140 & 141 East Road, The Three Compasses, Cambridge

History of the Three Compasses

1898
Fanny Elizabeth Laxton, an unfortunate, was charged with wilfully breaking two panes of glass at the Three Compasses, East Road Cambridge, doing damage to the amount of one shilling and with refusing to quit that house. She was also charged with being drunk. For breaking the window she was sent to prison for a month with hard labour, and for refusing to quit two weeks with hard labour. Prisoner was removed to the cells vowing vengeance. As she left the dock to the regions below her voice could still be heard crying, “You ought to wear a Salvation Army bonnet, that you ought”
Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge East Road Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, reference 1898.

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29 April 1910
A Willingham labourer was charged with stealing £40 in gold from his mother. His parents had gone to work leaving him alone in the house and the money under the mattress of the bed. The neighbour saw the lad with a handful of gold and a search revealed it had gone. Police discovered he had been showing a lot of gold in a public house at Longstanton before leaving for Cambridge by train. When arrested at the Compasses lodging house in East Road he said “They should not leave the money lying about in the house. I told her I should do her one. She always scrapped the last penny out of me and is always cadging money of me”
Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge East Road Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, reference 10 04 29c.

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1913 The Three Compasses

H W Beamiss