Welcome to our slightly early New Year’s Newsletter. We said there wouldn’t be another one before the end of the year but we needed to let you know that the times given in the previous newsletter for the Milk Road walks were wrong. Corrected details are below, along with previews of our first two talks for the year.
Post Christmas / New Year History Walks
The Mill Road Guides are running two guided walks of Mill Road after Christmas to help you work off the turkey or other holiday excess.
Meet at the corner of Mortimer Road and Mill Road:
- 10:50am
Sunday 29 December
- 10:50am
Wednesday 1 January
To pre-book a spot for £8 then send an email to
millroadguide@gmail.com. The cost will be £10 on the day.
Note: start times are an hour earlier than those given in the previous newsletter.
Talk: Mackays – The History of a Local Store
Our first talk of the year is on
Tuesday 14 January and features Duncan Mackay who will tell us about exciting projects and turbulent times in the history of one of Cambridge’s favourite family businesses.
The story starts in Scotland, continues via East Road, Cambridge and a deal with wheelwright firm Alsop & Sons in 1912, and reaches as far as Los Angeles. The firm has been involved in several major 20th century developments, including the early radio telescopes, all whilst continuing to supply its local market.
This event takes place at Ross Street Community Centre. Doors open at
7pm for a 7:30 start. Everyone is welcome, admission £3, tea and biscuits served afterwards.
Are you romantic?
Our February talk, on Tuesday 11 February at Ross Street Community Centre, is by Maggie Kalenak and is on Courtship in Victorian England. Maggie gave a taster for the talk at the Winter Fair and also would like to hear from
you. I'll let Maggie explain...
My name is Maggie Kalenak and I’m currently a third year PhD student at Girton College, Cambridge. My thesis is about romantic relationships in 19th century England.
Having lived in the Mill Road neighbourhood for the past 3 years, I’ve really fallen in love with the community and Cambridge as a city. I’m very interested in collecting unpublished sources from our region to integrate into my body of case-studies. This is where you come in! As people so invested in the preservation of history, many of you are the keepers of your family histories and I would love to hear your stories. Specifically I’m interested in letters, diaries and family histories about love in the 19th century.
It would be an honour if any of you would like to share these stories with me so that I might integrate them into my research. In addition to helping me with my PhD thesis, I will be incorporating any local sources and stories that come my way into at talk I’m giving to the Mill Road History Society this February (fittingly close to Valentine’s Day!) on love letters, courtship and romance in the 19th century.
I realise that family documents and stories are very precious materials and I’m therefore happy to discuss terms of use and make sure that you’re entirely happy and comfortable with how they will be used.
If you’d like to get in contact with me, please e-mail me at mmk56@cam.ac.uk and I will get back to you as soon as I can. I’m always happy to correspond or to meet up for a coffee.
I want to thank the Mill Road Historical Society for allowing me to share this platform and for supporting my research. As an immigrant to the U.K., the Mill Road community has become a home away from home and I can’t wait to hear more of its’ stories.
Here is a link to the same information as a PDF, please share it amongst any of your friends who might like to help Maggie -
https://millroadhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/PDF-MRHS-Call-for-Stories-2019.pdf
Links