Delve into our city’s intriguing past with 17 days of talks, workshops and tours at this fascinating annual festival
Promising a fascinating foray into our city’s past, the Cambridge History Festival returns from 9 to 25 February. It’s the third outing for this event, which is organised by the Museum of Cambridge and explores and celebrates the heritage of Cambridge through a programme of talks, tours, activities and workshops. From witchcraft to willow weaving, spies to storytelling and Vikings to Victorian banqueting, there’s a rich and varied line-up of events on offer at the festival, delivered by leading historians.
“Cambridge is renowned worldwide for its University, however the story of the town and its people are all too often overlooked,” says the festival’s creative director, Caroline Biggs. “Cambridge History Festival redresses that gap. Find out about the commercial importance of Cambridge before the arrival of the University and how the urban and industrial landscape of the town grew alongside its more famous neighbour.”
Walking Tours
Discover Cambridge’s hidden stories and see familiar sights in a whole new light with one of the History Festival’s walking tours. Explore the haunts and closeted hang-outs of the LGBT community in Cambridge, visit the city’s espionage hotspots in the Spies and Scoundrels walk or see the haunts of writers, highwaymen, rogues and ghosts with the Cambridge Pubs tour. In the Pink Floyd tour meanwhile, you can visit Syd Barrett’s school and see his childhood home, plus pay a visit to his favourite watering hole in Grantchester, as part of a tour with one of his old friends.
Talks
Fancy learning more about science and industry in Victorian Cambridge? Perhaps you fancy enjoying some Fenland storytelling or discovering how Vikings have influenced our vocabulary? There are talks on all of this plus local accents and dialects, the city’s coaching inns, migration in Cambridge and more throughout the course of the festival.
Activities & Workshops
If you want to get a little more hands-on, there’s a range of activities including willow weaving, family engineering and a costume and textile workshop at the Museum of Cambridge. Also promising to be a lot of fun is The Valentine’s Day Bewitchment, which is a courtroom drama in which a woman stands accused of witchcraft and you become the jury!
Our pick of the programme however, goes to the fantastic sounding historical dining event at Corpus Christi. In addition to a delectable Victorian-inspired feast in the grand setting of this historic Cambridge University college, guests will be treated to after-dinner musings from one of our city’s true foodie heroes, writer, broadcaster and Fitzbillies saviour Tim Hayward.
For the full event listings and to book, visit www.eventbrite.co.uk
