From disappearing concrete and The Shadows to famous tennis players and unwanted arrivals, take a step back in time and discover some of the faces and places of Ely's past.

%image(15916532, type="article-full", alt="London children come to Burwell in June 1914 in two batches for a fortnight’s holiday; there is need for someone to arrange lodgings for them but nobody wants the job. There has been so much mischief done by these holiday children that they cannot get a person to look after them. People take these children who have no room for them and the children are huddled up anyhow, Poor Law Guardians were told.")

The archives from historian Mike Petty continue to offer historical gems.

%image(15916533, type="article-full", alt="A chapter of accident befell Miss Kay Stammers, one of Great Britain's two leading women tennis stars, when she went to Soham. The purpose of her visit was to "christen" a hard court presented to the town. Travelling from London by train Kay intended to get out at Cambridge, but overshot her target and found herself in Ely. She booked a taxi to take her back to Soham but it says little for the local knowledge of the Ely taxi drivers for the car went straight through the village and on to Newmarket. Eventually she arrived at Soham, where a mystified crowd awaited, only three-quarters of an hour late.")

%image(15916534, type="article-full", alt="Disappearing concrete: in May, 1913, Ebenezer Driver, an Isleham gravel and shingle merchant told the court he owned 16 lighters and a steam tug. He’d delivered eleven lighter loads of sand and gravel to Southery for the Methwold & Feltwell Drainage Board to use as concrete at the pumping station. Heber Martin, surveyor of Littleport said he’d measured the barges and worked out the amount supplied. Joseph Whitehead said he’d carted it from the lighters. But the Board disputed the quantity. The suggestion that being fenland it had acted as a quick-sand and swallowed up the materials could not be accepted since the ground was so hard people could not get a pick into it. It was possible more sand and gravel had been used in making the concrete than they’d allowed for.")

%image(15916535, type="article-full", alt="Shippea Hill rail smash: In June, 1906, a Government Inspector’s report into the derailment of a passenger train near Shippea Hill concluded it was caused by unduly high speed over a portion of track under repair. At Cambridge Assizes a 15-year old boy from Prickwillow was indicted for having placed a sleeper on the railway line near Ely on the evening of March 6th. It was hit by the Norwich train and carried for a mile and a quarter")