Mary Burgess

The outside of Rock Road library, a small suburban branch library. It's brick built and has 1936 over the main window, with a small garden in the front.

Headed out yesterday in Storm Amy for the AGM of the local history society, but also nipped in to see the newly refurbished Rock Road Library. It was very busy indeed, hence no interior photographs, but it's looking very nice. Lovely new ceiling windows really brighten up the place.

I'm wearing a lanyard right now! Shocking...

We're having a drop in session sharing South Asian memories of the Second World War together with the Imperial War Museum on 14th October 1-5pm in our new Everyspace area on the third floor of Cambridge Central Library. See www.eventbrite.com/e/sharing-so... for more details and do spread the word!

It's X5 from Oxford to Bedford and then you have to swap onto the 905 bus from there to Cambridge. I do the Cambridge to St Neots bit a lot but St Neots to Bedford doesn't half go all round the houses.

Excellent book that, and the second one is just as good.

It's a local one - made by Fyson's of Soham apparently. They only ever made 17 and they're all numbered - this is number 10.

It's to try to stop the noise of the drums being picked up on everybody else's mics.

Not sure I fancy this either to be honest - don't even like celery in its normal green stalky state.

A black and white photograph of a steam traction engine pulling five waggons of children down the High Street in Soham. Various boys are either walking or cycling alongside.

I'm off to Soham tomorrow to talk about the history of transport in Cambridgeshire. It'll be 10-11am at Soham Library. Here's Soham Bapist Sunday School on an outing in 1923, with a steam traction engine pulling 5 waggons of children down the High Street.

The Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society are one of the best sources for Cambridgeshire archaeology and local history and they're available for free online at archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/brow...

A colour photograph of three elephants in a line walking past Parker's Piece, with their handler in a red jacket.

It's all fairgrounds and amusements here today - have Billy Smart's circus elephants wandering through Cambridge.

As the local studies librarian for Cambridgeshire - give me more town books! Set it in the city, not everything has to be purely University about Cambridge. (And then come into my library to do your research...)

A black and white picture of Chesterton Tower in the 1920s, with various trees growing around the building.

One of the more interesting buildings in Cambridge you might not have heard of is Chesterton Tower - tucked away near St Andrew's Church. It's actually a house, built for a local officer for Vercelli Abbey in Italy, who owned the manor. Read more at capturingcambridge.org/chesterton-2...

A book plate in a library book with the round Huntingdonshire County Council logo with a tree, a stag and a hunter in the middle and 1889 on the bottom. Below says County Library

Found one of the old Huntingdonshire County Library book plates today - bit more exciting than the modern logo

We've got one of those. Sometimes if I really can't read it I send it to him and he doesn't know what he wrote either.

There's a reason why all of ours have big long spikes through them to hold them together when muppets drop them on the floor. (It's me, I'm the muppet)

I'm sitting here eating my tea and you've got me feeling hungry again. I've not even finished it yet!

A motorised fire engine in 1920s style leaving the fire station in St Andrew's Street. A full crew of six are perched on top, all looking natty with their shiny helmets.

We had a fire drill at work yesterday, so here's a picture of Cambridge's new fire engine leaving the station in St Andrew's Street in 1920.

My bus ticket has more security features than this mock up.

George Augustus Selwyn pictured in 1867. He's sat down in three quarter portrait with impressively large mutton chops.

Had lots of questions about people who travelled to New Zealand today. Did you know that Selwyn College here in Cambridge is named after the first Bishop of New Zealand? He was George Augustus Selwyn and he arrived at Auckland in May 1842.

I'm not saying I planned a trip to Berlin just to go to the Ritter Sport shop, but I'm also not not saying that...

The title page of the 1958 scrapbook with a painting of a bunch of cherries

The front of the 1965 scrapbook with a bunch of cherries embroidered on the front

A page inside the 1965 scrapbook showing what the village looked like then with black and white photos

I'm sharing local history at Cherry Hinton Library's community day till 4pm. Come along and have a look at the WI scrapbooks for 1958 and 1965 along with maps and photos of Cherry Hinton.

A picture of me at Stourbridge Fair. I'm wearing a black t-shirt and there's somebody in Tudor dress behind me.

Turns out that @cambridgeppf.bsky.social was taking photos at Stourbridge Fair - thought this one looked quite fetching.

YouTube video by DemonMusicGroup Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance (Official HD Video)

Here's the video for those too young to get the reference. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p_B... Who am I kidding, if you're too young to have watched this, what are you doing on Bluesky?

A colour postcard of Cherry Hinton High Street in the 1900s, showing the Baptist Chapel on the right of shot, with various people standing in the road. Caption "Baptist Chapel and High Street, Cherry Hinton"

Just getting ready for Cherry Hinton Library's community day on Saturday - find out more on Eventbrite at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cherry-hin... I'll be there 2-4pm with some maps and pictures of Cherry Hinton for a memory session. Here's the High Street in the 1900s

I'm enjoying getting my head around the earlier wills and how they work and the various different courts. I used to volunteer at the local record office listing title deeds so the handwriting isn't so bad, but my latin certainly needs work!

It's the little scrotes who vape in the library who really get my goat. Go stand around outside you cretins!

Started my @pharostutors.bsky.social course on Wills and Probate yesterday - well worth doing, very informative. Celebrated by ordering some more wills from Find a Will online - much easier now they're only £1.50 each.

A paste in of a old library book. There's a line drawing of the Cambridge City crest and then underneath it says Cambridge Free Library Presented by the Cambridge & Cambridgeshire Machanics' Institute 1858

It's the monthly #SaturdayLibrarian shift today. I'm running two tours of our store for Open Cambridge today - the first one went really well! Here's the old Cambridge Free Library donations paste in.

I wish you strength!