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 […]

The Spinning House is the untold story of how Cambridge University locked up women in their prison - and how the town fought to free them. Caroline Biggs will be talking about her new book, The Spinning House, which exposes how the University of Cambridge once imprisoned women suspected of ‘evil.’ Mistakes were made, violence and […]

An exhibition unveiled earlier this year revealed the hidden stories of a large number of women from Newnham College, Cambridge, who were quietly recruited for secret work at Bletchley Park in World War II. In this talk Dr Sally Waugh, one of the three curators of the exhibition, will discuss how research identified the women […]

What exactly is a common and how have these areas featured in the growth and development of Cambridge? This talk by Gerald Smith will examine how these open spaces were used over the centuries and the way their appearance was influenced not only by the underlying topography but also by diverse groups of townspeople - […]

What's special about the 11th March? Come along to Mill Road History Society's special pre-Festival talk from Rosie Zanders and discover the unexpected connections between Cambridge events on that date. Rosie Zanders, a local Blue Badge tourist guide for many years, takes a quirky look into Cambridge time and some of the remarkable characters who […]