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Hinton Avenue

Notes on the history of Hinton Avenue, Cambridge

The land on the north western side of Hinton Avenue, nos. 8ff, belonged to a John Cox who sold it to developer Thomas Dence in 1884. There were numerous restrictive covenants involved. John Cox may well have been the same person as the John Cox who was principal of Cavendish College in 1881. After being director there for ten years he was unable to cope with the crisis the college was in and he resigned in 1887. Cox left England in 1890 to become professor of Physics at McGill University in Canada where he stayed until 1909.

Thomas Dence is recorded as buying land in the village of Bourne in 1888.

Janet Slade moved to Hinton Avenue in 1960 to take up the position of art teacher at the County Girls School, now Long Road Sixth Form college. In 2016 she recalled the neighbours when she first moved into her artisan’s cottage:

 

Janet talks about her love of Cambridge and of how her neighbours in the road have changed over the years:

 

Janet’s husband John was a potter who worked in the shed at the back of the house. Janet meanwhile worked full-time as a teacher as well as looking after her family and house:

 

When Janet retired she wanted to set up her own pottery workshop. Here she describes how she went about building her new shed:

 

Janet describes the differences in technique between her work and that of her husband. They sold their ceramics initially at fairs on American bases and transported their wares in the sidecar of the motorbike they used:

 

She describes the local clays, glazes her husband made and how she won a car in a raffle that transformed their business opportunities:

 

She describes some of the ceramics that are on display in her house:

 

Sources: UK census, Ancestry UK, British Newspaper Archive, interviews

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