News | Fenscene Time Tunnel TAKING A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE…
Housing Conditions Writing in the London Daily Express, Mr Rider Haggard reported on conditions in Lt Downham. Cottages were distinctly bad, many owned by small people who could not aff ord to keep them up. Often they contained two rooms and no more, in consequence of which overcrowding there was much immorality. The reason that the population remained stationary there was that no new cottages were built in place of those which decayed. Smallholders lived worse than the labourers; they rarely have any other meat than pork, their dinner consists of suet pudding and bread. Little Downham, 1901
Haddenham to see her lover but he had refused to speak to her. This rebuff proved too much for the girl who, losing all control, jumped into the well. When rescued she was handed over to police and appeared in court changed with attempting to commit suicide. Wentworth, 1910
Alarming Blaze A fi re of alarming dimensions broke out at Witchford, two cottages and a number of farm buildings opposite the church being totally destroyed. The fl ames attracted a large number of people, harvest fi elds being deserted and work suspended for the time but the fl ames had too good a hold. Ely Fire Brigade had diffi culty fi nding water but eventually a pond was found and the manual engine, with some 40 men to pump, was got to work. Witchford, 1919
Food Lorry A Londoner was fi ned £3
Above: A heartbroken young woamn jumped into a well at Wentworth.
Young Love A tragedy was narrowly averted at Wentworth by the prompt action of a villager. Jonas Whetstone heard a noise in a well by the roadside and on looking in was surprised to fi nd a young woman clinging desperately to the brick sides of the well and in imminent peril of drowning. It was no easy matter for him to eff ect her escape but he succeeded in doing so. She had come over to the village from
for unlawfully obtaining rationed feeding stuff s at Lt Thetford. PC Harding was on motor patrol duty at Fowlmere when he stopped a lorry and noticed what looked like feeding stuff . The defendant said it was Quaker oats and was unrationed but the sack was marked ‘Blue Cross Balanced Food, No.2 Pig Food’. Little Thetford, 1952
Plane Crash
A lorry driver was killed and an aeroplane crew of two seriously injured when a plane crashed at Ely. The Harvard two-seater from
Mike Petty indexing newspapers, 2012
Above: An RAF plane crashed in Ely city centre.
RAF Feltwell, fi rst struck the top of a forge owned by Messrs Brand Brothers, then careered across the street, ending up with the tail and part of the body in St Mary’s street, and the engine and forepart of the aircraft in a showroom belonging to Messrs T.W. Nice, garage proprietors. Ely, 1951
Tesco Plans Tesco’s plans for a superstore at Broad Street Ely have been agreed by planners, despite fears from the Council that the scheme will hit existing shops and complaints from Waterside residents about extra traffi c. But the Ely Society and the Chamber of Commerce supported the idea. Development Manager Timothy Aldworth said he had never felt the area was an ideal centre for industry; parking pressures
on Market Square would be eased and the Club Hotel properly renovated. Ely’s shopping centre was in danger of losing out to Cambridge and Newmarket unless new life was injected into it. Ely, 1979
Bridge Builders Ted Appleyard of Ely is the seventh generation of watermen, the fi rst three were bargees, the others boat builders. He can recall the huge horse and cart ferries which crossed the Ouse and Cam. They were great platforms with an apron at each end which was let down to allow the horse and cart to get back on to land and then hoisted up again. They were essential as there were no bridges for miles. The largest was at Southery and was 40ft by 14ft.
Southery 1984
Below: Watermen operated ferries and bridges including this one on Twenty Pence Road.
For more than 20 years,
Cambridgeshire historian, Mike Petty, has been compiling A Cambridgeshire Scrapbook 1897 to 1990. It comprises over 3,000 pages and more than 20,000 fascinating facts, features and (occasional) fallacies reported in Cambridge newspapers. It is arranged week by week putting local events in the context. It is free to read, free to download, free to use. Just search ‘Cambridgeshire Scrapbook’ on your computer or tablet.
https://archive.org/details/ CambridgeshireScrapbook18971990
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