Baker’s 1830 map of Hills Road showing weighing machine

Weighing Station, Hills Road

History of Weighing Station, Hills Road

According to ‘A Disorderly House‘ (Barraclough 2018) the position of the  toll gate run by the Stumps Cross Trust was relocated several times in order to make it as difficult as possible for traffic to avoid the weighbridge and subsequent charges for using the road into Cambridge from the south. In the 1820s the weighbridge was moved closer to Cambridge to catch traffic coming in from Cherry Hinton.

This location, opposite the modern Flying Pig pub, became a popular site for development in the 1830s. Fruit orchards were planted, a matings built and other dwellings including the inn that would become the Osborne Arms. Station Road was then marked by a field boundary.