Grantchester People Profiles: Leonard Colin Bass
Colin Bass and James Norton in Grantchester during filming c.2016
Written by Elizabeth Toller-Brown
Colin, as he was always known, was born in Grantchester, Cambridge on April 1933. His father was Ernest Bass, a gardener and his mother was Dorothy Bass, nee Childs.
The family lived in a cottage in the ‘Rose and Crown Yard’ and then moved to Barton Road, which later became Coton Road. When the council estate was built in the early 1960’s, they moved to Stulpfield Road and stayed there, eventually buying this house from the council.
Colin, a very shy and quiet child, became an equally shy and quiet man too. He went to the village primary school in Grantchester and then on to Bottisham Village College, travelling by bus.
Whilst Colin was at primary school, during World War II, the family had to take in two evacuee boys from London; one of whom stayed for quite a while and livened up the usually quiet household!
When he left school, he became an apprentice carpenter with Coulsons Builders of East Road and later left there to work at the Cambridge University Press, which was then in Trumpington Street. The firm moved to its’ Shaftesbury Road site in 1963. Everyone here thought so much of Colin, who carried out his carpentry duties diligently and calmly.
Colin Bass c.1970 at the Dot (Dorothy Ballroom, Cambridge) at the Cambridge University Press ‘Wayzgoose’ dinner.
He left the Press in the 1970’s, to work as a gallery attendant at the Fitzwilliam Museum and then he took a job as a driver at the Cavendish Laboratories. He really enjoyed this job, which sometimes took him to the centre of London, which he found easy to drive around, he said!
Colin’s hobbies included photography, travelling on steam trains, gardening and watching Cambridge United play.
He was acknowledged to be the local photographer for the ‘Grantchester’ series, when filming began in 2014 and was soon on friendly terms with the leading actors!
Colin Bass and Robson Green Grantchester during filming c.2016
Colin was engaged twice; both times to an Elizabeth, but he never married and never moved out of Grantchester.
Thankfully, he continued to drive until his late eighties.
He died in Addenbrookes Hospital on 27th September 2023, aged 90 years.
*Note from Michelle: You’ll find many of Colin’s photographs on this site as they are archived, just click on Colin Bass on the tag below.