On a cold February in 1875 George Brewster, an 11-year-old Chimney Sweep’s ‘apprentice’, was sent up a boiler chimney at Fulbourn Lunatic Asylum by his master. He sadly suffocated – nothing out of the ordinary for Victorian England – however, the story afterwards is remarkable! Hear Joanna's story about how she 'Found George' and how […]
Roger Lilley looks at the relationship between a local history museum and a local history group and the opportunities presented for their interaction. Roger will be talking about the Museum of Cambridge, its history, trials and tribulations and future development. He'll be talking about the way it can interact with local history societies and in […]
2024 is the 75th anniversary of the first woman to fly around the world but do you know her name? A blue plaque is being unveiled to commemorate her flight later this year at Marshall's Airfield. Richarda Morrow-Tait (1923 - 1982) known as 'Dikki', was a local girl who was inspired to learn to fly whilst […]
Between 1922 and 1950 Newnham College and the Workers’ Educational Association ran a pioneering series of residential summer schools specifically to meet the educational needs of working women. Organised largely by women for other women, these remarkable schools were inter-generational, inclusive and non-hierarchial. Mary Joannou’s richly illustrated presentation draws on the voices, reports, letters and […]
The story of Charles Darwin’s family, from his paternal grandfather to his children and grandchildren, runs through the City of Cambridge like the Granta-Cam itself. This specially-planned ‘Darwin Trail’ from Emeritus Professor Philip Stott aims to introduce you to a fascinating family history, while hopefully also providing a scientific adventure, taking in cemeteries, colleges, plaques, museums, libraries, […]
In this illustrated talk, Tony Kirby will explore how places of worship in Cambridgeshire and the surrounding counties have changed from the 16th century onwards to reflect trends in what was considered ‘right’ in the context of their age, from Puritan iconoclasm through the emergence of ‘Dissent’ in the 18th century, the Evangelical Revival, the Oxford Movement […]
For our second event this month we have a talk and discussion about the industrial heritage of Mill Road and its influence on the community today led by Kieran Gleave. Beyond the idyllic lawns, chapels and dining halls of the Colleges, Cambridge (to the surprise of many today) has always been a hub of industrial […]
For Open Cambridge 2024 we bring you a talk from Dr Shelley Lockwood who will introduce you to the life and the beautiful and extensive work of Mr Leach of City Road. Frederick Leach set up his firm of Artworkers at workshops in City Road in Cambridge in 1862. Over the next 40 years he […]
Note: this talk is no longer happening at Ross St Community Centre but will be held on Zoom. Our October event is from Ann Kennedy Smith, who previously talked to us about photographer Lettice Ramsay, and is on another successful, but largely forgotten, Cambridge business woman, Louisa Greef. "As part of my research into F. […]
Nick Mansfield brings us a new talk, based around his 2023 book Made By Labour, that tells the story of the British labour movement from an unusual viewpoint. The book is described as "the first full-length study of the material and visual culture of the British labour movement in almost half a century. It draws […]
