  My Great Uncle Arthur Cruden at the 1st Camb. HQ in Cambridge. 1925
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 Stroki Cullins, 7 Packham, 6, 5, 4 Dant (Selwyn), 3 Wilkinson, 2, Bow Cruden (Arthur), Cox
This is my Great Uncle Arthur Cruden rowing on the River Cam by Stourbridge Common.  Old photograph c.1923 George Cruden, Russell Street Cambridge
 Old photograph c.1935 The Wayman Family, Oxford Road, Cambridge.
  Old photographs of Great Uncle George Cruden in his army uniform in the back garden of the house at Oxford Road, Cambridge c.1940's
 Marie Cruden, sitting in back garden of house in Oxford Road, Cambridge c.1920's
  2 old adverts for Eaden Lilley of Cambridge- a well loved shop that is no longer in Cambridge.
 Old photograph of Cambridgeshire Transport Section ? WWI
 Cambridgeshire Transport Section WWI
 Cambridgeshire Transport Section and my Great Uncle Arthur Cruden, who lived on Russell Street and then Oxford Road, Cambridge. Arthur is bottom right of the picture, as you look at it, sitting cross legged on the floor with his arms folded.
 My great Uncle Arthur Cruden, standing in the back garden of the house in Oxford Road, Cambridge c.WWII ?
 Old Photograph of a room in the Broom & Cruden family home on Oxford Road, Cambridge c. 1915-1925.
My granny (Connie Toller - nee Broom) talking about when she worked at Chivers Fruit farmers and Pye Radio in Cambridge c.1933
My granny (Connie Toller - nee Broom) talking about her first school in Russell Street, Cambridge c.1918 onwards - recorded in 2010
My granny (Connie Toller) talking about the house she lived in when she was very little(c.1915-1920's), on Russell Street, Cambridge.
My granny (Connie Toller) talking about her mum (Ada Broom) working in The Globe Pub on Hills Road Cambridge c.1915
This is my Granny (Connie Toller - nee Broom) talking about when she was little and lived down Russell Street in Cambridge. This is her tale of her brother Russ Broom and the balloon - this little incident would have taken place about 1919
Last night (8/07/2010) I stayed in a hotel in London called ‘The Grand Royal’, situated at no’s 1-9 Inverness Terrace, London – just to the north side of Hyde Park. To my surprise, after settling in, I noted that the hotel bar was named the ‘Lilly Langtree Bar’ as I waited at the reception to ask why the bar had been named so I also noticed that there was a glass display cabinet in the lobby containing several old frames photographs of Lilly Langtree. When I asked the lady at reception what the link with the hotel and Lilly Langtree had been, she was unsure but duly printed off a history of the hotel for me. According to the brief history which I was given, the hotel had been built/renovated at the turn of the last century, commissioned reputedly by Edward VII as a private residence for his mistress Lilly Langtree. The architect was Charles Mews who had just completed the London Ritz. What was unusual about the renovation was the addition of a private theatre – which is now the ‘Lilly Langtree Bar’ – Lilly Langtree was a famous socialite and actress and the hotel I stayed in last night was created, supposedly, as both a love nest and a career bolster for Lilly.
I took some photos of the pictures of Lilly Langtree displayed in the hotel lobby and some of the theatre bar which you can see below. The theatre bar originally consisted of two rooms, the front circular and domed (the auditorium), the second (the stage) rectangular with a proscenium arch between them. It is a very intimate space with mirrored walls and Venetian glass chandeliers with soft plush velvet seating. The wonderful, original Edwardian theatre seats are still there and in very good condition. My interest in this and surprise came from the fact that I had ended up in a place once frequented by my great grannies friend! My great granny was Ada Broom (previously Cruden, nee Hatchman) and when she lived on Russell Street in Cambridge she would let out rooms. Lilly Langtree had stayed at my great grannies house in Cambridge several times when she had been playing at the ‘New Theatre’ in Cambridge, which was just down the end of Russell Street on Hills Road (no longer there). My granny (Ada’s daughter) remembers Lilly Langtree staying at the house well. One of the tales she tells is how Lilly had a little dog she would carry under her arm (not too dissimilar from the Paris Hilton’s of today), granny told me how one day Lilly came rushing into the house calling “Mrs Broom, Mrs Broom!” and how grannies mum had come running to see what was the matter. Lilly had said “Oh Mrs Broom, it’s my poor little dog! He has hurt his foot!” Great granny had said “Alright dear, give him to me; let me have a look…now tell me what happened.” Lilly replied by explaining how she had been in town (Cambridge) and had gone to Boots (still there today!) and at the entrance to Boots there was a revolving door and as she had gone through the door her little dog had got his paw caught. She had rushed straight back to great grannies house on Russell Street. Great granny bandaged the little dogs paw and saw him alright. Granny told me how Lilly left a box of chocolates on the sideboard for her dog to have as a treat and had told great granny to give them to her dog every now and again when she was out. Granny said how her mum had said “Now dear, you are not to touch those chocolates coz they’re for the dog” and granny had replied “but they’re real chocolates for people” and granny still says today “they were you know!” So what a nice surprise it was last night to spend a night in a hotel where Lilly had once slept too! 
