Down Your Street, Sara Payne. II East Cambridge. Index of Chapter 5, Orchard Street

Below is a brief overview and index to chapter 5 of Sara Payne's book Down Your Street, to help people decide if it's a book that's of interest to them either for local history research or family history.

This chapter is five pages long and looks at Orchard Street, the date 23 April to 3 May 1984 is given in the page title.  I didn't feel that this chapter had as much anecdotal content as the Maid's Causeway chapter, but the interviews with the residents were exciting glimpses into their past or the past of their house/road.  Orchard Street is a small street, so there are fewer residents to be able to generate these snippets we seek!

Built in 1825, the row of cottages in Orchard Street, Cambridge are chocolate-box gorgeous.

Living people named/interviewed: 
Mrs Kidd, Mrs Gladys Cable, Percy Wing, Sylvia Wing, Miss Kathleen Humm, Henry Humm, Henry Cable, Margaret Cable, John Fletcher, Marjorie Hopkins, Jodrell Hopkins, Paul Jodrell,

Archivists and other authors who helped with background/research: David Chaffin, Miss Ena Mitchell (author of Notes on the History of Parker's Piece), Martha German (of Emmanuel Road)

Historical figures mentioned: 
Charles Humfrey, Miss Annie Ayres, Ann Howard, Duke of Gloucester, Prince Richard, John Clark,

Photos in Chapter 5: 

• Half page photo of Orchard Street in August 1938, 
• Full page drawing of Charles Humfrey, 
• 1/4 page photo of Mrs Gladys Cable with her porcelain cat, 
• 1/2 page photo of the Golden Rose public house in 1912, with what are probably the publicans and a younger woman standing outside (servant or daughter?)

Discover other roads published in this book: Index of Streets in Down Your Street


E&OE

Down Your Street, Sara Payne. II East Cambridge. Index of Chapter 2, Auckland Road

Auckland Road was originally covered in the Cambridge Weekly News on 15 September 1983.

Auckland Road is tucked away behind Newmarket Road, so it's not a road I've ever needed to visit!  This chapter, therefore, had little to interest me personally, but I was interested to read of the history of the land and how it developed a circus field and a cinema.

This chapter is just three pages long. The first page gives an overview and history of Auckland Road, which had been a circus field at the turn of the century and also the site of a cinema.

The overview looks at the major characters and businesses that were in Auckland Road, including the Star Brewery and the Yasume Club.  There is one ¼-page photo of the street.

Photos in Chapter 2:

• Simon Wood, Midsummer Glassmakers

Living people named/interviewed: 

• Simon Wood, Reginald Markham, Edith Bareford, Don Few (of Elsworth), Marjorie Loakes (of Queen Edith's Way) 

Historical figures mentioned: 

• Charlie Chaplin, Thomas Askham, Herbert Robinson, HW Peak, Dillon Clark, Frederick Bailey, Alfred Barnard, Charles Armstrong, Percy Henry Jarvis, Basil Bareford, Mabel Markham, Basil Markham, Alfred Bavey, David Apthorpe, Amelia Apthorpe. 

Discover all the streets covered in this book: Index to Streets in Down Your Street

E&OE

Betsy Williams, Oldest Resident of Chesterton, -1910

My eye is always drawn to statements of "the oldest resident of" pieces in old newspapers, so Betsy Williams of Chesterton caught my eye this morning.

In 1910 Betsy Williams of Chesterton died and the newspapers announced her death, along with the fact that she was the oldest resident.  I love it when the newspapers give a long obituary/biography - so handy for today's family history researchers. So I had to look her up!

The Cambridge Independent Press reported the occasion as

Death.— The death occurred Tuesday morning of one the oldest inhabitants of Chesterton. Mrs Betsy Grove Williams, widow of the late Mr Benjamin Williams. The deceased lady, who was 90 years of age, was well known and much respected in Chesterton.

Her husband, who was formerly in the employ of Mr Philip Beale, Cambridge, died twenty two years ago, but there are nine children surviving. One served for twenty seven years in the Scotch Royal Rifles, going through the Zulu War. Another, who in twenty one years in the Army Service Corps, saw service in Zululand and in Egypt, and the husband of her eldest daughter served for twenty-two years in the Royal Navy. 

