Nostalgic throwback to places and faces of Ely's past

%image(15916890, type="article-full", alt="Standen’s Christmas dinner in 1972")

Each week, we will be delving into the archives of the Ely Cambridgeshire Old Photos Pictures Local History Facebook group to unearth archive photos from the last century.

%image(15916891, type="article-full", alt="Silver Street Junior Boys Mrs Thurmott's Class c.1953")

Described as "a place to store and share all old photos of Ely", the group "accepts anything that may be of interest to others.

"Ideal for local history groups and schools."

%image(15916892, type="article-full", alt="Newspaper clipping from 28th May 1970. Haddenham Young Farmers winning float at the Soham Carnival.")

All images are credited to individual members of the Ely Cambridgeshire Old Photos Pictures Local History Facebook group.

Join the page - which has thousands of members - online.

%image(15916893, type="article-full", alt="1936: Undergraduates, tired of their boring existence at the university, found a new way of letting off their spirits. A party ‘invaded’ the fair on Midsummer Common and obtained permission from the proprietor of the Wall of Death to give a display. Two mounted on motor cycles and the others on bicycles then gave a short show with plenty of impromptu thrills and spills. Fortunately no proctors appeared on the scene")

%image(15916894, type="article-full", alt="1900: A most disastrous fire broke out in the centre of Soham which has reduced to a mass of blackened ruins an ancient hostelry, with its contents and outbuildings, a tradesman’s shop and houses, & rendered homeless a dozen persons.")

%image(15916895, type="article-full", alt="Fully described as "Ely's Own Memorial to Her Own Fallen Heroes" - the shrine containing the Rolls of Honour of 224 men of the Ely Urban District who paid the great price in the war – was unveiled on Sunday afternoon in the presence of an attendance numbering several thousands. By a happy choice the shrine is located on the Market Hill, in the heart of the city, and on the spot made sacred by its association with a temporary wooden shrine, which was placed there during the war")

%image(15916896, type="article-full", alt="Feelings have been running high in the ancient village of Reach over the break in tradition with the date of their fair. It has always been opened on Rogation Monday by the Mayor of Cambridge but this year the date of Mayor-making has been changed so it has been brought forward. Villagers are concerned a precedent would be established and it would be on Christmas Day next! This is the only social event in the village and coincides with the Chapel Anniversary when locals parade their new spring clothes")