Around Cambridge Market - 12/11/2013

Below is a collection of Photographs taken on Tuesday 12th November 2013 around Cambridge Market.

Click the pictures to enlarge the image

(c) All photographs 2013

Remembering Snowy Farr

Snowy Farr by Feggy Art

Snowy Farr lived in Oakington and was a well known fundraiser for blind charities.

He was born Walter Farr in Longstanton in 1919 and worked as a road mender and sweeper for the City Council in the area he lived.

When Snowy retired he decided he wanted to help raise money for charity, so he stood on Market Hill collecting with his flowing white beard and dressed himself in a antique military uniform with an eccentric looking stripped top hat.

He became a instant success and decided to carry on doing more fundraising, but started to bring some friends with him which included a cat and some white mice.

Snowy Farr sculpture 

As the years went by his companions grew to include a cockerel, a duck, pigeons, rabbits, guinea pigs and a goat.

Snowy trained his cat to sit on the top of his hat and the mice would run around the rim.

His charity efforts helped him to obtain twenty-two guide dogs in 1995 and in November of the same year he received a MBE.

By the end of 1999 he had raised over £46,000 for Guide Dogs for the Blind and over £23,000 for Cam Sight . He also helped many more blind charities locally and nationally.

Snowy sadly died on the 8th March 2007.

On the 3rd March 2009 the Cambridge City Council announced a statue would be erected in his memory.

The sculpture was designed by Gary Webb and unveiled on Market Hill by the Mayor on the 7th August 2012.

The Great Fire of Cambridge

Before 1849 Cambridge market covered an L-shaped area stretching from Petty Cury to the northern end of Peas Hill.

The present market layout came about after a terrible fire that took place on the night of Saturday 15th September 1849, often called 'The Great Fire of Cambridge'.

In 'Cambridge Revisited' Arthur B. Gray recalls the events of the fire:

Market Hill - 1900s

'The fire-engines of the police, the various insurance offices and those belonging to Trinity and
St.John's were soon upon the spot, but alas! the key to Hobson Conduit could not be found. The final
discovery of the key only increased the prevailing excitement and confusion, for the firemen were soon vigorously squabbling over the limited water supply.'

'Matters were improved, however, by the numberless buckets and pails which literally showered upon the crowds
of willing helpers, who soon formed themselves into lines of supply to the engines now upon the scene.'

Market Hill - 1937

The fire raged on and was only put out at about 6am. Eight houses where burnt down and others were seriously damaged.

Senate Hill and the south side of Market Hill was used to dump all the broken and damaged furniture. The Police oversaw the whole operation to ward off looters.

Hobson's Conduit was removed from Market Hill to its present site at the junction of Trumpington Road and Lensfield Road. A new fountain was put up in the centre of the market in 1855, but in 1953 it was found to be unsafe and taken down. It was removed to the yard of the Cambridge and County Folk Museum, which is the former site of the old White Horse Inn in Castle Street.