Lilly Langtree
Lilly Langtree
Lilly Langtree
Lilly Langtree
my room at the Grand Royale
original windows at The Grand Royale
The Lilly Langtree Bar
The Lilly Langtree Bar
The Lilly Langtree Bar
The Grand Royale
The Grand Royale
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This is my aunts story ( Joan Punter, nee Toller )- as she wrote it- March 2005.
I was born in 1940 so war was a normal state of affairs for me and my sister. The family ( grannie, aunts, uncles and cousin ) all lived in Oxford Road Cambridge. My father was away fighting the war in France, in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Uncle Bill was in the Fire Service and Uncle George was in the R.A.F. so men in uniform was normal. Uncle Russ and Uncle Arthur worked away some of the time in munitions, so ours was a world of women. We grew our own veg and salad, kept the allotment going to help Bill, with chickens and pigs to feed. We made our own clothes often and baked cakes and pies. Nights were spent sleeping under the air-raid metal ) table, surrounded by wire mesh on a red cross blanket. We had an Anderson shelter in the garden, which was cosy but cold and damp. We also went in the cupboard under the stairs when the siren went, and took it in turns to sit on the gas meter! Luckily for us the bombers which came over Cambridge usually headed up north to bomb our factories which made munitions, but I remember the sickening siren sound, followed by bombs exploding. My daddy was driving these baddies away, and he later told us how he came back from Dunkirk with bombs dropping all around and near their boat. He kept saying " Please God get me home to my wife and children." I was five when it ended, and all I remember then was red, white and blue everywhere, street parties, and best of all a new baby brother! ( Sadly I had friends whose daddy never came home as ours did.) Joan ( nee Toller )  This is the wrapper from a Cadbury's Picnic bar that I purchased, in the 1980's, from the sweet shop/newsagent on Adkins Corner, Perne Road, Cambridge
This is one of the paper bags from Heffers in Cambridge from the 1980's. I used to love that Heffers on Sidney Street. When I got birthday money I would go down the town and always go in Heffers. I'd go straight up to the first floor where there was lots of toys and nice things to see. I would nearly always buy some marbles and pretty stickers :)    A picture from one of our family picnics out down by the River Cam at Newnham. I have my E.T. lunch box and one of our dogs - I think it was Bianca, the Papillion.
Michelle Bullivant and sisters out for a walk around Castle Hill area in Cambridge, in the snow around 1984. That day we climbed up Castle Hill and played in the snow - we would often go to this small area of Cambridge and sometimes visit the Cambridge Folk Museum (now Museum of Cambridge). From left to right - Kerry Bullivant, Michelle Bullivant, Lynsey Bullivant  This is a picture of The Half Moon Inn, 80, Trumpington Street, Cambridge (corner of Little St Mary's Lane/Trumpington Street) There is a Church in place of this inn now and the Half Moon eventually moved down Little St Mary's Lane, where you can still see a half moon sign hanging outside one of the houses. We have many family tales of The Half Moon at various stages throughout its history. (Picture Courtesy of Cambs Collection.) Revised 2024 - new article forthcoming - see also Lamb Beer House, Little St Mary's Lane, Cambridge article.  This was found in a note book in the spare room at 146, Campkin Road, Cambridge, after Auntie Marie’s death (George & Marie Cruden were my great aunt and uncle- they lived at various addresses including Oxford Road, Cambridge and finally Campkin Road, Cambridge – George was my grannies brother [Connie Toller nee Broom]
A Garden of Memories by George Cruden At the bottom of my garden are large trees; in my garden more trees, but these are fruit (the latter belonging to me, but not the former). Along this fringe of trees runs a stream, or ditch, which divided my bungalow from a cornfield at some time. Unfortunately the cornfield has gone, but we now have birds – birds of all kinds – birds which rob me of a good deal of fruit; in fact I never get a cherry from the cherry tree, which has thousands on it by early June. Alas, I have to be content with a pound of imported ones usually from the shop down the road. Realising after many years that it is necessary to compromise on some matters I have given in, but not without a certain amount of frustration, mark you; after all, does a bird really know what grows wild and what I cultivated? Perhaps they think we are robbing them of Nature’s food. Every time I have killed one of these birds in the past I have been filled with remorse. The dawn chorus, which during May and June begins about three-thirty a.m. also needs some re-adjustment of life. However, I love my garden, and to potter about in the shade of the fruit trees, for instance, one remembers. One remembers, but does not plan; pleasant memories come crowding in of those years that have gone, of those people one knew, the places visited. For most of us, fortunately, we remember the most pleasant things above all, the sunny days especially. Why is it that we seem to have had March all summer years ago? I have to search my depths to remember fog or snow; it was there, certainly. Being a Londoner, and having been born at the turn of the century I certainly can remember fog – those cobblestone streets, the smell of leather, horses, stables and blacksmith’s shops (I still love the smell of leather, of which we now see little.) George Cruden |