WRITER
Cambridge
The Scales Hotel… to the Portland Arms
The Scales Hotel, Cambridge … some time before 1920, which was rebuilt as the Portland Arms Hotel in the 1920’s In order to keep the license, when the rebuilding was taking place, one half was knocked down and my grandfather and the family lived in the other half, keeping the pub open while the rebuilding took […]
MoreCheers, grandpa
This glass must be nearly a hundred years old; it is always used as a champagne glass and that’s how I always think of it, although it’s not the traditional shape. The set I have belonged to my grandpa from when he had a pub called the Portland Arms in Cambridge. He died in 1950 […]
More
Town not gown
Sometimes, when I say I was born and brought up in Cambridge people accuse me (yes accuse is not too strong a word!) accuse me of being posh. They associate Cambridge with the prestigious university which has been there for about eight hundred years, not the town which has been there for two thousand if […]
More
Happy father’s day
My Dad… Donald, often known as Snick, was brought up in Cambridge, served for seven years in the parachute regiment during the war, became a scientist, moved with the family to the west country where he worked, retired and played golf. I was so lucky to have the father I had and even though he […]
MoreHorse chestnut trees
My earliest memories of horse-chestnut trees are being pushed in my pram along Victoria avenue, graced by towering rows of them. A little older and we walked beneath them, and then on the bus we would ride along, on the top deck so we were level with the branches and leaves. We didn’t have a […]
More
Lois Elsden 