A 1798 map section showing Free School Lane, buildings, open spaces, and labels including St Bene't Street and Botolph Lane.

Free School Lane, 1798 map

3 Free School Lane (Luttburne Lane)

History of 3 Free School Lane

House no. 3 is divided from nos. 1 – 2 by a narrow single storey modern annexe. The walls are plastered timbered framing. It was built in the late 16th century and although all the windows have been since altered and the staircases reviews it remains rather less altered than most other houses of this type and date in the city. (1959 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments Survey of Cambridge)

Luttburne Lane appears on a map of 1574.

1841 Peas Hill on census

Edward Bell, 47, seedsman

Edward Bell, 14

Charlotte, 40, bonnet maker

William, 18, land surveyor

Sarah, 14, bonnet maker

James, 12

John, 11,

Charlotte, 9,

Alfred, 7,

Alice, 4,

Charles, 2,

Eliza, 13 mos,

Ann Carter, 21, servant,

Sophia Turner, 21, servant

A black and white silhouette drawing showing a family of twelve people arranged in an interior setting with a fireplace.

1842 silhouette of Bell family (courtesy SG-S)

An annotated diagram with lines connecting names and dates to silhouettes of family members in a domestic interior scene.

1842 key to silhouette of Bell family (courtesy SG-S)

A handwritten manuscript on aged, stained paper lists the birth and death dates of members of the Bell family.

c.1868 manuscript record of the dates and times of birth and death of the Bell family members (courtesy SG-S)

A printed digital transcription of a 1864 document listing birth and death dates for members of the Bell family.

Transcription of the 1868 manuscript record of the dates and times of birth and death of the Bell family members (courtesy SG-S)

A bearded man in a dark suit and waistcoat stands beside a decorative pillar, with the handwritten note mothers father below.

Edward Bell (1794-1865) a small carte de visit with ‘mother’s father’ written on it (courtesy SG-S)

1851

Edward Bell, 57, corn and seed merchant, b Cambridge

Charlotte Bell, 50, b Fulbourn

Edward Bell, 24, assistant, b Cambridge [in 1861 Edward Bell was at 26 Hills Road]

John Gillam Bell, 20, assistant, b Cambridge

Charlotte Diana Bell, 19, b Cambridge

Maryann Fabb, 22, b Great Swaffham

Charles Heavitree Todd, visitor, 24, astronomer at Cambridge observatory, b London

A studio portrait of a man with a thick beard and spectacles, wearing a dark suit with a decorative medal pinned to his lapel.

Sir Charles Todd

An ambrotype portrait shows a man in a dark coat and spectacles sitting beside a woman in a dark dress with white lace.

Charles & Alice Todd shortly after their wedding in 1855. Ambrotype image (courtesy SG-S)

In 1855 Alice Gillam Bell married Charles Todd in the old Baptist Church in St Andrew’s Street and they emigrated to South Australia the same year. In 1851 she was at school in Lewisham, Kent. Alice Thomson has written a book about her ancestors, ‘The Singing Line‘, pub 1999.

Book cover featuring a vertical wooden pole in a grassy field against a blue sky, with white text overlaid on the scene.

The Singing Line by Alice Thomson

See Histon Road Cemetery entry

In 1841 the family were living on Pea’s Hill

In 1861 the family were at 2 Parson’s Court

1887

Mrs Mary Greenwood, lodging house keeper

A narrow street view showing timber-framed buildings with overhanging upper stories and a hanging sign on Free School Lane.

1-3 Free School Lane, 1939 (photo K Cooke)

1930 – 1957

Ernest Clarke, picture framer

Bene’t Gallery which later moved to King’s Parade.

1981

Textile Studio

Projects

Free School Lane

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