116 Broad Street, Ely

History of 116 Broad Street

The Harding family moved after 1939 to 116 Broad Street, next to Newson’s the butchers.

Ann Powell née Harding recalls: Next door to 116 we had a Bill Posting, with one large poster on the street and small ones on the side into the yard

At the top of Castlehythe where St Peter’s Garage is now, there was a general haulage firm called Drakes. My father worked there as a lorry driver. … Wartime brought another dimension, prisoners of war. The lorries collected Italian POWs from the Cambridge Road cmp and took them out to the farms to work. They were my father said,’ Like a lorry load of monkeys, full of mischief.’ There was no antagonism. They loved children and patiently taught me to count – ‘Uno, duo…’