Brookside, Trumpington Road

History of Brookside, Trumpington Road

18/1/1926 Sir – Years ago the owners and residents of Brookside, Cambridge, planned and built their houses. Naturally these men were entirely ignorant of the future introduction and rapid growth of motor traffic and innocently planned their property to the main road in the form of a large parking place. Necessity soon decided that man should chose sites as parking places for stationery traffic to shelter from danger, load and unload etc, out of the busy road. Now an avaricious council espied the large ready¬ made parking place and coveted it, causing its lawful owners such ‘nuisance’ as will eventually drive them from their homes. – Sympathetic Ratepayer (Cambridge Press)

11/5/1926 The Recorder gave his judgement on the appeal of residents of Brookside, Cambridge, against the council’s order authorising part of Trumpington Road as a parking place. They anticipated noise from the vehicles and their attendants who would gaze into their windows. They also thought it would be used for charabancs and omnibuses. Having heard the evidence and visited the spot he was satisfied that the fears are to a great extent groundless (Cambridge Press)

Jack Overhill describes the bombing raid  which left 12 dead in Hills Road in his diary entry for Tuesday 25th February 1941:

The reason for this attack, probably due to a convoy of tanks that came into the town last night and wound its way along Hills Road, over the bridge with lights on and looking like a great bloody snake accordingly to a chap who told me about it. The tanks are still parked round Cavendish Avenue and a convoy of lorries is along Brookside, so we’re wondering if we’ll get it again tonight.