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2010 Diaries On Saturday 24th July we had the Cherry Hinton Community Groups Fair which was hosted by The Friends of Cherry Hinton Hall and showcased all different kinds of groups and clubs in the local area. It was a great chance to meet each other and find out what things are going on, in and around Cherry Hinton. We had a packed afternoon of displays and demos by some of the groups and then The Friends of Cherry Hinton Hall had its new logo unveiled by the Mayor. Local school children to entered a competition to design the logo and we had chosen a winner at our last meeting. There was a lovely bit in the paper about it last week and the Mayor spent some time with me finding out all about CCAN and looking at the Cherry Hinton CCAN :) Special thanks to Sandra Day who did such a fantastic job of pulling the whole event together.                                              
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2010 Diaries
I have been back down the cellers of Cherry Hinton Hall this morning to gather up and rescue more of the archives which were discovered there a couple of months ago. Oaks International School now rent the Hall building from the Council and the teachers and pupils there have been a fantastic inspiration. They have taken real care and interest in their school building along with the history of the site and local area. I went out to visit them a couple of months ago to take them some old maps, records and artefacts, relating to the building and site. Also to show the children around the parkland and point out all the lumps and bumps on the ground, telling them what we think is hidden beneath. While I took some of the children round the park one of the teachers did a history trail in the Hall building, which included a visit down the cellars The children came up from the celler clutching handfulls of interesting old documents from the mid 20th century and paper work which they had discovered down there. There were things like old Folk Festival programmes from the 1970's, Royal Ballet tickets, City Council amenities records and all sorts. I then went down into the cellars myself, to see where these had all come from. I found there was a very sizeable amount of these documents all piled up on a ledge and some in old decaying wooden crates. The cellars, were vey dark - no electricity - and very, very damp, with running water culverts in places. The documents were in need of being removed and examined as soon as possible. So it was agreed that I could go back sometime soon and take the archives out, remove them for examination and preservation. A couple of weeks ago, both myself and Jonathan Phillips, went down in the cellars to begin sorting this lost archive out but not having electricity and the sheer amount which was there, we decided to take a sample of the archive and come back another day with re-enforcements and better lighting! On Saturday the Oaks International School was awarded a CYPHA award (Cambridgeshire Young Persons History Award) at the CALH (Cambridgeshire Association for Local History) AGM & awards in Toft, Cambridge. I had put the school forward for this award, as I was so impressed by the work the children had produced on their local area, the interest they had shown in the history and how the teachers had been so encouraging. Today I have been back to the cellars, along with Jonathan & Nicola Phillips to retreive the remaining archives. This time we had much better lighting (it is very spooky down in those cellars!) and we spent a good couple of hours ferrying the archives out of the cellar to my car. There was so much! A lot had, sadly, been so badly damaged by water and had rotted but a huge amount was still fine - there was a lot of old council reocrds from the 1930's to late 1970's. Lots of interest, with things like parks and gardens records, items from the allotment society and records of the Cambridge Festival etc. My car was filled - literally! As so much of the material didn't actually relate to the Hall itself or just to Cherry Hinton village, I decided to give my friend Phillip Sauders a ring. Phillip is a well known Cambridgeshire archivist working at Cambridgeshire Archives (formally Cambrigeshire Records Office). I had a chat about what we had and asked him if I could pop up to Shire Hall to the Cambs Archives, so that he could have a look and see if he was interested. He agreed, so off I went, car nearly touching the floor with the weight! (good job I have an old banger). Phillip and one of the conservators came out to the car and had a good look and decided they would be able to take the archives in and sort them out, which was fantastic news :) Once they have had chance to go through them properly, Phillip will get back to me with an update and we'll see how it goes. So all in all, I'm very pleased that we were able to rescue these documents before they degraded any further. 
A nice example of one of the archives - such a wide range of things
The Cellars at Cherry Hinton Hall
Forgotten archives in the cellars of Cherry Hinton Hall
More lost archives in the cellars of Cherry Hinton Hall
Boxes of lost archives in the cellars of Cherry Hinton Hall
The Archives are saved! Off to the Cambridge Archives (formally the record office) with Phillip Saunders and the conservator
Shire Hall, Cambridge the new home for the lost archives from Cherry Hinton Hall
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I got out on Saturday morning to give a guided tour of Cherry Hinton Hall for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, which Tony Kirby had organised. We had a good walk around and I pointed out and explained the features in the grounds from the prehistoric archaeology to the Victorian parkland. We even made a quick trip out of the site, up the road to Giants Grave (Spring Head) which is the large natural spring pool opposite the Robin Hood Pub in Cherry Hinton. Last night, I went and gave a lecture on local archaeology and history to Cherry Hinton Local History Society, it was a great evening and I had a surprise visitor along, Barry Fuller, from the Cambridge Archaeology Field Group - he had been involved with Cambridgeshire Association for Local History 25 years ago and is a great friend of mine, he'd been trying to get the chance to come along to the history society for the last year and had finally made it, so it turned out to be a great evening all round :) |