in the late 1930s Gonville and Caius College bought land in Sutton Benger, including much (if not all) of Manor Farm, as an investment. In the long term this was to lead to the building of the ‘College Green’ bungalows and the houses to the south of Back Lane / Chestnut Road.
Parish Council records of the time refer to ‘Cabbidge College’ as well as ‘Caius College’, and there was some confusion regarding Oxford and Cambridge. It seems likely that the College in question was actually Gonville and Caius, Cambridge, despite there only being one record anywhere of that full and precise title. Precisely why the College invested in Sutton Benger is not clear.
The Turnpike Gate
There used to be a Turnpike gate - or Toll Bar - across Sutton Lane, roughly where the postbox is outside College Green. The gate can be seen on the 1839 map as a line across the road.
Sutton Lane was not a Turnpike, but the High Street was; this gate was here to stop people from trying to cheat the system by bypassing the main gates, which were on Seagry Road (near the old School House) and on the High Street by Gate Farm.
The Minutes of a Meeting of Turnpike Trustees, dated 16 July 1831, recorded that:
... Notice be given for erecting a Toll Bar or Toll Bars across the entrance to a certain Road called Sutton Lane branching out of the said Turnpike Road nearly opposite to a Messuage in the occupation of Thomas Hayward, and near the Bell Inn in the Village of Sutton Benger.