There are about sixty grand-children, while the great grand-children number even more. The funeral takes place to-day, Friday, Old Chesterton.  

Looking at FreeBMD, the death was registered with an age of 89 years.

Betsy was buried on 14 October at St Andrew's Church, Chesterton.  Benjamin Williams had died, aged 69, in 1888 and was buried 6 September at St Andrew's Church, Chesterton.

A quick look through the IGI showed that, from Censuses, Betsy had been born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.  The 1881 Census had Betsy and husband Benjamin living at 10 Albert Street, Chesterton, with two of their children: Albert L Williams aged 19, born in Bury, Suffolk; and Mary L Williams aged 16, born in Cambridge.  Benjamin was listed as an ironmonger's porter and had been born in Lambeth, Surrey, so they were both "incomers" to the village.

I love thinking about the fact that my great-grandmother might have known of Betsy - although she had been living in the St Luke's area of Chesterton, which is about a mile from Old Chesterton where my great-grandmother was bringing up her own family.  She'll have heard the news of Betsy's death and, who knows, maybe watched the funeral from the cemetery wall.  The news will certainly have been the talk of the week.

The social history surrounding ancestors really helps to build up a good local picture of what life was like, people they might've known, events they might've attended - and more!  After a while you even begin to feel you "know" these people!

Sources: FindMyPast, FreeBMD, FamilySearch

Image: FreeBMD

St Andrew's Street Baptist Church Parish Records

Baptist churches don't have one central register for their parish records.  Each church was set up by the local people, for the local people, so what records they kept and how they disposed of them was something for them to decide.  For this reason it's worth looking at Baptists if your ancestors seem to "appear from nowhere" or disappear.

I've a relative who was baptised and married, but I can't find the rest of her family at present.  Then I got a lead that a whole family by the name were in the baptist records for St Andrew's Street Baptist Church.  So I started looking into this.

When looking at online genealogy and family history websites you should remember that there are records that are not present - and, when appropriate, find those gaps and fill them.  Sometimes it's not worth your while to spend the time pursuing every detail, but sometimes you simply hit a brickwall and the only way to solve these appearances/disappearances is to look at other churches.  If one ancestor's a baptist, or other religion, then it's likely you'll suddenly discover whole families and generations that, before, simply didn't come up in your searches.

The St Andrew's Street Baptist Church still exists today and is one of a few Baptist churches in Cambridge.  Another is the Eden Baptist Church, on the corner of Fitzroy Street and Burleigh Street. There's also the Zion Baptist church on East Road, which opened in 1837.

St Andrew's Street Baptist Church is the one that is now on my radar - it's location is at 43 St Andrew's Street, Cambridge, CB2 3AR. And, luckily, they have transcribed and published their parish records in a book:

• English Baptist Records book 2: St Andrew’s Street Baptist Church Cambridge.  This covers the years 1720-1832.  ISBN numbers 0903166143 and  978-0903166140 .  This was published in 1991 by the Baptist Historical Society. It's available on Amazon.co.uk for about £11.

The book contains 196 pages of baptisms, marriages and deaths.

Which Parish is St Andrew's Baptist Church in?

When comparing baptist churches to the churches you usually get in parish records, St Andrew's Baptist Church is physically in the area defined as the parish of Holy Trinity, Cambridge.  The family I am looking for used Holy Trinity, so at some point it is quite reasonable that they could've changed churches and started with the baptists. When we refer to parishes, those are defined by the Church of England, so other denominations, churches and chapels will exist within those parish boundaries.

Burials at St Andrew's, Cambridge,  1818-1859

The National Archives holds a list of burials at St Andrew's Baptist Church, for the years 1818-1859.  Unfortunately at the time of writing they haven't digitized it, so it's not available for download.  You can view the files for free at the National Archives in London, or request a quote for them to digitise it or to print it and post it to you. I think I'll wait awhile, it's not a high priority for me. I also think that the families might not be the ones I'm after, but just a family with the same surname.

Image: Geograph