If only for a short while as a councillor. For in 1969 her husband took on a new job in Canada at the University of Toronto, taking his wife with him, and leaving a huge civic and political void in Cambridge local democracy. Iris Owen’s husband was Dr George Owen of Trinity College, Cambridge – … More Cllr Mrs Iris Owen – The Florence Ada Keynes of the 1960s
Frida’s older brother worked tirelessly on the Cambridgeshire Holiday Orchestra – founded by Molly Gilmour and which is still running today. In the early 1970s, Deryck Harvey of the Cambridge Evening News (I still call it that because that’s what it was when I had a paper round in the early 1990s) ran a series … More Ludovic Stewart, Cambridge County’s Music Adviser who led a post-war renaissance in community music-making
A botched attempt to answer a very complex set of questions with a simple ‘yes/no’ ballot. What could possibly go wrong? Everything, as it turned out. With lessons for today. This was around the time of huge political debate about what the future of local government structures should look like – going all the way … More The Cambridge Town Planning Referendum of 1970
On 18 February 1969 the Cambridge Evening News published its annual agricultural supplement at a time when agriculture was still a visible presence in town – and also a time when there were multiple pressures on land use at a time when importing goods was becoming more expensive. As a result, there were significant campaigns … More A reservoir or three for Cambridgeshire – solving East Anglia’s water crisis in the late 1960s
Turns out things were quite alright at Addenbrooke’s (the old site). This from the British Newspaper Archive Both the Mayor of Cambridge and the Chairman of Cambridgeshire County Council (the smaller version) rocked up to visit inpatients and staff. The mood at Addenbrooke’s in 1950 contrasts with the strike action taken some 72 years later … More Christmas 1950 – a snapshot in time
One for research students and schools to look through? I spent years pestering the British Newspaper Archive to digitise more copies of Cambridge’s old newspapers. They’ve spent the past month or so adding to their collection of digitised Cambridge newspapers from the post-war era through to what is effectively my early childhood in Cambridge – … More British Newspaper Archive uploads over 134,000 pages of newspaper coverage from the old Cambridge Daily News
And a controversy on political education of young people from 1984 There’s an academic thesis waiting to be researched, written, and published about the growth and expansion of Cambridge’s language school sector in the post-war era. The same goes for the post-war private colleges. For anyone interested in such an undertaking, Dr James Day, a … More James Day of the Eurocentres Language School – and his campaign to get a new concert hall for Cambridge – 1970
The Guide to New Cambridge Architecture 1972 showcases a number of modern buildings now seen as obsolete some fifty years later – with proposals already in place for the replacement of some of them. How did they look at the time? It’s over half a century old – along with some of the featured buildings, … More New Cambridge council housing in the late 1960s – and cautionary publications from the 1970s on maintenance
I’ve started digitising them for the Association, on whose committee I am on. The annual of 1999 shines a light on the much-loathed Spinning House – the Vice Chancellor’s Private Prison This illustration from Ernest Clegg’s poster of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely just after the Second World War (note the Tudor Crown of … More Cambridgeshire Association for Local History’s hidden secrets from their archive of annual reviews
Now why would they do that? Especially as Cambridge City Council are encouraging people to post their photos of the municipal fireworks displays onto social media! Cambridge in one respect is fortunate enough to be able to call on private sector sponsorship to cover the costs of the annual event – other towns are not … More Cambridge bans fireworks – October 1818
Lost Cambridge 