Balsham wind turbines (RGL2026)

Balsham data

Balsham data

Balsham Map :

https://www.balshammap.net/blog

190208 14
It would appear from a case of assault that the village of Balsham is not tolerant of strangers in their midst. A couple of shepherds were quietly walking along the road and were unfortunate enough to pass near two Balsham men who were engaged in a wordy war. “Oo’s that, Bill? “Dunno”. “Then ‘eave ‘arf a brick at ‘is ‘ead”. The men of Balsham appear to have fallen violently upon the strangers for no other reason than that they were strangers. It might be just as well that peacefully disposed people should in the course of their wanderings in Cambridgeshire keep the incident in mind.

1903 12 17
Three Balsham labourers were seen in a gravel pit adjoining Wratall Farm with a loaded gun, rabbits and nets in their possession. They claimed they had a right to be there. Under the Enclosure award two acres were apportioned for the benefit of the parish but the herbage was reserved to the rector who sub-let it. A gate was to be erected and kept in repair by the rector, but this had not been done so he had forfeited his rights. One of the men was a member of the Parish Council, by whom it had been discussed.

1904 12 10
A party of Macedonian gypsies, apparently coming under the designation of ‘undesirables’, are being chased from one county to another as vigorously as civilised government will permit. No county wants them, no county will have them. Hertfordshire police have pushed them on to the Essex police and today the Cambridgeshire police are putting them over the boundary where the same process will be repeated. At Stump Cross Linton police received charge of the forty-old wanderers and obtained horses to drag the alien caravans to Balsham where other police were waiting.

1904 12 12
At Balsham police searched in vain for horses to pull the Macedonian gypsies’ caravan and hit upon the expedient of pressing a traction engine into service. So the motley crowd with their caravans and tiny ponies proceeded on their weary way. The idea of being drawn along by a traction engine greatly delighted the wanderers who crowded into their caravans and very contentedly made the journey into Newmarket where they camped for the night on the Heath. The police accompanied the party as far as the Red Lodge where the Suffolk authorities continued with the procession, their intention being to dump the vans on land at Brandon in Norfolk. (Mike Petty)

1909 01 29
Mr Rose, MP, toured his constituency by motor car and had an enthusiastic welcome from old age pensioners many of whom had their pension books in their hands. At Balsham one old fellow, trembling with gratitude, had just drawn his ten shilling pension. “I remember working all day long for eight shillings a week for my wife and I to live on. Why we be gentlefolk now, picking up tenshillings every week and nothing to do for it”, he said. At West Wickham the children stormed the car and would be satisfied with nothing but a ride. CWN 09 01 29

1909 09 03
There was a serious fire in Back Lane, Balsham, when two cottages belonging to Mr Cornell were burnt down. Someone was trying to burn out a wasps’ nest in the house-thatch which caught fire. There are some 20 cottages close together in Back Lane but P.C. Lovett and others directed their efforts to prevent the fire spreading. At Barley a young man was arrested for setting light to a hay stack near Broadmore Pond. CEN 09 09 03

1938 06 07
One of Balsham’s oldest inhabitants, Suzan Chambers, figured in a fire drama when the picturesque cottage she had lived in for 89 years was completely destroyed together with the one alongside. Firemen concentrated on saving other thatched buildings and had to damp down the old Tythe barn attached to the Rectory to prevent it being damaged. So rapidly did the flames spread there was notime for salvaging more than a few trinkets and a couple of chairs. Mrs Chambers’ parents, grandparents and great-grandparents had lived in the same cottage– 38 06 07, 38 06 08

1939 08 04
Owing to a misunderstanding, a fire at a cottage-cum-general-stores in Balsham High Street was raging for forty-five minutes before the Fire Brigade was notified. But they managed to save a semi- detached cottage. The blaze broke out in an out-house and destroyed all but a front room and bedroom; a garage at the back was razed to the ground. Although most of the property perished, a tin containing money collected for Addenbrooke’s Hospital was found to be intact after the fire – 39 08 04 & b

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Mike Petty:

BalshamScrapbook 1897 to 1990.doc