Join artist Emma Smith to learn about her artistic inventions, created in collaboration with residents of Cambridge, from future predicting machines to musical instruments that allow you to hear subterranean music. In this special evening of artistic exploration, the artist will share insights into a number of projects across Cambridge that have involved working collaboratively […]

This talk is about the remarkable life and work of Lettice Ramsey, who as a young widow in the early 1930s set up a photographic studio with her professional partner Helen Muspratt in Petty Cury, Cambridge. Ramsey & Muspratt became one of the most celebrated 20th century photographers, and their portraits of the Bloomsbury group and […]

The recent centenary of WW1 provided many opportunities to explore overlooked and forgotten aspects of local history.  The 1st Eastern General Hospital in Cambridge treated tens of thousands of returning casualties between 1914 and 1919. The pre-fabricated wooden huts housed up to 1,700 beds, operating theatres, ancillary buildings, a Post Office, shop, cinema and other recreational […]

Our talk for January is by Evelyn Lord and will take place over Zoom. An alms house is a house founded by a charity offering accommodation to poor people. Cambridge is fortunate in having a number of these surviving today with sources that enable us to look at the history of these foundations. Using a […]

For our February talk we are remaining online which means we are able to welcome Tasmanian resident James Boyce to Mill Road History Society. James is the author of Imperial Mud: The Fight for the Fens (2020) amongst many other award-winning historical books and in this talk he will tell us about the history of […]

Cambridge has been home to a vibrant women’s movement from Suffragette times, through the 70s onwards, and continuing today. Yet many women in the city continue to be in a precarious position, affected disproportionately by any crises such as the rise in the cost of living. On the 14 March 2023, representatives from Cambridge Women’s […]

In this illustrated talk, Tony Kirby looks at the changing built environment of Cambridge from the eve of the Reformation to the present day, using what survives today as a guide to what had happened over the past five centuries as a result of the combined – and often conflicting – activities of the Colleges, […]

“Fenner’s” is well known in Cambridge, even amongst those who know little about cricket, but being named after the University Cricket Ground is currently Frank Fenner’s only legacy. When he died in the late 19th century no obituary was published in local papers. Why? Nigel Fenner is related to Frank Fenner, currently writing a book on […]