Sidney Sussex College

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Mother Shepherd, shoe cleaner of Sidney College c 1773 (MoCPB168.82)

History of Sidney Sussex College

General information about Sidney Sussex College can be found on Wikipedia.

1841

The Cambridge Ghost Book, Halliday and Murdie, 2000 recounts the story of the ghost seen in the Master’s Lodge. Around midnight on 6th August loud noises were heard. The nursery maids then saw an apparition, a human figure with no arms walking on two white legs. The police were called; there were no physical traces but a strange smell. The Cambridge Advertiser reported the event in detail and its writings were repeated verbatim by The Times. The Cambridge Chronicle refused to publish any stories about the event.

An unusual attraction is a plaque commemorating the burial of Cromwell’s in a secret location nearby.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell%27s_head

Urbs Camboritum, Sidney Sussex College

Urbs Camboritum, Oliver Cromwell

The Cambridge Ghost Book, Halliday and Murdie, 2000, has a chapter about Cromwell’s head. In 1960 the college chaplain held a ceremony to mark the interment of the head; a very few people at the college at privy as to the whereabouts.

Dr Robert Phelps

Dr Robert Phelps (1808-1890) was Master of Sidney Sussex from 1843 until his death.

He was a leading figure in the introduction of gas light into Cambridge.

1967

On 1 November undergraduate John Emslie was waiting on H staircase for his friend to return to his room. Inside the room he witnessed a horrifying spectacle of a pale yellow emaciated head appearing in mid-air. He left the scene and his friend, Peter Know-Shaw, came back to his room to notice a strong smell of rotting flesh. The two friends then met to compare their experiences, leaving the room for that night in a panic.

There was a student in the room above; his fiancée was in the room the following afternoon when she saw a large purple eye floating in mid-air before the door. It stayed there for about 10 minutes. Over the next few days the eye was seen by other students accompanied by a musty smell. Varsity noted that ‘everybody takes it absolutely seriously. (Varsity 18th November 1967)

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