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7 Market Hill
History of 7 Market Square
There seems to have been some confusion in the numbering of the properties on Market Hill. Two properties are list as no. 7 on different returns. Perhaps there was still some confusion after the great fire of 1849.
Headly family by Peter Filby (Cambridge Iron Founders 1996)
Cambridge Iron Founders, 1996, states that from the 1770s onwards there are references to William Headly, ironmonger. He was probably working from premises on Market Hill where Henry Headly was recorded in 1805. By 1807 Henry’s son Robert had taken over the business. Robert had two sons, James ind Headly and Edward Ind Headly. The ‘Ind’ would have been their mother’s maiden name; the Inds were a famous Cambridge brewing family. James was said to have been apprenticed to the Finch foundry.
Sometime between 1840 and 1846 Robert transferred the business to his sons, James and Edward, who had both married. In the 1840s there was a big expansion of their work, extending back from the street to Holy Trinity graveyard. The foundry was not popular and was described as a nuisance.
In 1846 (21 Feb according to Josiah Chater‘s diary) there was a serious fire at Headly’s Iron Foundry which seems from Josiah’s description to have been in or behind this location. The whole foundry was burned down and part of no. 4 and no. 5. The premises of Simpson and Basham in Petty Cury were threatened and all their stock was carried over to the Red Lion for safe keeping. The fire caused great concern; the Cambridge News wrote (28/2/1846) of the ‘exceeding impropriety of having such premises on such a site. They extend backwards from Market Hill as far a the corner of Trinity churchyard, surrounded on all sides by valuable property, much of which is built of wood.’
The Eagle Foundry on Market Hill was founded at the end of the 18th cent. by Robert Headly, father of James and Edward. The new premises, set up after the fire, off Mill Road were named the Eagle Foundry.
[Editor Note: the existence of two numeration schemes on Market Hill for two parishes has just been spotted and needs to be resolved – Sep 2024]
1851 St Mary the Great parish
(7)
Swann Hurrell, 34, ironmonger and merchant, b Foxton
Elizabeth Collis, 34, servant, cook, b Chesterton
Mary Gentle, 32, housemaid, b Lidlington
George Mason, 20, footman, b Fulbourn
[In 1841 Swann Hurrell is at 14 Market Hill]
1851 Holy Trinity Parish
(7) George Hartwell Roe, 38, watchmaker jeweller, b Devon
[John Hartwell Roe owned land at the site of the Leys Farm and Laundry off Milton Road]
Eliza, 37, b Cambridge
William Hartwell, 13, b Cambridge
Eliza Mary, 12, b Cambridge
Elizabeth Sell Roe, 10, b Cambridge
Charles Indeon Roe, 8, b Cambridge
Edward, 6, b Cambridge
Robert Cameron Galton, visitor, 20, b Switzerland
Charlotte Gilby, servant, 19, b Balsham
Eleanor Whitehead, servant, b Kent
In 1861 Swann Hurrell is a widower and living at 4 Newnham.
1861
George Hartwell Row, watchmaker and jeweller
1901
Elizabeth S Swann, 59, jeweller gold, b Cambridge
Margaret R, b Cambridge
May Moule, servant, b Cottenham
1913
Freeman Hardy and Willis, boot and show warehouse
3/9/1936: When John Brown took charge of Freeman, Hardy & Willis shop on Market Hill in 1897 boots were cheap, and needed to be: “I can remember country women coming in with a dozen children and saying their husbands only earned twelve shillings a week”. When he started brown boots were so scarce that people stopped and gazed at someone who sported a pair in Peterborough. Most had hob nails in the sole – even those for infants – and women wore elastic-sided boots – it didn’t matter what they wore, because you never saw their feet. The shop was enlarged into premises next door in 1905 (Cam News)
Market Hill Christmas 1915 (Cambridgeshire Collection)
In 2018, M & S Food Hall.
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