Dant’s Ferry

Cutter Ferry Cottage, Cutter Ferry Path, Cambridge

History of Cutter Ferry cottage

1871 Cutter Ferry (in 1861 the Dant family were at 3 Quayside)

Samuel Dant, ferry man

Mary Ann

Catherine

Harry

Samuel

Alfred

 

David Dant, waterman, b St Ives

Susannah Dant, granddaughter, housekeeper, b St Ives

Samuel Rogers, grandson, errand boy, b Cambridge

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1881 River Ferry, Cutter Premises

Samuel Dant, 48, waterman ferryman, b Hunts

Mary Ann, 47, b Norfolk

Katherine, 18, domestic servant unemployed, b Cambridge

Harry, 16, apprentice, b Cambridge

Samuel, 13, errand boy, b Cambridge

Alfred, 11, b Chesterton

Lizzie, 9, b Chesterton

Arthur, 7, b Chesterton

Alice, 2, b Chesterton

 

David Dant, 73, master waterman, b Hunts

Charlotte, 67, b Waterbeach

Eliza Sheldrake, niece, 35,

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1913

George L Hones

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1927

The Cambridge Ghost Book, Halliday and Murdie, 2000, describes the ghostly encounter in December 1927 which continued into January, reported in the press in January 1928. Various people saw apparitions in a marshy clump of woodland known as The Willows. Some claimed the ghost like shape would drift across the river from the direction of Abbey House. Some thought that this was just the discharge of marsh gas, known as will-o’the-wisp.

30 January 1928
The story of the Chesterton ghost has attracted crowds of people to the pathway skirting the Willows and there were quite 200 spook-hunters waiting for something to turn up. Of course nobody takes the story seriously and even children have braved the darkness and the barbed wire fences to join in the hunt. All sorts of practical jokes have been played and one enthusiast sallied forth with a sheet until people started throwing things! Someone said that the ghost was defunct, having been shot by a policeman. But if the spirit doesn’t materialise on the Willows it most certainly will in a licensed establishment in the adjoining Cam Road

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Chesterton Scrapbook, reference 1928 01 30.

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In 2026 MH wrote:

I’ve just come across your page while looking up my father’s childhood home – his father was George L Hones. His mother Margaret May Hones lived there also. Not sure if all their children lived there but I know my father Ray and his older sister Joy did. There was also the oldest daughter Rita and a son Robin who sadly died at 6 months  My grandma worked for Emmanuel college with the boats and my grandmother was a bed maker later on and moved to Tenison Avenue when my grandfather died in approx 1961 on the towpath near his home.