A Tale of Survival - The Journey of a Cambridge Servant Girl 1846 - by Charlotte Rose
The Longest Journey
A Cambridge Heroine
Today we commemorate the bold and the brave. Yet for every well-known name, there is another yet unknown. One such woman I would like to bring to the forefront was but a humble servant girl, Miss Mary Leach.
After a regular evening of browsing historical newspaper reports, one ‘Atrocious Case’ caught my eye. The case of a young girl, Mary Leach. Miss Leach was just 19 years old in 1846. A servant girl residing in Cambridge with a Mr R Fetch, merchant. One can presume her life as a working-class girl in the mid 19th century was one of hard work and little reward. She was known as a steady, respectable young woman which, as you’ll come to find, are just modest attributes to her ferocious character.
I will now take you through the events of Monday, the 11th of May 1846, as they were published in the Cambridge Independent Press, on the 6th of June 1846.
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The Beginning
Armed with a basket of goodies, Miss Leach, with the intent of visiting friends, started her journey from Cambridge to Haverhill. She found herself walking along Hills Road in the hopes of getting ‘a lift’ from a passerby. Unaware she was walking toward her first unfortunate encounter; she made her way to the railway bridge.
The Railway Bridge on Hills Road (Charlotte Rose 2025)
An Unfortunate Encounter
About 1 o'clock in the afternoon she was overtaken by a gentleman, whom she assumed to be an undergraduate, riding a black horse. His conduct and pointed manner towards her induced her to expect some attempt at familiarity from him. As he proceeded on Hills Road, she saw her opportunity to avoid him and turned onto Cherry Hinton Road, also leading to Haverhill, via Balsham.
The Turning off Hills Road to Cherry Hinton Road. (Charlotte Rose 2025)
Very shortly after she came upon six men on horseback, who she again presumed to be undergraduates. They rode towards Cambridge, attended by three persons on foot, who she believed to be servants or grooms. She imagined they would be on their way back from the races.
Ambushed
About a mile from the Village of Cherry Hinton, she was overtaken by the young man on the black horse once more. Had he followed Miss Leach and turned off his path to do so? He immediately entered conversation with her, jumped off his horse and despite her resistance, seized and insisted upon carrying her basket. A gentlemanly gesture it was not, as just before they reached Cherry Hinton, he threw her basket into the road and galloped on. One could assume this was a juvenile retaliation to Miss Leach declining his lewd advances.
The Attack
Miss Leach continued her walk, basket in hand. She had not seen any of the previous parties along Fulbourn Road until half a mile from Cherry Hinton, the same young man suddenly appeared from behind a high hedge where he had secreted himself. He jumped from his horse and whilst walking by her side, began to put his hands around her waist and take liberties. At the distance of a few yards, he tried to pull her up a roadway. After hanging his horse to a post at the corner of the hedge, he succeeded in dragging her a short distance and as Miss Leach recounts, nearly overpowered her. She called out his horse was getting away and leaving her, he went to secure it. He offered her £5 and then £10 to comply with his solicitations. She states that he pulled her about a great deal, during her hard struggle with him. As though he hadn't just attacked a defenceless girl, the young man rode back towards Cambridge. Miss Leach once more continued her journey, having no expectation of seeing any party again.
Cambridge Road towards Fulbourn. (Charlotte Rose 2025)
The Conspiracy of Two
Between Fulbourn and Mr King’s farm (Great Shardelow’s), she was overtaken by a person, a gentleman who appeared to be about 40. He was riding in a small, dark coloured, four wheeled chaise, pulled along by a grey pony. Miss Leach asked him to give her a ride, but in consequence of him immediately inquiring if she had seen a young man on a black horse and something in his manner exciting her suspicion, she at once declined to ride. This caused him to jump out of the chaise and catch hold of her, declaring she should ride. He held her while her former assailant rode up. When they both endeavoured to get her into the chaise, the elder one cautiously took off her bonnet and shawl, placing it on the ground before the struggle commenced. The men used very disgusting language and said, “They would be damned if they wouldn't both go with her, and she should not have anything either.” At length failing they desisted and went back towards Cambridge.
