Lost Cambridge

Summary: – Shortly before founding Save the Children, Eglantyne Jebb worked as a translator for her sister Dorothy Buxton, and her brother-in-law, Charles Roden Buxton. This gave her insights into reports from continental Europe.  When Eglantyne had recovered enough from illness that kept her out of politics in the first couple of years of the … More A radicalised Eglantyne Jebb slams UK for breaking its word with Germany. January 1919

Some of you may have spotted Dr Alice Roughton’s letter to the Cambridge Daily News at the end of my previous blogpost on Rev’d Mervyn Stockwood of Great St Mary’s. Both Rev’d Stockwood and Dr Roughton wrote to the Editor of the Cambridge Daily News on the back of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. It … More Dr Alice Roughton; medic, peace campaigner, provider of sanctuary

  You may not be familiar with the name Mervyn Stockwood, but you might be familiar with the video footage below: From the show Friday Night, Saturday Morning, in 1979. The cleric in the video is the Rt Rev Mervyn Stockwood, Bishop of Southwark (in office 1959-80). Before taking up that appointment, he was the … More The Monty Python Bishop and the Suez Crisis in Cambridge – 1956

Summary: The creation of Cambridge’s first police station, given there’s a chance Cambridge could be without a proper police station for the first time in 180 years. The Police and Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough has published a consultation with the view to moving Cambridge’s police station at Parkside to a site outside of … More Cambridge’s first police station 1836-40

In the run up to the Second World War, Cambridge still found time to talk about trees and town planning. From the British Newspaper Archive. TREES AND TOWN PLANNING Local Authorities Our Greatest Sinners “After a general attack had been made on local authorities because of their attitude towards trees in relation to town planning, … More Trees and town planning – Cambridge 1939.

Following the decision by a select committee of the House of Commons to void Cambridge borough’s election of Mr Manners Sutton in May 1840, things came to a head at the Guildhall in 1841. The Scotsman below from the British Newspaper Archive summarises the scene in the Commons. …and things spilled out locally at the … More Bribery and corruption allegations at The Guildhall – 1841

The People’s Suffrage Federation – formed from a merger of the Women’s Labour League and the Women’s Co-op Guild, held a meeting in Cambridge. The article has been digitised by the British Newspaper Archive here and this blogpost is a transcription of it. “The Cambridge branch the People’s Suffrage Federation held a public meeting at … More People’s Suffrage Federation meet in Cambridge, 1913.

Summary Dr Rowland Morris Fawcett, medic, councillor, magistrate and mayor was a civic titan in Victorian Cambridge. He moved this item in 1870 to get a new sewage farm built for the town. “His papers are held in London (see here). So if anyone wants to write a biography about him, you’ll be contributing a … More The River Cam’s sewage problem – 1870

From the British Newspaper Archive, Clara Rackham had her work cut out trying to convince this group in Newmarket, Suffolk – a short drive from Cambridge. Transcribed from the British Newspaper Archive here. “Some Cambridge ladies who went over Newmarket Friday advocate votes for women, met with lively reception. In spite of the fact that … More Clara Rackham in Newmarket for Women’s Suffrage. 1913.

John Parry was commissioned to research and write a report on the future of Cambridge and sub-region in the 1970s. Despite its cost, it was ignored. But what was ignored, and can we learn anything from it? One of the things I find often missing from contemporary future visions of Cambridge are maps of where … More Future of Cambridge plans from the 1970s