Exploring the Museum of Cambridge
All are welcome to join us in our library to meet social historian and landscape archaeologist Lucy Walker who will be talking all things Museum of Cambridge and how she came to be a trustee of the museum.
From traditional eel griggs and fenland witchcraft to an early domestic food processor, an industrial scale apple peeler and corer, and a beautiful piece of embroidery by a recovering WW1 soldier, the Museum of Cambridge, shares the extraordinary stories of ordinary people over the last 300 years.
It was founded in 1936, as the Cambridge and County Folk Museum, by local people who wanted to conserve things that represented ways of life which were fast changing. The wonderful, eclectic collection was donated by people in the town (now city), the villages and the countryside – including the fens. From households and colleges, local businesses and industries, craftspeople and pubs, the museum includes paintings and pub signs, things domestic and relating to traditional trades and local businesses, photographs and news bills, as well as children’s toys and personal items.
The collection is housed in the former White Horse Inn, a characterful 16th century timber-framed building, and visitors sense history all around. Probably built on the backfilled ditch of the old Roman fort, it is located at an important crossroads in the old quarter of the city – opposite the Norman castle mound (with wonderful views across the city) and close to the ancient river crossing of the old port which connected the North Sea world and the fens with East Anglia and the Midlands.
Lucy Walker
Lucy is a landscape archaeologist, social historian and trustee of the Museum of Cambridge. She is interested in heritage, place and identity, exploring issues around social change and material culture, migration, memory and belonging. She is a founder member of the Mill Road History Project in Cambridge, which built the social history website Capturing Cambridge, now hosted by the museum. She has lived and worked in Cambridge for many years, and brought up her family here.
Both hotel and non-hotel guests are welcome. Please RSVP to events@universityarms.com
Facilities
- Accessibility Guide
- Air conditioned
- Bar
- Disabled Accessibility
- Facilities for Disabled Guests
- Fitness Centre
- Luggage storage
- On site parking
- Restaurant
- Room Service
- WI-FI
Accessibility Facilities
- Accessibility Guide
- Assistance dogs welcome
- Blue Badge Parking
- Designated wheelchair public toilet
- Staff available to assist
- Wheel chair accessible
