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The Female Refuge, Christchurch (Church) Street

History of Female Refuge

The Open University Cambridge Women’s Refuge project can be found here.

Cambridge Women’s Refuge

According to 1959 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments Survey of Cambridge  the building was of brick and had slate covered roofs. An institution was established at Dover Cottage, East Road, in 1838 to ‘afford to females who have been leading a sinful course of life, and express a desire of returning to the path of virtue, a temporary refuge where they may be sheltered from temptation, be provided with proper employment, receive religious and useful instruction.‘

In 1839 the managing committee started looking for new buildings. The building at this location was completed by 1841. In 1959 it was divided into flats.

Plan of Female Refuge Christ Church Street

1861

Elizabeth Lofts, widow, 61, matron, b Soham

Mary Wilson, spinster, 59, submatron, b Histon

Charlotte White, 23, inmate, b Hunts

Eliza Taylor, 19, inmate, b Chesterton

Sophia Linsford, 18, inmate, b Hunts

Sarah Flack, 18, inmate, b Cambridge

Lousia Shalton, 16, inmate, b Cambridge

Elizabeth Thacker, 22, inmate, b Peterborough

Elizabeth Doyen, 16, inmate, b Cambridge

Harriett Peak, 18, inmate, b Cambridge

Emma Coxall, 20, inmate, b Cambridge

Ellen Page, 20, inmate, b Cambridge

Eliza Larkins, 18, inmate, b Chesterton

Mary Collins, 18, inmate, b Sutton

Ellen Webb, 16, inmate, b NK

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License

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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