Coordinates | 52°12′00″N0°08′15″E / 52.1999°N 0.1376°E |
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Mill Road is a two-lane road in southeast Cambridge, England. [1] It runs southeast from near to Parker's Piece, at the junction with Gonville Place, East Road, and Parkside. It crosses the main railway line and links to the city's ring road (the A1134). It passes through the wards of Petersfield and Romsey, which are divided by the railway line. It is a busy road containing many independent businesses, churches, hospital and Cambridge Central Mosque.
Near the northwestern end to the south in Mortimer Road off Mill Road is Hughes Hall. Behind Hughes Hall is Fenner's, the cricket ground of the University of Cambridge, which has hosted first-class cricket since 1848. To the north is Anglia Ruskin University, formerly Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (CCAT).
Mill Road was originally a quiet country lane leading to the southeast out of the city of Cambridge, named after the windmill that stood at what is now the corner of Covent Garden. The coming of the railways in the mid-19th century brought about a rapid development of the eastern part of the city after the University of Cambridge repeatedly blocked attempts to build a more central station. [2] The population of the Mill Road area was listed as 252 in 1801, 6,651 in 1831, 11,848 in 1861 and 25,091 in 1891. [3]
Petersfield and Romsey Town, the areas of Mill Road to either side of the railway bridge, developed in markedly different ways.
Petersfield, to the west of the railway, was originally developed by Gonville and Caius and Corpus Christi colleges (a fact reflected in the naming of the area's streets after college fellows). [3] In 1838 the Cambridge Union Workhouse was opened, a building subsequently to become the Mill Road Maternity Hospital [4] and finally Ditchburn Place, a sheltered housing scheme. [5] Mill Road Cemetery adjoins the Petersfield part of Mill Road to the north and David Parr House, a preserved terraced house decorated in the Arts and Crafts style, is close to the junction of Mill Road and Gwydir Street.
Romsey Town, east of the railway, started to be developed after the inclosure acts of the middle 19th century. Expansion of the railway network drove the building of housing for railway workers and the majority of the houses were built in the ten years after 1885. [6]
Historically Petersfield has always been thought of by local residents as being on the 'Gown' side of the town and gown divide, with many of the residents having been employed by the University. Romsey, on the other hand, remained predominantly working class with a socialist tradition in its local politics, becoming known locally as 'Red Romsey' or 'Little Russia'. [6]
The Mill Road Winter Fair [7] is an annual fair on the first Saturday in December. Attendance grew from 10,000 at the first fair in 2005 [8] to at least 20,000 in 2009. [9] Since 2009 part of Mill Road, including the bridge, has been closed to traffic for the duration of the fair. Regular activities include a shop window display competition, live music, folk dancing, a local history walk and open days at the road's churches, temple and mosque. [10] The fair was founded by Suzy Oakes. [11]
The Gateway from India is an intricate temple archway that was carved by hand in Rajasthan, over a period of five years. [12] In 2006, it was installed in the Bharat Bhavan Hindu temple, inside the library building on Mill Road. [12] Following repossession of the temple by Cambridge City Council in 2020, the archway was bought by hairdresser Piero D'Angelico, a member of Mill Road Traders' Association for £1. [12] Subsequently installed in public gardens in Ditchburn Place. It was opened in September 2023 in the presence of local dignitaries. [12]
The following live or have lived in the Mill Road area:
Cambridge is a city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, 55 miles (89 km) north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of the City of Cambridge was 145,700; the population of the wider built-up area was 181,137. Cambridge became an important trading centre during the Roman and Viking ages, and there is archaeological evidence of settlement in the area as early as the Bronze Age. The first town charters were granted in the 12th century, although modern city status was not officially conferred until 1951.
Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public university in East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins are in the Cambridge School of Art (CSA), founded by William John Beamont, a Fellow of Trinity College at University of Cambridge, in 1858. It became a university in 1992, and was renamed after John Ruskin, the Oxford University professor and author, in 2005. Ruskin gave the inauguration speech of the Cambridge School of Art in 1858. It is one of the "post-1992 universities". The motto of the university is in Latin Excellentia per societatem, in English Excellence through partnership. Anglia Ruskin University was named University of the Year 2023 by Times Higher Education.
Romsey is a town in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The town is situated 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Southampton, 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Winchester and 17 miles (27 km) southeast of Salisbury. It sits on the outskirts of the New Forest, just over 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of its eastern edge. The population of Romsey was 14,768 at the 2011 census.
