Down Your Street, Cambridge Past & Present: Volume I Central Cambridge

The Pevensey Press, Cambridge, 1983. Reprint. Paperback. Very Good/N/A. Illustrator: Photo's. b/w. map frontis; "Side by side, the M.A. and the mechanic, men in broad cloth and boys in fustian." John Pink was describing users of the Cambridge Free Library (in "The Cambridge Public Free Library, Its Rise and Progress", Cambridge, 1882), but his words are still relevant and apply to the people we meet in the pages of this book. In the streets of Cambridge people mingle - those who make the city, those who have been made by the University, long-term resident and transient undergraduate. Unlike many historians of Cambridge, Sara Payne studies the whole community, giving equal attention to town and gown. She takes us inside the colleges, offices and shops that dominate the streets of the city centre to meet the individuals behind counter or desk; and she goes into the homes of citizens to learn their stories and memories, which have been recorded in no other book - an impressive claim, for new and antiquarian bookshops contain dozens of shelves of studies of Cambridge, thousands of pages of learned and detailed texts. Sara Payne has had access to virtually all of them, and to more besides, thanks to the enthusiasm of John Pink and his Library Committee, who set out in 1855 to collect "every scrap" relating to the town and county, and whose work has been continued ever since in the Cambridgeshire Collection of the Central Library. In 1921 Arthur Beales Gray published his marvellous book "Cambridge Revisited", which has much in common with the present work. They both started as a series of articles in local newspapers, they both contain information that is not readily accessible or has never been published before, and they both contain historical and contemporary notes on Cambridge streets. Much of what Gray saw in 1921 still survives, and it is fascinating to follow the same routes with Sara Payne and note the changes. A neat & clean copy; including list of contents, foreword, preface, & bibliography. Size: 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. 176 pages. no Dust Jacket as published.. Black titles spine. slight crease to top outer corners of cover. illustrated by b/w. photo's.. Illustrator: Photo's. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: History; East Anglia; Topography Great Britain; Photographs; England; Genealogy & Local History. ISBN: 0907115160. ISBN/EAN: 9780907115168. Inventory No: 4683. . 9780907115168