Steam Laundry Cottages c1950. No. 6 is closest to the camera which is looking north.

Laundry Cottages, Laundry Lane (5), Cambridge

History of 5 Laundry Cottages

1891

Wilfred Freeman, 38, general labourer, born Royston

Jane, 38, laundress, born Cherryhinton

John Henry Fuller, step-son, 15, gen. labourer, born Cherryhinton

Sidney Fuller, step-son, 8, born Cherryhinton

1901

Arthur J Case, 28, asylum attendant, born Cambridge

Ann C, 26, born Northants

1911

(Laundry Cottages)

Charles Patten, 26, bricklayer, born Cherryhinton

Emily, 28, born Trumpington

Rose, 7, born Cherryhinton

Frederick, 4, born Cherryhinton

Sidney, 4, born Cherryhinton

Maude, 3 months, born Cherryhinton

Charles Edwin Patten: Private 16814, 11th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment. Killed in action 20 September 1916. Aged 31. Born Cherry Hinton, enlisted Cambridge. Husband of E. M. Patten, of 3, Gothic St., Brookside, Cambridge. In the 1911 census he was aged 26, the husband of Emily, father of two daughters and twin sons, a bricklayer, born Cherry Hinton, resident Laundry Cottages, Cherry Hinton. Buried in RATION FARM MILITARY CEMETERY, LA CHAPELLE-D’ARMENTIERES, Nord, France. Plot II. Row B. Grave 17. See also Cambridge Guildhall and Cherry Hinton (St Paul’s Roll of Honour)

1939

Kenneth A Hurrell, b 1914, laundry van driver

Doris J, b 1916

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In 2020, Barbara, who lived in no. 5 when she was a child, wrote:

In the 50s the cottages were, I think, much as they had been built – there was no electric lighting upstairs, only cold water to both the sink and a brick lined drain in the kitchen and the usual outside toilet and coal shed in the tiny yard; not unusual in the post war years, I am sure. They do look tiny, to accommodate the families with all those children … but from memory, it was a very happy and safe place to grow up.