History of the Shelfords
The information presented here is taken from the publication Domesday to Dormitory - a History of the Landscape of Great Shelford
This booklet was published in the late 1970s and was the result of the work of 10 keen members of a Local History Class organized jointly by the Cambridge University Extra-Mural Board and the Workers Education Association. The class itself was originally run as a series of lectures and tutorials on the history of the Cambridge landscape and the booklet arose out of a desire by some members to carry out their own research on landscape history.
Every effort has been made to contact those involved in this work to obtain their permission to reproduce it on these web pages as copies of the book are no longer avaialable. It seems a great pity that this interesting work should be lost to future generations who have an interest in the history of the village.
The class was under the tutorage of C.C. Taylor and comprised the following members:
G.C. Baldry, K. P. Medcalf, A. G. Croft, F.A. Mitchell, J. R. Foreman, Mrs. J. Mitchell, H. Hepher, A. H. Robson, J. E. Jennings, Mrs. D. C. Robson
If any members of the class would like to get in contact, the Webmaster would be happy to hear from them.
The booklet is divided into the following chapters:
Parliamentary Enclosure and the end of The Medieval Fields
The Last Years of the Old Village 1800-1835 AD
The "Respectable Years" 1850 - 1900 AD
The Beginnings of a Modern Suburb
The Population of Great Shelford