Civic Society unveils 15 new blue plaques at historic Peterborough sites

Peterborough Civic Society is pleased to announce that we have just installed fifteen new blue plaques in and around the city centre.

For the next fifteen weeks there will be weekly Peterborough Telegraph articles about each plaque.

Further information will also be contained in the free booklet to accompany the plaques.

This will soon be available via the Tourist Information Office and other city centre outlets.

More details will be announced soon once access to public buildings and other outlets becomes clearer.

In 2017, Peterborough Civic Society installed twenty blue plaques in and around the city centre.

These were on a variety of subjects – people such as St Thomas Becket, John Thompson Jnr., Thomas James Walker, Arthur James Robertson, and Thomas Hake and places such as Peterborough County Court, Embassy Theatre, Public Library, Theatre Royal, Great Barn, Shopping Arcade, Cumbergate, Deacon’s School, Parish Burial Ground, Angel Inn, Town Hall, the Lido, Town Bridge, The Customs House and the Abbot’s Gaol & Lodging. Phew!

The scheme was a great success and many people, both from Peterborough and afar, learnt a great deal of new information about our city.

Over the past couple of years I have given about 40 talks on these plaques to a variety of local organisations. The interest in the plaques in particular, and Peterborough’s history in general, is really high.

In 2018, to honour the end of the 1914-18 War, the city council paid for an additional plaque to be erected to commemorate the Recruitment Office in Long Causeway, thus making the total twenty-one.

It is not surprising that there were soon requests for the society to extend the scheme so that’s just what has happened.

We asked for suggestions from the general public and received quite a few.

Sadly, the person who received the most nominations was Mr Peterborough himself, dear Peter Boizot. Unfortunately, since Peter died in December 2018, he is not yet eligible for a blue plaque – the rules state that a person has to have been deceased for a minimum of ten years. For that level of caution blame in part Jimmy Saville!

The society agreed we could fund a further 15 plaques, with financial assistance from the city council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Charles Wells brewery.

These new plaques continue to be largely in and around the city centre.

A key factor in our choices is being easily able to walk or cycle to visit these plaques, all of which are visible from the public highway.

We were also very aware of the fact that we were short of illustrious women.

Consequently this time we have included mention of five – Edith Cavell, Margaret Gibson and Annette van Dissel (all associated with Laurel Court in the Cathedral cloisters), Marjorie Pollard (a notable sportswoman) and Daphne Jackson (an eminent professor of physics and champion of women working in the sciences).

In addition, we have also included notable buildings and people not included in the first phase – the Guildhall, Museum, The King’s School, John Addy and the Memorial Hospital in Midland Road.

Four plaques have been installed in the Cathedral precincts commemorating Laurel Court, Simon Gunton, the Almoner’s Hall and John Fletcher. Readers may not have heard of some of these people but that’s one of the main reasons for the plaques – to inform people and to make us all think and say, “I never knew that!”

There will also be two plaques in the Fletton Quays area recognising Peterborough’s railway history.

The final two new plaques are slightly away from the city centre, one commemorating the London Brick Company and its workers and the other to the Sage family who perished on the Titanic in 1912. This will bring the total number of blue plaques to thirty-six.

We are sure that, over the next few weeks, you will enjoy reading about these plaques and the stories behind them. Let’s hope that, as the lockdown eases, we can all get back to appreciating our local environment and are able to relax and enjoy our celebrated city.