Skip to content
  • home
  • map
  • search
Capturing Cambridge
  • search
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Home
  • /
  • Projects
  • /
  • Trumpington
  • Back Forward
A monochrome drawing of a man with wavy hair, sideburns, and a high-collared coat with a dark necktie, viewed from the chest up.

Walter Hancock, Empty Common

Empty Common

History of Empty Common

An 1831 satirical drawing showing various steam-powered carriages and bicycles emitting thick smoke on a bustling street.

1831 cartoon on steam coaches

In 1839, according to The Cambridge Nobody Knows (1977), Han[d]cock’s Steam Coach, built to run between Cambridge and London in four and a half hours, arrived for the first time on 30th September. It was described as a lumbering carriage with a dozen seats. One after it left the road and came to rest in Empty Common. The following day it left for the races at Newmarket and was never heard of again.

Walter Hancock

Projects

  • Trumpington

Share this article

Share onFacebook Share onBluesky

Contribute

Do you have any information about the people or places in this article? If so, then please let us know using the Contact page or by emailing capturingcambridge@museumofcambridge.org.uk.

Licence

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 not including content on external links as indicated byexternal link.

Trumpington

21 (25), St Guthlac’s / Southmead, Chaucer Road

Anstey Hall (House), Trumpington

Trumpington Hall

Trumpington History Trails

3, Thornlea, Chaucer Road

Trumpington Churchyard Extension

2 Chaucer Close

1 Chaucer Close

2 Latham Close

98 Paget Road