By: Agnes Newling
In my early days Oxford Road was a quiet cul-de-sac with a cornfield across the bottom and grass where we children could play. Unfortunately a man kept some goats tethered there and if we got too near them they would lower their heads and butt us over. Most of the lower half of the road was gardens and orchards, and Fitzwilliam playing field was pasture with cows on it. Fitzwilliam House [College] used to pay us children 1/2d a bucket for daffodil bulbs when they wanted us to clear the field.
Another thing which gave us pleasure was the organ grinder playing his tunes. he had a little monkey in a red coat on his shoulder. If we took him a copper he would let us turn the handle. Sometimes a man came along leading a big brown bear on a chain walking on its hind legs. We all laughed when a woman living opposite us came out of her door to look. When she saw the bear she screamed and threw her apron over her head and dashed indoors.
Agnes Newling wirting in 1982
Reproduced with kind permission from Capturing Cambridge. Read the full entry https://capturingcambridge.org/castle/oxford-road/oxford-road/