Chatteris is a market town and civil parish in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England, situated in the Fens between Huntingdon, March and Ely. The town is in the North East Cambridgeshire parliamentary constituency.
Strood is a town in the unitary authority of Medway in Kent, South East England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rochester, Gillingham and Rainham. It lies on the northwest bank of the River Medway at its lowest bridging point.
The English county of Cambridgeshire has a long history.
Holbeach is a market town and civil parish in the South Holland District in Lincolnshire, England. The town lies 8 miles (13 km) from Spalding; 17 miles (27 km) from Boston; 20 miles (32 km) from King's Lynn; 23 miles (37 km) from Peterborough; and 43 miles (69 km) by road from Lincoln. It is on the junction of the A151 and A17.
The Wessex Main Line is the railway line from Bristol Temple Meads to Southampton Central. Diverging from this route is the Heart of Wessex Line from Westbury to Weymouth. The Wessex Main Line intersects the Reading to Taunton Line at Westbury and the West of England Main Line at Salisbury.
The Lea Valley lines are two commuter lines and two branches in north-east London, so named because they run along the Lower Lea Valley of the River Lea. They were part of the Great Eastern Railway, now part of the Anglia Route of Network Rail.
The West Anglia Main Line is one of the two main lines that operate out of Liverpool Street. It runs generally north through Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Harlow, Bishop's Stortford and Audley End to Cambridge, with branches between serving Stratford, Hertford and Stansted Airport. The line runs along the boundary between Hertfordshire and Essex for much of its length.
Ipswich railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the town of Ipswich, Suffolk. It is 68 miles 59 chains (110.6 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and, on the main line, it is situated between Manningtree to the south and Needham Market to the north.
Eccles Road railway station is on the Breckland line in the east of England, serving the villages of Eccles, Quidenham and Wilby in Norfolk. The line runs between Cambridge in the west and Norwich in the east.
Little Thetford is a small village in the civil parish of Thetford, 3 miles (5 km) south of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England, about 76 miles (122 km) by road from London. The village is built on a boulder clay island surrounded by flat fenland countryside, typical of settlements in this part of the East of England.
Cambridge North railway station is a railway station located in Milton, Cambridgeshire, immediately adjacent to the Cambridge suburb of Chesterton, close to Cambridge Science Park. The station is on the Fen Line, which runs from Cambridge to King's Lynn. It connects to the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, and provides an interchange with Park & Ride and local bus services.
Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about 50 miles (80 km) north of London. Its main transport links are the M11 road to London, the A14 east–west road and the West Anglia Main Line railway line to London.
Anglia Ruskin Boat Club (ARBC) is the rowing club for members of Anglia Ruskin University. It was known as CCAT Boat Club until 2008. The name CCAT derives from a former name for the university, the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, which is abbreviated to CCAT. The boat club kept the name CCAT much longer than its linked place of education – it was once thought the club would lose its positions in the bumps races if the name were changed, but that is urban legend.
Wandlebury Hill Fort, also known as the Wandlebury Ring, is an Iron Age hillfort located on Wandlebury Hill in the Gog Magog Hills, Cambridgeshire, England, to the southeast of Cambridge. Now a country park, it was the most important of three hillforts in the downs.
'Clara Dorothea Tabor was an English feminist and politician active in the women's suffrage movement, the Women's Co-operative Guild, the peace movement, adult education, the family planning movement, and the labour movement. She was a pioneering magistrate, Poor Law Guardian, educator, anti-poverty campaigner and penal reformer in the city of Cambridge where she was a long-serving city and county councillor. Clara Rackham was vice-chairman of Cambridge County Council from 1956 to 1958 and chairman of the Cambridge County Council Education Committee from 1945 to 1957. She first came to prominence through her leading role in the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and later became a significant national figure in the labour movement, acquiring a formidable national reputation for her expertise on factory conditions, workers' rights, equal pay, and national insurance.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Cambridge, England.
Allan Brigham (1951–2020) was a British road sweeper, historian, and tour guide. His historical writing includes Bringing It All Back Home (2006), a report published by the Chartered Institute of Housing, lamenting the decline of the Romsey neighbourhood of Cambridge, and his many contributions as a founder member of the Mill Road History Project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund in 2013. His honours include a Tidy Britain Group Silver Broom award and an honorary degree from the University of Cambridge.