A row of large, ivy-covered brick houses with bay windows and steep gables, with a horse-drawn carriage and men on the street.

45-61 Chesterton Road later Arundel House, Chesterton Road

61 Chesterton Road, Arundel House, Cambridge

History of Arundel House, Chesterton Road

One of a series of Grade II listed late nineteenth century buildings.

1891

Boston E Fordyce, 32, registered general practitioner, b Scotland

Mabel Dakeyne née Moxon, 23, b Northants

Mary Montague, 1m, b Chesterton

Erie Low Pritchard, visitor, 22, registered surgeon, b Kent

A tinted postcard view of Chesterton Road showing a tree-lined street, a river on the left, and a row of Victorian houses.

61 Chesterton Road c.1910

1901

Elphinstone Fordyce, 42, b Scotland

Mabel, 33, b Northants

Maby, 10, b Chesterton

Elsie, 6, b Chesterton

Charles, 3, b Chesterton

Hannah Newitt, 18, nurse, b London

Ethel Titmarsh, 20, housemaid, b Hemingford Grey

Minnie Nelson, 22, cook, b Cambridge

Three women and a boy stand outdoors in front of a building, with a cane-backed chair and a bench nearby, in a 1909 photograph.

Fordyce family at Hunstanton 1909: Elsis, Charles, Mabel and F K Woolston

Sepia-toned portrait of a middle-aged man with a mustache and spectacles, wearing a suit, waistcoat, and high collar.

Boston Fordyce 1909

Handwritten text on grey paper reads Dr Boston Elphinstone Fordyce, Belived to have had red hair, and the date 1909.

Boston Fordyce 1909

1911

Boston Fordyce, 52, surgeon, b Scotland

Mary, 20, b Chesterton

Elsie, 16, scholar, b Chesterton

Late Hard, servant, 20, housemaid, b Needingworth

Jennie Hollingsworth, 23, cook, b Suffolk

A row of Victorian brick houses with bay windows and a corner turret stands behind a grassy riverbank where cows graze.

61 Chesterton Road Cambridge c1910

Cattle graze by a river with a footbridge and a two-story building in the background, set against a backdrop of open fields.

View from 61 Chesterton Road Cambridge of Jesus Green

1913

Boston Elphinstone Fordyce MB CM surgeon, Alderman of the County Council

A group of formally dressed people, including a young girl in a white dress, stand before iron gates in this vintage photo.

Boston Fordyce

1914

May and Elsie dance in the Merton Cottage Flower Frolic (Camb Ind Press Jun 1914 p11)

1916

Mary Montague Fordyce (b 1891) married Ashley Tabrum in 1916 at St Luke’s Chesterton.

A scrapbook kept by Elsie Fordyce started in 1916 has survived and with the kind permission of her family is reproduced here with notes. The scrapbook covered the period from 1916 up until the 1940s.

Elsie Fordyce family scrapbook

Two men and three women pose in front of a brick wall, with handwritten names and the date May 1917 inscribed below them.

Fordyce family 1917: Bertie, May, Mable, Elsie, Charles

A black and white group portrait of V.A.D. staff in military and civilian uniforms, arranged in rows on a cobbled surface.

V.A.D. HQ Pike Lane 1918

Elsie served as a V.A.D. driver in WWI from June 1918 to March 1919.

A pink printed record card with handwritten details for Miss Margaret Indyce, dated 1 December 1919, from 61 Chesterton Road.

Elsie Fordyce VAD

A pink document with printed headings and handwritten details about service dates, the 1st Eastern General Hospital, and VAD.

Elsie Fordyce VAD

A large group of soldiers in uniform stands in a garden before a brick wall and a multi-storey building with arched windows.

V.A.D. HQ Staff, Pike Lane, A.C.W. R.F.A. B/79 1917

Seven people in various costumes pose for a group portrait, with a handwritten caption below reading Victory Ball, Cambridge.

Victory Ball, Cambridge April 1919

Charles Elphinstone Fordyce (b1897) served in the Seaforth Highlanders during WWI. In 1934 he was land agent for the Vetripont Estates Co. In 1935 he married the Hon Violet Ethel May Hennessy.

1920

Elsie danced in the chorus of a production of Purcell’s Fairy Queen at the Cambridge New Theatre (Cambridge Daily News 11.2.1920)

She also danced in a production of Milton’s masque Comus at Merton Hall Garden (Cambridge Daily News 8 Jun 1920)

1921

Boston E Fordyce, 62, medical practitioner, b Berwicks

Mabel D, 54, b Northants

Elsie M, 26, b Cambridge

Hannah E Carlton, housemaid, 18, b Horseheath

Boston E Fordyce died in 1932 in Cambridge

A man with a mustache and glasses sits on a garden chair wearing a suit and tie, with handwritten text below the image.

Boston Fordyce 1922

Mabel Fordyce 1922

Elsie Fordyce 1923

Sepia-toned portrait of a man with short dark hair and a thin moustache, wearing a suit, white collar, and dark necktie.

Charles Fordyce 1923

May Fordyce 1924

A group of nine people, including a young girl and a woman holding a small dog, stand in a garden before a house.

Fordyce family

Two men in light-colored breeches and tall dark boots stand on a field, one wearing a dark jacket and the other a white shirt.

Angus Campbell Walker and Major J W Hornby, 12th Lancers, Shendi, Sudan, 1921

1924

Elsie is engaged to Angus Campbell Walker of the Sudan Political Service. They marry in June. They move to Norfolk but Angus continues to work in the Sudan. In 1936 they are both in Khartoum when Angus’s mother dies.

1962

Mrs C Kay

Arundel House Hotel opens — 30 November 1972
A new hotel opens in Cambridge this week – and with 33 bedrooms it becomes the fourth largest in the city. The new Arundel House Hotel is a complex of red brick houses on Chesterton Road overlooking the River and Jesus Green. The development follows the purchase of number 61 Chesterton Road last year and its conversion into a 12-bedroomed hotel. Now John Norfolk has converted two other adjacent properties he owns – from flats and bedsitters to an integrated hotel complex. “With house prices as they are now it is virtually impossible to charge a proper rent related to these new values,” he said. “The transition of Chesterton Road into a hotel was the obvious answer to get a proper return”

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Chesterton Road Area Scrapbook, reference 1972 11 30

Sources

Mike Petty Archive

Projects

Chesterton Road

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