Staine Hundred
The October meeting began with a short AGM. Maureen Rogers, the new Chairman,
welcomed members and visitors. Robert Hill, who had been chairman for the last
9 years, gave a report on last year's activities. Peter Arnold, Treasurer,
presented the accounts which showed a loss over the year, partly because the
Annual Outing had made a loss instead of the usual gain, more money had been
spent in getting good speakers, and other costs had risen. He felt the rise to
£10 membership fee was justified, and a member pointed out that for nine
meetings, this was good value. Janet Marsh is now Secretary and Gillian
Rushworth continues to organize the programme.
Speaker for the evening was Gill Shapland, who works in the County Record Office and lives in the Parish of St Andrew the Less, commonly known as Barnwell, about which she was speaking. Her title referred to it as "the other side of Cambridge" by which she meant the place where "real" people lived as compared to the University. The early Parish covered a vast area on the eastern side of Cambridge and originally included Newmarket Road, East Road, New Town, Hills Road, Mill Road and Cherryhinton Road. The Abbey Church fell into disrepair in the 18th Century and the new larger Christchurch was built in the early 19th Century. Soon after, this too was not large enough so St Paul's Church was built in the 1840s and St Phillips was built in the early 20th century, so the present parish of St Andrew the Less is smaller in area. The University had strict regulations on what could be built on their land so both the Theatre and the Railway Station were built outside the town in Barnwell, the station being surrounded by open countryside for the first thirty years of its existence. The existing Cambridge cemetery had become so full that the level of the ground was way above the paths and bodies were buried very shallowly over existing graves. Mill Road Cemetery was therefore opened, with a chapel (now gone), and each parish in the town had its own section and entered the burials in their own church registers. There was a flourishing University Anatomy School in Cambridge which was continually wanting bodies for teaching purposes - particularly young ones. Local Authorities had the right to sell the bodies of people who died in the Asylums or Workhouses, and most of these were obtained from places as far away as Hull, but records show little evidence that Cambridgeshire people were used. These bodies were then buried at night in St Benet's Cemetery, often with little regard as to whether the right body parts were buried together.
After Enclosure, Barnwell grew rapidly: 252 inhabitants in 1801; 9,486 by 1841; and 27,840 by 1901. Brickmaking took place on a large scale along Newmarket Road and this was followed for nearly 50 years by the Coprolite Works. The Gasworks were built on an old brickwork site. The workers in these industries were ill paid and housing conditions were poor, leading to slums and criminal activities. Today, it is claimed that the homeless come from all over England because Cambridge is a soft touch. A page from the 1901 Census Return of the Workhouse showed a similar distribution of birth places!
The talk was well illustrated with drawings of buildings made in the 19th Century.
The next meeting will be on Wednesday November 12th at 7.30 pm, when Mrs Chloe Cockerill will be talking about "1000 years of English Churches".