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St Peter's Street early 20th Century showing the hardware store on the left.

Our next speaker on 26th February will be our famous local actor James Camp. Recently returned from a successful pantomime production which he wrote and performed in. James has an intriguing presentation for us about his family history called: “The Heroic and Tragic Adventures of Fred and Freddie Atkins”.

Regular meeting attendees will remember James recounting the history of the Camp family, this time he will delight us with the story of the matriarchal side of his family.

The January meeting was something of a sensation with two speakers for the first time. I found I could just sit back and enjoy the fun. We are grateful to George Culling for taking time out to come and talk to us about his long and interesting life. George turned 100 years old last July and is still able to stand and old an audience for half an hour with his excerpts from his life from the great depression to the present day. 

The ex Lancaster Bomber navigator has written a book about the great events in his life entitled "My Hundred Years". The books were on sale at the meeting for £10 per copy and all the proceeds to go to the Arthur Rank Hospice, in addition to the 10 we sold at the last meeting, George sold a further 24 at this one. This has to make him a Duxford best seller and I still have 6 copies left, so contact me if you want to buy one.

As if that wasn't enough excitement, we then had the history of the Pumfrey traction engine business from Michael and Robert Pumfrey. The story was truly rags to riches with the firm starting with Robert's grandfather with a 100 golden sovereigns from his marriage and a loan from the bank to buy the first steam engine and threshing machine, to becoming the largest agricultural traction engine rental business in the region.

The first 2000 and more years of Duxford history was as an agricultural village and by understanding the uses made of the traction engine for ploughing, threshing, and just about any job on a farm that required muscle, we could all see the challenging job that farming is. There is an invitation to Micheal and Robert to bring the steam engine to the July meeting on the 16th.

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Meetings are fun, we start with updates on what has been achieved during the past month and then we have a speaker to tell us about issues of historical interest to all of us. We have a break in the middle when people can mingle and chat and everyone enjoys it.

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 Link to:

https://www.calh.org.uk

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol6/pp201-220

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol2/pp223-226

Farringdon Diaries. https://capturingcambridge.org/museum-of-cambridge/museum-exhibit-stories/the-farrington-diaries/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsVTJtA35sA

https://youtu.be/YsLF4_MqEBs

https://duxfordparishcouncil.gov.uk/duxford-history/

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol6/pp201-220

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