huntingdon`s great war history trail

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Lawrence Court PE29 3PA
Drill Hall – St Mary’s St PE29 3PE
(Now Hunts Antiques and Collectables)
Old Bridge Hotel – www.huntsbridge.com –
01480 424 300
Godmanchester War Memorial PE29 2AQ
Porch Museum – www.godmanchester.co.uk
Portholme
Mill Common
County Hospital PE29 3TT
Brunswick Villas PE29 3BQ
Dryden House PE29 3NU
Walden House PE29 3AD
Old Grammar School buildings PE29 3LQ
Huntingdon War Memorial
Market Hill Huntingdon
Town Hall – www.huntingdontown.gov.uk/
51 High Street (now Brighthouse) PE29 3LQ
Huntingdon Library and Archives –
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk
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1 Lawrence Court
3 Old Bridge Hotel (Bridge House)
At the outbreak of World War One Lawrence Court was
owned by the wealthy industrialist J A Fielden. From
March 1915 Lawrence Court was used as a relief hospital
for wounded soldiers. Fielden also donated £500,000 to
the county and purchased a steam yacht to be used as a
hospital ship.
Lawrence Court is now the home of the Huntingdon
Registration Service and Coroners Office.
During the war Bridge House was used by the officers of
the Huntingdonshire Cyclists Battalion. This battalion
was formed on the 27 February 1914. During World
War One the battalion was sent to East Yorkshire to
patrol the coastline. By the middle of 1916 the majority
of the original Huntingdonshire recruits had been
drafted to different regiments serving in France. The
Huntingdonshire Cyclists was disbanded in 1919.
Great War: Between the Lines
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Huntingdon had a significant role in the First
World War. Many troops were stationed in
Huntingdon, wounded soldiers were treated
here, and the Portholme Aerodrome Company
contributed to the development of aviation.
This map shows locations that would have been
of importance during the war and places of
remembrance for those who made the ultimate
sacrifice.
The ‘Great War: Between the Lines’ project is
a co-operation between 16 partners in the UK,
Northern France and Belgium. The project aims
to facilitate cross-border activities which will
encourage the commemoration of the Great War
centenary between 2014 and 2018, ensuring that
the sacrifices made during the Great War and
the legacy of the war on contemporary society
continues to be understood and remembered.
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This project will be running events,
exhibitions and creating tourist routes to help
commemorate the centenary of the out break
of the First World War in 2014. For more details
please visit our website www.great-war.ccan.
co.uk where you can also view our growing
digital archive and upload your own material.
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www.greatwar1418.eu
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For more information on cycling in Cambridgeshire
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk
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The ‘Great War: Between the Lines’ project is funded by the
INTERREG IVA 2 Seas programme. Its funds are distributed
through the European Regional Development Fund and
promote the development of the two seas border region
(Channel-North Sea)
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HUNTINGDON’S
GREAT WAR
HISTORY TRAIL
Image courtesy of Martin Webster
2 Drill Hall – St Mary’s St
4 Godmanchester War Memorial
Before World War One the Drill Hall was used
by the various Volunteer forces which covered
Huntingdonshire. In December 1914 the Drill Hall
was altered for use by the Huntingdonshire Cyclists
Battalion. The building was used as a recruiting office
and included a canteen, a room suitable for officers,
and a rifle range.
This war memorial
was paid for by
the public. It
was unveiled on
1 January 1921
by Major General
Pilcher. The architect
was Mr Alfred B
Yates. 77 names
from World War One
have been recorded.
Image courtesy
of Huntingdonshire Archives
(WH1/340A)
Huntingdon Walking/Cycling Trail.indd 1
Image courtesy of Huntingdonshire Archives (5594/2/12)
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk
03/04/2014 09:10
7 Mill Common
5 Porch Museum
The Porch Museum is commemorating the First World
War with an exhibition devoted to the experiences
of Godmanchester citizens. It will include displays on
war horses, the Royal Flying Corps and the first airman
to receive a Victoria Cross, the Portholme Aerodrome
Company, and Oliver George who was awarded the
Croix de Guerre.
The Porch Museum is open on various weekends
through out the year. Please check the museums
website for opening times.
Large numbers of soldiers were stationed in Huntingdon
during the early years of the war. Wooden buildings
were erected on Mill Common to accommodate horses
belonging to the troops billeted in Huntingdon over
winter 1914/15 (also on Views Common, Spring Common
and Castle Hill House). There was even an outdoor
concert arena which was also used for church services
as the local churches could not accommodate everyone.
The Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion also used open
ground on Mill Common to practise digging trenches.
The remains of these can still be seen on the Common.
9 Brunswick Villas
This small house opened as a Red Cross Hospital with
just ten beds on 2 September 1914. This soon became
inadequate and the hospital moved to Walden House in
December 1914.
6 Portholme
8 County Hospital
10 Dryden House
In the early days of the aeroplane, Portholme’s large
meadow made it ideal as a place for flying. Between
April 1910 and 1913 numerous flights were made from
Portholme by pioneers of early aviation such as James
Radley and Will Moorhouse. During the war, it was
used for drilling troops stationed in Huntingdon. The
Highland Mounted Brigade was inspected there by
King George V in 1914. The meadow was also used as
a temporary summer flying camp and a Royal Naval Air
Service training camp, with around forty aircraft, until
September 1918.
The first group of wounded soldiers arrived at the County Hospital in November 1914. Like the Voluntary Aid
Detachment (VAD) hospitals, the County Hospital relied
on donations of food and magazines from well-wishers
to keep it going.
This was the site of Portholme Aerodrome Company.
During the war
the company built
armoured cars, seaplanes and Sopwith
Camels and Snipes
fighter planes. A
large number of
additional workers
were drafted in to
work on the planes.
Image courtesy of Huntingdonshire Archives (PH48/286)
Image courtesy of Huntingdonshire Archives (PH48/131)
13 Huntingdon War
Memorial
Image courtesy of
Huntingdonshire
Archives (WH2/72)
11 Walden House
The former home of Henry Geldart JP, Walden House
became a Red Cross Hospital in December 1914 when
Brunswick Villas proved to be too small. It had to be
extended with the addition of temporary buildings. By
1917 it could accommodate eighty five patients. Almost
all the staff were volunteers. By the time it closed in
January 1919, the hospital had treated 3,900 in-patients
as well as numerous out-patients – up to 50 on one day
at its peak.
12 Old Grammar School buildings
(formerly Probation)
A ‘Central Restaurant’ was opened here in February
1918 to provide dinners at reasonable prices and to
help people hit by rationing. The restaurant could
accommodate 200
people and meals were
served between 12 and
2 pm (children’s meals
from 12 and 12.45
pm). Items from the
menu on the opening
day included soup
(1 or 2d), beefsteak
pudding (5d), stewed
apples (2d) and rice
pudding (2d). There
was also a takeaway
facility or ‘outdoor
department’ at the
rear of the building.
Huntingdon Walking/Cycling Trail.indd 2
Despite raising
large amounts of
money for the war
effort, the people
of Huntingdon
failed initially to
support the building of a memorial hall or other form
of commemoration of the fallen. The Town Council
installed a memorial tablet in the Town Hall, but the
Huntingdon Women’s Institute, formed in 1918 from
the Women’s War Agricultural Committee, decided to
fund a separate memorial. Lady Kathleen Scott was
commissioned to design and make the statue. The cost
of the statue was met by the Women’s Institute fund
and a Mayor’s fund paid for the plinth and the cost of
erection. 3000 people attended the unveiling of the
statue on 11 November 1923.
Image courtesy of Huntingdonshire Archives (MC4/3)
14 Town Hall
Important announcements
in the town were made
from the balcony of
the Town Hall. It was
from here the Mayor
announced the end
of the war at 4pm on
Monday 11 November
1918. Fireworks were let
off indiscriminately and
there was a huge bonfire
in the grounds of the Red
Cross hospital at Walden
House on which an effigy
of the German Kaiser was
burnt. There is a memorial
tablet in the Town Hall, recording the names of 118 men
and women from Huntingdon who had lost their lives
between 1914 and 1918.
Image
courtesy of
the Norris
Museum
(PH/
HUNTN/092)
15 51 High St (now Brighthouse)
The former Murkett’s premises in the High Street were
converted in to a ‘Soldiers Institute’, one of many places
across town where the troops stationed in Huntingdon
could go to relax. There was generally a room set
aside for reading and writing and another area for
entertainment and games donated by local people. The
former cycle repair shop was turned into an impromptu
concert hall.
16 Huntingdon Library and Archives
Call in to Huntingdon Library and Archives if you want
to start researching your military ancestors. We have
free access to World War One records, via the Ancestry
and Find My Past websites. We also have the Hunts Post
newspaper for 1914 – 1918 on microfilm.
Images courtesy of Huntingdonshire Archives (WH2/7, WH3/2640)
Image courtesy of the Norris Museum (PH/HUNTN/79)
03/04/2014 09:10