Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

Working for City Education

My memories refer to 1960 through to 1963 (I think!).
I was in charge of String Tuition for the Education Department with our HQ in the Guildhall and a storage room for instruments in the bowels of the building.
I remember Ludo Stewart who was Music Adviser and David Bass and Sam Grice (both staff teachers with me) and the SMO, Intermediate Orchestra and Youth Orchestra. Pupils - I regret I can recall only two - Janet Ainslie (viola) and Susan (double Bass). They were both pupils at the Girls' Grammar School on Parkers Piece (my memory for names is rapidly going, I fear). I remember Mr Duckering and Mr Budd, Headteachers at Fawcett Junior, both lovely guys. I remember teaching in the toilets at the Girls' Secondary School for two years before the Head realised my predicament - unbelievable!
While teaching in the city I was living in Newmarket and have fond memories of NOMADS - these I've posted on the 'Newmarket' site.
I'm now living in Worthing, West Sussex so anyone out there who remembers me from the Cambridge days and wants to get in touch - my e mail address is : rayl@waitrose.com

sweet shop

my g.g.g. grandparents the Nixons had a sweet shop at 26 Petty Cury in the 1850s to early 1880s. Anybody ant news or pics?

My sister.

The lady on the left by the railings of King's College is my older sister then aged 22. We lived in Cambridge until 1922 and I was a pupil at Cambridge High School during the First World War. I am now 93.

Marshall's Airport

I lived at 14 The Homing, Meadowlands, Cambridge which was close to the airport. I was 8 years old in 1955. Often on sunny weekends, my Mum would takes us on a walk over to the airport.

It was a quiet relaxed place in those days. There was no kind of airport security, and you could stroll through the gate and sit down on benches to watch the odd Tiger Moth taxi over to the runway and take off. The pilots would fly over and wave.

I remember watching a Venom jet fighter being started up and all the sudden noise compared to the previous peace and quiet. Occasionally we would walk down by the taxi way, and watch the planes taxiing to the runway apron. Again I remember a jet fighter pilot taxiing down there in a Meteor and waving to us kids. It was so exciting.

I also remember a 3 engined biplane flying out of there. I can still remember what it looked like, but I don't remember its make, (maybe someone else can recall it?) A De Havilland perhaps?

At the other end of the airport, there was a repair/salvage facility. To get to it you had to go down 'The Homing'. Because our house was on the street, often we would see great trailers go by with say a military aircraft's wing on it from a crashed aircraft. It wasn't long after the war, so I guess there were many carcases of planes to be chopped up or salvaged?

I remember my Mum telling me that during the war, my aunt had a man from the RAF lodging with her who cut up crashed planes there. She had to ask for him to be moved somewhere else, as he had a habit of bringing home fingers and at one time a foot in a boot that he had found in various planes. Uech!

Opposite to our house, there was also a field connected to the airport, full of old army lorries. As kids we would slip under the wire and play in these vehicles. I once found a gas mask and took it home to my Mum. She washed it all out for me, so my friends and I could play at soldiers.

Cambridgeshire Photographic Memories

Here we see St John’s College Old Bridge, originally conceived by Wren, but brought into being in 1712 by Robert Grumbold. Just beyond, joining Third and New Courts of St John’s College, is the Bridge of Sighs, its Gothic design unashamedly borrowed from the covered bridge of the same name in Venice.

East Anglia Photographic Memories

Joining the two courts of St John’s College on either side of the River Cam is the Bridge of Sighs. It borrows the idea of the covered bridge from the one of the same name in Venice. Although the Cambridge version, built in 1831, has barred unglazed windows, the students passing through it were not necessarily looking their last upon the outside world, as the users of the original were!

Cambridge Photographic Memories

Joining the two courts of St John’s College on either side of the River Cam is the Bridge of Sighs. It borrows the idea of the covered bridge from the one of the same name in Venice. Although the Cambridge version, built in 1831, has barred unglazed windows, the students passing through it were not necessarily looking their last upon the outside world, as were the users of the original!