“You disturb our meeting for the love of disturbing. We have disturbed Cabinet Ministers’ meetings because the Cabinet Ministers had something good to give us and would not, and went to try and make them. We went on business; you only come on pleasure. So that you are the illogical people, and we are the … More Mrs Pankhurst faces down rowdy Cambridge undergraduates. 1910
And Cambridge lost yet another live music venue in a decade where they fell like skittles It was one of Cambridge’s most loathed buildings in some respects – the old Primitive Methodist Tabernacle on Sun Street/Newmarket Road. “I almost rejoice at the destruction of one Cambridge edifice! …I write with special feeling about a quite … More Thug burns down possible venue for a possible Cambridge Atheist Tabernacle Choir. 1986.
Mike Petty MBE spotted this article by a much-respected former Mayor of Cambridge and local historian John Durrant, who passed away a couple of years ago. I briefly knew John when we both served on the Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire Blue Plaques Committee. He also wrote Cambridge Past & Present – the changing face of … More The history of Alex Wood Hall – by the late Mayor Cllr John Durrant. 06 Sept 1985
I’ve been trying to find out more information about the old club that I read once sat opposite The Alex on Gwydir Street. It was built at a time when membership levels and activities of local political parties and movements were increasing to such an extent that they were able to build their own premises … More The decline and fall of The Beaconsfield Club – Petersfield, Cambridge 1982.
His name? Ebenezer. Some of you might get the musical reference. Some of you might wonder what Cambridge Mayor Ebenezer Foster has got to do with a chart-topping song about narcotics. Growing up in South Cambridge in the 1980s & 1990s, and being a frightened-of-authority type, I was completely oblivious to the references in the … More Mayor Foster slammed the Tories for being “Naughty, naughty…very naughty!” Cambridge Market Hill 1823
I picked up a copy of his biography written by his daughter Alicia, who wrote it following a series of extensive interviews with her father, the first MP for Cambridge following the passing of the Great Reform Act 1832, which legally did away with the Rotten Boroughs. Unfortunately it would be many years before the … More Prof George Pryme MP – The man who smashed the Rutland stranglehold on Cambridge
With over a million made homeless due to the air raids during the Second World War, combined with tens of thousands of returning service personnel, and even more refugees and non-returning European prisoners of war who had no homes to return to following changing national borders and even the complete obliteration of their entire villages … More “You can’t live there! It’s against regulations!” Cambridge’s housing crisis of 1946.
The strikingly photogenic candidate for Cherry Hinton was elected to Cambridge City Council just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Freda and David Hardman lived on Sedley Taylor Road, a part of Cambridge known at the time under various names, including The Rock Estate (after the building firm that built it), St John’s … More Labour’s Freda and David Hardman demand council takeover of privatised public utilities. 1938
A profile of the tragic Labour councillor who died in office at the tragically young age of 49, having only spent 14 months as MP for Cambridge – only the second Labour MP to have held that seat. Mike Petty MBE found this rare photograph of Robert Davies MP which was taken shortly after the … More Cllr Robert Davies – MP-candidate for Cambridge Labour Party, 1964.
Boundary reviews and structural reviews will be called for so long as economies and populations change. The problem then as with now is that the institutions had markedly different views – even those that were made up of members of the same political parties. This is an incredible photograph from the event on a hot … More 3,000 people protest against plans for an enlarged Cambridgeshire County Council. 1960. Spoiler. They lost.
