It was a sunny day when 40 Members of the WIs from all parts of the Federation met in the Market Square outside the Guildhall in Cambridge. Our extremely knowledgeable guides, Maggie and Steve, began the 2-hour tour around the streets, alleyways and Colleges of Cambridge. We discovered the long history of the city, which began as a place to fish and farm, which became a port in Viking times, and which originally housed the unruly students who were sent down from Oxford!
The first stop was the Eagle pub, (formerly known as The Eagle and Child). It was originally a Coaching Inn where passengers could have a bath and refreshment after their long journeys. At one time the students at the college slept in the rooms above the square and so the Landlord has a clause in his lease that he cannot make noise after 10.30 pm in order that the students can sleep! It is also the place where many WW2 pilots came to let off steam after their missions, as shown by the badges around the walls and it is where the scientists, Francis Cripps and James Watson who discovered DNA came to celebrate! There is a plaque dedicated to them and to Rosalind Franklin, whose work helped to start the whole discovery off.
We quickly moved past wonderful old buildings, including an old Anglo Saxon tower built in the time of King Canute, a sunken graveyard, where the water had to be pumped out before people could be buried and the house where the ‘Alice’ of Alice Springs fame lived. We discovered that women didn’t really ‘count’ in Cambridge until well into the 20th Century and that the first college for ladies was based in Hitchin until it was moved to Girton, about 4 miles from the centre of Cambridge so that the male undergraduates would not be distracted! Nowadays only the top 0.5% of students are admitted to the University, regardless of gender or social status.
We went past the Cavendish Laboratories, with their extra wide window sills, ready for the scientists to try out dangerous ideas on them! It was the first purpose built laboratory and was sponsored by the Duke of Devonshire. We passed the Robemakers premises on our way to the Court of Pembroke College. An air of calm fell over the group after the hurly-burly outside, and this was reinforced when we entered the Court of Queens’ College. This college was founded by Margaret of Anjou, Henry VI’s wife and continued by Elizabeth Woodville and Anne Neville. It is the only college which can boast HM the Queen as its patroness. The Queen Mother used to call in for lunch on her way to Newmarket Races! We were lucky enough to be able to visit the Chapel with its beautiful vaulted ceiling.
A huge Thank you to Jenny Hill for organising the trip on behalf of the PA Sub-committee, and to our guides Maggie and Steve, who made the whole morning very enjoyable.