WHERE ELY IS
Ely is situated in the county of Cambridgeshire in England and was an island till the draining of the Fens in the seventeenth century. An abbey was founded in 673 and sacked by the Danes in 870. A new monastery was then built. Ely was the stronghold of Hereward the Wake against William the Conqueror. The Cathedral was begun in 1083 and completed in 1351. Its original square central tower collapsed in 1322 and was replaced by the octagonal one we see today. Ely was a major port on the Great Ouse till the coming of the railways.