Somersham, Cambridgeshire

Holidays with Grandad

Thank you for showing the photo of Bank Houses, the house on the right was where my grandad lived and I spent a lot of very happy holidays there. His garden was aways full of lovely things to eat and as I lived in an industrial part of North Yorkshire with only a small back yard this was like heaven. Grandad... [more]

holiday visits

In the early to mid 1950s I spent holiday time in Somersham - it was fascinating for a child from London, especially the little ditches and the wildflowers.  I stayed with "auntie" (Emma Goodchild), a relative of some kind through my maternal grandmother's family (surnames Duller and Dellow).  Auntie lived in the last house in Somersham High Street, it was amazing... [more]

Growing up in Somersham

I was born in Somersham in 1940, in my grandmother's house, which was 1 West End.
My own house was known then as 6 Trinity Terrace, since changed to 90 High Street. Until the mid 1950s a lot of the houses were quite primitive, no indoor sanitation, the Terrace had a pump for the 6 houses.  The only heating was a... [more]

Cambridgeshire Villages Photographic Memories

The palace of the bishops of Ely must have influenced this almost completely 13th-century church dedicated to St John. Inside there is a fine 14th-century king post roof with carved bosses. Very little remains of the palace except for two large fish ponds and the medieval bridge across the moat. On the south side of the palace was a huge deer... [more]

Cambridgeshire Villages Photographic Memories

The village was rebuilt in brick after a disastrous fire; shops, chapels and the school all have slate roofs. Blinds shade the shop windows of Normans, 'Drapery and Furnishing, Boots and Shoes, Tailoring and Outfitter'.

Cambridgeshire Living Memories

Looking west towards Pidley cum Fenton, we see Somersham before the start of the building programme which has brought an industrial estate and several large housing developments. Fortunately the allotments in the foreground and the town football pitch have survived unscathed.