52 Sidney Street, The King’s Head

History of 52 Sidney Street

Circa 1816 there was an incident involving John Hazlewood, the gamekeeper of the rector of Dry Drayton, Dr Smith. Hazlewood had reported a poaching incident for which the culprit ws fined £5. When Hazlewood was in Cambridge he was waylaid by Henry Wagstaff who threatened to snip his ears so that everyone would know he was an informer and then to empty a bag of soot over his head. The gamekeeper ran followed by Wagstaff and a mob. Hazlewood took refuge in the King’s Head and Wagstaff was convicted and given a bindover of £100.

This was the site of The King’s Head. In the early 19th century it was a coaching inn and ran a daily coach, The Blucher, to Huntingdon. The head ostler, George Traise, moved from here and took over the licence of The Engineer in Hills Road in 1845. Barraclough (2018) notes that this was a smart move as the railway was putting coaching inns out of business. The King’s Head closed about 1851.

1851

Charles Loyd Davis, 44, inn keeper, b Hants

Susannah, 39, b Surrey

Maria, 12, b Cambridge

Westbrook, 7, born Cambridge

Susanna, 5, b Cambridge

James Vaugham, visitor, 39, solicitor’s clerk, b Surrey

Charlotte Haslow, 29, bar maid, b essex

Sarah Phillips, 25, waitress, b Suffolk

Maria Mean, 24, chambermaid, b Ickleton

Mary Taylor, 25, cook, b Isleham

William Savell, 22, boots, b Cambridge

1936, Blue Book

1861

George Augustus Shippey, head, 51, ironmonger employing 2 men, b Cambridge

Shippey moved here in 1860 from 59 Sidney Street

Samuel George Pateman, head, 36, linen draper, b Leics

1962

Eastern Gas Board

2018

Lakeland