A-Z of Peterborough by June and Vernon Bull

It was pure pleasure researching material for this book which reveals the history behind the city, its streets, buildings and industries, and the people connected with the city. Alongside the famous historical connections are unusual characters, tucked-away places and unique events that are less well-known.

Peterborough is more than a collection of buildings of offices, shops and civic centres. It is a place where people work, find leisure, and live. It has a long and proud history from Jurassic through Neolithic, Bronze, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Mediaeval, Tudor, Georgian and Victorian to the present twenty-first century.

In more recent times, Peterborough has gone from a sleepy Fenland town to a vibrant city, and changes in the city’s social history, political development, local government and religious influence have, more often than not, brought progress and an improved quality of life.

Peterborough grew up around its cathedral, originally founded as an Anglo-Saxon monastery, but it was only in the nineteenth century that this city on the edge of the Fens started to grow to its present size as one of the largest cities in the East of England. The arrival of the railways and development of new industries in the early nineteenth century brought large numbers of people to Peterborough, and the expansion continued with its designation as a New Town in 1967, which led to a large programme of house building and redevelopment of the city centre under Peterborough Development Corporation.

The city is proud of offering protection to its first refugees – the Huguenots – French Protestants who  maintained their Calvinist religion whilst in Peterborough and many attended St John the Baptist, Peterborough’s Parish Church. There are two monuments to the left of the west door that remain as testament to the fact that our city, and indeed our Parish Church, made the Huguenots most welcome. James Delarue’s remains lie in a vault behind a monument commemorating the death of his wife Sarah, and his sister (also named Sarah) who each pre-deceased him. James, a wealthy banker, died on 12 March 1782 at his home 11 Bridge Street. When the Delarues occupied 11 Bridge Street it had a sumptuous staircase with the walls being covered in leather panels – all hand painted with exquisite Oriental scenes. To this day the city is a sanctuary to those fleeing persecution.

Our links with Coco the Clown, Nicolai Poliakoff OBE (b. 1900; d. 1974), one of the most famous clowns in history, who left behind a remarkable career is today the image of McDonalds fast food chain. So when you next have your big mac think of Coco the Clown!

Peterborough stands on dry land today but the seabed beneath our feet is packed with clues from the past. Fossils dug from the limestone and clay give a detailed picture of life in the Jurassic period. In fact, Peterborough is one of the best places in the world to learn about this period which saw an explosion in animal and plant populations.

Warm and watery, Peterborough was a very different place 165 million years ago. A shallow sea covered the area and the climate was much warmer than today. Peterborough was much closer to the equator in Jurassic times and would have felt as balmy as the Caribbean.

Whilst Peterborough was largely under the water the bodies of some dinosaurs that lived near the coast or riverbanks would be washed out creating fossils in rocks that were laid down in shallow seas.

Accidental discoveries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century found fossils in pits and quarries near Peterborough.

In 2014 a group of palaeontologists from the Oxford Clay Working Group dug up a 5.5-metre long-necked marine reptile, a plesiosaur, at Must Farm quarry near Peterborough, which they nicknamed Eve.

In 1942 we suffered an invasion in the Nene valley, not from Nazi Germany, but from the United States of America because the mighty US Eighth Air Force came to assist us in conquering Hitler’s empire. There were 350,000 airmen stationed in East Anglia with many of the airfields grouped to the west and south of Peterborough. In the south locals were outnumbered by these GIs (a term which stood for either  Government Issue or General Issue to describe American military personnel) based at Polebrook, Kings Cliffe, Molesworth, Kimbolton, Glatton, Deenthorpe, Grafton Underwood, Alconbury and Chelveston. The famous Hollywood actor Clark Gable would frequent many of Peterborough’s pubs.

From 1942 to 1945 the skies over the Peterborough area were filled with heavy bombers and their fighting escorts on their way to mainland Europe.

Also of distinction is the site of Norman Cross POW camp which was a 40-acre field purchased by the government in 1796. Its prisoners were captured mainly in naval engagements and held captive in the only purpose-built POW camp in England at that time and probably in Europe – if not the world!

Prisoners in the Norman Cross depot included ex-soldiers and sailors from France, Holland, Spain, Italy, and German states allied to France; a small number of women who followed their men into captivity; boys aged as young as twelve; plus many civilians from merchant vessels and government offices in enemy colonies captured by British forces.

Pastimes included roller skating and Peterborough’s first pavilion roller-skating rink opened on 8 December 1909 with its very own uniformed commissionaire. The Pavilion was next door to the Hippodrome theatre on Broadway – later renamed The Palace. However, the roller-skating rink had a fairly short exitance of four to five years as in 1913–14 it was closed and converted into Brainsby’s motor repair garage. At around this time there was another skating rink in Westgate called The Princess – so perhaps this proved to be the more popular of the two.

In 1716 Roger Long was rector of St Mary the Virgin, Orton Waterville, Peterborough, and he went on to become Master of Pembroke, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, and inventor of a water-bicycle and more significantly he designed and built a zodiac – now considered to be the first planetarium.

Those other Peterboroughs….. For the first time ever, the six Peterboroughs including our own were featured on an International Broadcasting link-up on Saturday 19 May 1951. Our city’s broadcast

came from the City Youth Centre in Bishops Road and was co-ordinated from a shortwave station called WRUL, Voice of Boston (USA), and lasted half an hour.

There are two Peterboroughs in the USA – one in New Hampshire and the other in New York State (spelt Peterboro); one in Ontario, Canada; and another two are in Australia – one in Victoria and the other in South Australia. The link-up was planned by Professor Carlton Wheeler, a retired modern languages teacher from Peterborough, New Hampshire.

We are delighted to provide this taster of our fair city once referred to by Charles Dickens as a place full of parsonages and pubs but now one of the fastest growing cities in the country!

A-Z of Peterborough by June and Vernon Bull is available for purchase now.