Cambridgeshire Archives Service

30/10/2026

🎃 Hallowe’en Horrors - Conservation edition! 🎃

Swipe to see some of the records that have made us shriek…. If you dare!



This report has a triple whammy of mould, cobwebs, and rust damage! Yuck! 🕸️

This book has been infested with insects who have left their traces in the binding and on the pages 🪳

This document appears to have been nibbled by a mouse or rat! 🐀

These pages have been attacked by insects, possibly woodworm, which have made the paper flake into tiny fragments 🐛

27/10/2026

This is the first in a series of guides covering some of our most frequently viewed items. We hope these guides will prove helpful for those who are unsure which documents to consult for their research.

27/10/2026

Nearly there! For those of you participating in Stoptober and/or supporting friends and family, here is another post that is to***co related.

Ref: 2629/Z/168
Messrs. Bacon Brothers was a family-run to***conist founded in 1805. Their business was situated in Cambridge at 16 Market Hill and on the corner with Rose Crescent. At Cambridgeshire Archives, we hold this business collection and in part there are hundreds of postcards to view, like the witty one above, that were sent by soldiers fighting in the First World War. Bacon Bros. would send goods to the men who in turn wrote back to acknowledge their parcels of ci******es and to***co arriving safely. One soldier, Corporal E. Merriman was very thankful and remarked on how well the tin had kept its contents in excellent condition. His postcard is stamped Kriegsfangenen-Lager Soltau (Bohmte) – Prisoner of War Camp and he wrote, ‘I can assure you Dear Sir they are more valuable than their weight in gold.’
Ref:2629/Z/124
Another brightly coloured postcard, conveyed how the ‘Cambridge Boys’ had been delighted to receive the ci******es from Bacon Bros. [Fremain], Jones, [Truly], W Bavester had written that the received tin of ci******es had been handed around the section and that they ‘were as fresh as if they had just been bought’.
Ref: 2629/Z/127

Very well done to all of those taking part in Stoptober. You’re amazing!

23/10/2026

In 1931, the Silent Channel Company was founded in London by George Beaton. In 1936, the company moved to Huntingdon and acquired the former Edison Bell Factory on Ferrars Road. Production began in 1937.

In 1956, the new, purpose-built factory was unveiled as part of Silent Channels silver jubilee celebrations which saw around 800 visitors tour the new chequered building. Surviving records and newspaper articles show employees had a vibrant working life with sports teams and social club events as well as their own staff magazine called ‘The Silent Press’.

Despite the prosperity of industries in the area, 50% of jobs at Silent Channel were cut in the 1980s. Eventually, the company became part of the firm ‘Standard Products’ in 1993. Operations ceased in 2003 and the site has since been demolished and replaced with new houses.

Records we hold of the Silent Channel include 5482: photographs of Phyllis Gaunt (nee Cole) and 1096/47: Area map showing industrial areas, with 4 photographs of factory areas [one of Silent Channel], 1963.

22/10/2026

Manchester Collection

These letters were written by Oliver St John to his cousin Francis St John (d. 1756) of Thorpe Hall near Peterborough. In the 1730s, when they were written, Oliver was in Florence recovering from a severe bout of ill health. There are hints within the letters that prior to his arrival in Italy he had fallen in with a bad crowd in London and that his family had arranged his departure to protect his reputation and the family finances. His letters are full of regret for his past behaviour and concern for the management of his estates in Tandragee, Northern Ireland. We don’t know exactly what happened next, but these estates did eventually pass to Francis’s descendants the Bernard and Sparrow families of Brampton and then to the Dukes of Manchester of Kimbolton Castle. They can be found in the family archive at Huntingdonshire Archives and are currently being catalogued.

The conservation and restoration of the Manchester letters involved flattening the documents, stabilising fragile paper, removing surface dirt, and repairing tears using Japanese paper and reversible adhesives. Custom-made polyester sleeves and acid-free folders were prepared to provide appropriate protection. The letters will be stored in a stable environment to minimise further deterioration.

Given the fragile condition of the letters, digitisation was undertaken to preserve the information they contain in the event of any unforeseen damage during treatment.
The digital images also provide a valuable record of the documents’ condition before conservation.
After treatment digitisation will further support access to the information contained in the letters while reducing the need to handle the original documents, thereby minimising the risk of further damage.

19/10/2026

On this day in 1216, King John of Magna Carta fame died. The oldest document in our collection is this borough charter, which was granted by King John to Huntingdon in 1205.

King John issued a great number of charters because he was desperate for money, as his predecessor Richard I had largely emptied the government’s coffers to pay for his military campaigns in the Holy Land. Selling borough charters to towns was lucrative income for the king. The town themselves benefitted too, because it freed them from manorial control and they could grow wealthy on the income from fairs and markets. Huntingdon was granted a charter in 1205 and Godmanchester received one in 1212. This charter and many later ones for Huntingdon had been missing for at least a century until it was discovered in a basement in 1941 by former County Archivist Philip Dickinson.

Reference: HB1/1/1.

13/10/2026

12/10/2026

October marks the beginning of Stoptober, the health campaign that challenges people to stop smoking for twenty-eight days, making you more likely to quit permanently.
At Huntingdonshire Archives there are several records that include references to ci******es and to***co. One item is the letter written by Frank Gilbert in 1916 during the First World War (Ref: 4051/1/1/42). Stationed in Okehampton, he wrote to his mother explaining how his pay of 8/1- had to pay for b**r or c***r, to***co and ci******es which in a week, didn’t go far. He was therefore very grateful to Aunt Lucy for enclosing a shilling in her last letter to him! (Many thanks to our wonderful volunteer Jill, who has spent many hours recently transcribing the Gilbert Collection for us.)
And here are a couple of photographs showing ci******es being advertised (Refs: 5218/8/20 and PH2/47). Can you name the parishes in which these shops belong?

Very best wishes to everyone choosing to quit. You’ve got this!

09/10/2026

Posted on 'Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine'

"My 'methodology' was a series of errors": Gemini generates false records and fake screenshots of TNA website:

08/10/2026