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Blue Ball Inn and Charterhouse Terrace, Grantchester (MoC192/70)

Blue Ball, Broadway, Grantchester

History of the Blue Ball Grantchester

1767 earliest record

1770 licensed to Jame Butler

Blue Ball landlords

1785 hot air balloon flew or landed nearby giving pub its name

19th cent: brewery behind inn

1893 rebuilt after fire retaining original cellar

2014 acquired by Toby Joseph

Grantchester Pubs

 

Enid Porter in Cambridgeshire Customs and  Folklore p223 described the traditional game of Ringing the Bull still played at the time at the Fort St George and the Blue Ball in Grantchester.

A iron ring, about 2 inches in diameter is suspended from the ceiling some distance in front of an iron hook fixed in the wall at a height of about 6 feet from the floor.

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This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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Capturing Cambridge makes accessible thousands of photos and memories of Cambridge and its surrounding villages and towns. It is run by the Museum of Cambridge which, though 90 years old, is one of the most poorly publicly funded local history museums in the UK. It receives no core funding from local or central government nor from the University of Cambridge.

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Thank you,
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Museum of Cambridge