Outside Mr King’s Great Shardelow’s Farm, which is now known as The Ark – Strawberry Fields, on Balsham Road. (Charlotte Rose 2025)
Threat at the Crossroads
Miss Leach again continued her journey in defiance. She did not stop anywhere, in consequence of knowing nobody on the road and of the great dislike she felt to mention the circumstance. On arriving at the spot where the Newmarket and London Road crosses that from Balsham to Cambridge, she was again overtaken by the two parties. The young man jumped from his horse and swore he would pull her into the plantation adjoining the road, with the elder one assisting him, again taking off her bonnet and shawl.
A Fight to Survive
Here she must have struggled most desperately and traces where two attempts were made to drag her up the bank. Attacking this unassuming servant girl had repercussions they couldn't have comprehended. Miss Leach gave the young man a black eye and scratched his face till the blood trickled down his cheek and kicked the elder of her assailants as he was going to take a hold of her legs; he not only gave up the attempt himself but persuaded his companion to follow his example and they both shortly returned slowly towards Cambridge.
The slip road onto the A11 which is where the original Newmarket and London crossroads were. (Charlotte Rose 2025)
OS Map 1885, showing the Charterhouse Plantation which adjoined what is now the A11.
The Persistent Assailants
By this time Miss Leach’s dress was torn nearly all round the waist and was pulled open behind from top to bottom. Her hair was in a most disordered state. She was engaged nearly a quarter of an hour in arranging her dress. Exhausted, she proceeded on her travels but was once more overtaken by the same parties before her arrival at Balsham, this occasion not using much violence, instead offering her money and held out every inducement for her to return to Cambridge with them. Taking their departure they again returned towards Cambridge.
A Weary Walk
Feeling ‘worn out’ and, as she termed it, ‘mauled’, with what she had undergone, she fainted by the roadside. When she returned to consciousness, she proceeded along her route but fainted twice more before reaching her destination, which she did not succeed in doing, until nine o'clock at night.
Aftermath and Evidence
The unfortunate consequence of the atrocious outrage on this poor girl is that she has been almost ever since subject to hysterical fits, during which she struggled most violently and utters all the exclamations which it is supposed she used when the attacks were made upon her. She has, of course, been rendered unable to return to her situation and is at present, unfit for service. It was not until Thursday the 21st of May, that her statement could be taken in writing. She experienced her recurrent fits during the recital of her ordeal. The parties, in all probability, reside in Cambridge and the young woman could identify them, if she had the misfortune to see them again. The police have, in vain, endeavoured to find them.
The man in the four-wheeled chaise, is described as dark and rather stout. He was dressed in a black coat and waistcoat, with a black satin stock, a gold pin and chain and black kid gloves. The young man on the black horse, supposed to be an undergraduate, had on a dark frock coat, a light waistcoat and neckerchief, light striped, lavender trousers, fastened under the boot. He had light hair, no whiskers and was a rather sawney, or sheepish looking in person, thin and looking as if he had been ill. He is supposed to have carried about with him, for some time, the mark on his eye and the scratch on his cheek.
(If this notice had been inserted immediately after the lamentable and disgraceful occurrence, above detailed, there can be little doubt that the parties would have been discovered. It was a mistake to suppose that the publication would have thwarted the ends of justice, it would have had the reverse effect. There has been time for wounds to heal, horses to be exchanged and the delinquents to escape.)
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Now, dear readers, you are aware of the formidable tale of Miss Mary Leach. We can only speculate that her life after this would have been marred with trauma, we can only hope her perseverance led her to a peaceful and content life. Perhaps as you walk down one of the Cambridge Roads mentioned, you can pay your silent respects to a girl whose sheer resilience made her complete this terrifying journey.
Since writing this article I have been to take present-day photographs of the approximate places mentioned. It was only as I walked in her footsteps myself, nearly two hundred years later, that it truly dawned on me how different it was then. Most of the roads I travelled down wouldn't have even been surfaced, the vast, country landscape, would leave a single girl, walking alone through the fields, completely vulnerable. You find yourself thinking of all the luxuries we take for granted; having help just a phone call away, the streetlights guiding us in the dark. I am pleased to say I have made the journey in her honour and hopefully this article will give her the recognition and admiration she deserves.
By Charlotte Rose
5th of December 2025 Cambridge.
The route from Cambridge to Haverhill, which Mary Leach most likely took.
Below are pictures of the original newspaper report: Cambridge Independent Press 6th of June 1846. (Courtesy of British Newspaper Archive)
You can download and read a copy of this story by clicking the PDF button below.
Charlotte Rose 5th of December 2025 Cambridge.