On Christmas Day Leigh Chambers of Cambridge 105 Radio presented a tribute to Allan Brigham including memories and reflections from those who knew him best. Contributors include his brothers Robert and Nigel, his niece and nephew, those who worked with him at the Cambridge Folk Museum and the Mill Road History Project, friends from the Cambridge Labour Party and others whose lives he touched.
Mill Road History Society is extremely sad that local champion, historian and founding member, Allan Brigham, has died this week. He was an inspiration and friend to so many and found ways of connecting with most people he met. He was a valued and active member of the committee, always seen at and contributing to meetings. He also helped shape the preceding NLHF funded Mill Road History Project.
In spite of his long battle with cancer he managed to gather his detailed research on places and topics on Mill Road into several very readable publications. These are available on the Capturing Cambridge website and include the early history of Mill Road, Donkey Common, the Mill and the Depot amongst others. He wore his expertise lightly, and was always ready to share his knowledge and skills. The encouragement he gave to other members of the society has been invaluable.
Allan was a long term trustee of the Museum of Cambridge and valued researching and showcasing the history of the town rather than the gown. But as a Blue Badge guide he was also very able to bridge the gap and lend the same authority to both worlds. He delighted in talking about and demonstrating the architectural detailing and infinite social nuancing in a terraced street off Mill Road with the same architectural historian’s eye as when talking about King’s College Chapel or any other prestigious building or street in the city.
Allan also had another passion however – the building and protection of successful local communities, with housing and amenity space for all. He had both an historian’s eye and also that of a street-sweeper and local activist. Visitors and residents loved his walking tours not only because of his ability to shed intriguing light on so many aspects of Cambridge life – opening our eyes to the wealth of social and economic history that is preserved in our built environment – but also because they were always laced with views on planning history and present day issues. We will miss him very much, and send our condolences to his wife Janice, and his family.
You can watch a 2013 interview with Allan talking about his life at https://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1609674.
Selected writing
As it looks like social activities won’t be getting back to normal any time soon now then Mill Road History Society has decided to take a step into the future and move our programme online.
Our first event is an online version of what we were originally planning to present as part of our AGM last month. In remembrance of the recent VE Day we have members of the society talking about WW2 objects they have “brought along” to show you.
See the event page at https://millroadhistory.org.uk/event/agm-and-a-special-event-to-mark-the-75th-anniversary-of-ve-day-2/ or on Facebook for all the details. The event is this Tuesday 9 June, at 7:30pm on Zoom.
We hope to bring you more online events, please sign up to our mailing list to be the first to be informed.
We are sorry to announce that, due to the government advice to practice social distancing for the duration of the Coronavirus outbreak, we have decided to cancel our upcoming events for April, May and June.
We hope to rearrange these for the 2020/2021 season, assuming that life is back to normal then. We will update this website, and send information out to our mailing list and social media, as things change.
Please feel free to download and print out this walking tour for your own personal use.
You can find out more about all of the locations featured on this tour at https://capturingcambridge.org/projects/mill-road-area
Our thanks to Emily Boldy for putting together this walking tour of Mill Road featuring details from our research.
We’ve just published our new brochure covering the events coming up over the next year. Printed copies will be available up and down Mill Road as well as at our events or you can download a PDF copy.
More details about all of the events will appear on this website and Facebook and be included in our monthly newsletter.
The society’s Annual General Meeting for 2019 will be held in the Ross Street Community Centre on Tuesday 14 May 2019 at 7:30pm. It will be followed by a talk, From Vice to Virtue: The Cambridge Female Refuge.
The AGM (which will be short) and the talk are open to everyone.
Here are documents for the meeting.
We have just published our new brochure containing events for the first half of 2019. You can pick up a printed copy in assorted locations on Mill Road or you can download a PDF copy here.
All the events will make their way onto this website and Facebook in due course.
A belated thanks to all the artists who contributed to our Open Cambridge day back in September and also to everyone who visited us there at the St Barnabas Centre.
Below is a selection of photos from the day which included Sam Motherwell, Naomi Davies, Ian Rawlinson, Daisy Zoll, Cambridge Urban Sketchers and Dovetailed.
Photos by Allan Brigham, Simon Middleton, Lucy Walker, Emma Bonsall.
We have just published our new brochure containing events for the rest of 2018. You can pick up a printed copy in assorted locations on Mill Road or you can download a PDF copy here.
All the events will make their way onto this website and Facebook in due course.
