This book draws on the great wealth of associations of street-names in Cambridge. It is not a dictionary, but it provides a series of entries on such topics as the Reformation, George IV and his wife, twentieth-century British scientists, businessmen, Elizabethan times, medieval Cambridge, mayors, millers, and builders. It includes hermits and coal merchants, field marshals and laundresses, martyrs and bombers, unscrupulous politicians and the founder of a Christian community, Cromwell and Newton, an Anglo-Saxon queen and the discoverer of Uranus - all people who lived in or often visited Cambridge. The ancient Stourbridge fair is included, along with castles and boat-races, sewage pumps and the original Hobson of 'Hobson's Choice'. Who was St Tibb? Where did Dick Turpin hide? Where was the medieval takeaway? Unlike earlier works, this is a history of everybody for everybody.
• A short and attractively-written account of the hundreds of curious street-names in the city of Cambridge
• Offers new snippets of information about a vast array of historical personages, high and low
• Organised thematically, not alphabetically, in order to focus on certain historical periods or occupational themes
Contents:
-What do street-names mean?; How can you tell?
-Prehistoric; Roman; Anglo-Saxon; Medieval; Barnwell
-Town and gown
-The beginning of the university
-The Reformation; The Renaissance and science; The Civil War; The eighteenth century; War against Napoleon
-George IV and his wife; Queen Victoria's reign; The British Empire
-Coprolite mining; Coal, Corn and iron; Brewers; Trams and buses
-Nineteenth-century historians, antiquaries and lawyers; Nineteenth-century scientists, Nineteeth-century bishops and clergy
-The 'Kite' area; Sport; Builders and developers
-Places in Cambridge; Hospitals
-A poet; Mayors; Churches and saints; The High Stewards: unprotected protectors
-Inclosures
-The twentieth century
