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The Museum is housed in the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, a Grade II listed building situated in the heart of the historic town of Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire. We are an independent museum and a part of the Friends of the Queen Elizabeth School a registered charity. The museum is run by a small team of enthusiastic volunteers who work together to record the town’s history and its people. We receive no government funding and rely on funds from various organisations, donations and the generosity of our visitors to fund our projects.

One of the Porch Museum aims is to produce and show short films devoted to the history of the town.  We want to capture, through the memories of some of the oldest members of our community, as clear a perception as we can get of the way life was in this lovely town during the first half of the 20th century.

Saturday 9th September 2017

I had hoped that the Gods would smile on us and grant us a sunny autumn day, the sort of day we often get here in early September. We were lucky, besides a few errant drops of fine rain just as I commenced the service, the sun shone and white clouds drifted above us.

We had gathered to unveil the memorial stone to ‘The Godmanchester Stirling’, an aircraft that had crashed to earth close by 75 years ago this year. The past five years had seen me slowly peel away the layers of time and discover the story of a bomber crew, just one of many, but for me and the local area one that had become a token of what so many crews went through in those long off days.

For me this was the culmination of 5 years work, following the book launch earlier this year at IWM Duxford (‘Stirling to Essen’), this was the moment it all came together.

Over 50 family members made the trip to Godmanchester, they came from across the UK. From Edinburgh and Stirling, from Norfolk and Suffolk, from Surrey and Sussex, from Yorkshire and London. One family came over from Ohio, USA to pay tribute to her grandfather, a family we had only found a few months earlier (and who’s appearance halted the publication of the book as I had to update two chapters)

We are always interested in any images of Godmanchester your family may have taken in the past. We are not concerned about the quality or subject matter. Photo's can include family members outside shops, pubs, events, work places etc.

If you do have anything please contact us to arrange for us to make a copy of your image. Click here to send us a message.

“Bones of an infant at about nine months, Roman cemetery, Godmanchester 1905”. The words were written in copperplate lettering on the slightly battered cigar box. It lay in an archive box amongst the remains of Roman pottery sherds. (i) Norris Museum volunteer Rodney Scarle was meticulously photographing and recording the large collection of Roman artefacts held at the Museum. He pointed out the box to me whilst we were chatting about his work. I asked whether I, as a biologist, could lay them out for photography.

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The Reverend Walker’s box containing Roman infant bones, from 1905

I opened the box, and there, protected by cotton wool, were the small bones and fragments. I gently began laying them out on a piece of card. The task was complicated by the fact that the bones of infants and very young children do not look like those of adults. (ii) Our adult hip joints for example, are made up of several bones that fuse together.

On the one hand, it was obvious that not all the bones were present. On the other, there seemed to be duplication. If you look closely at the picture, you can see that bottom right there are at least three very robust long bones that are most likely to be femurs or thighbones. This suggests that we may actually have the bones of several infants mixed together. Even today, thighbones are used for estimating the age of an infant before birth and after. With lengths here of about 7 to 8 cm, these matched those of new-born infants. (iii)

THE Borough of Godmanchester, or Gumecester, is co-­extensive with the Parish of the same name in the County of Huntingdon.

It is situated on the Southern bank of the navigable River Ouse, which separates it from the adjoining Borough of
1837-map-streets-tn Huntingdon, and occupies a space of about four miles and a quarter of the-rìver's bank, from East to West, at an average breadth of about one and three quarters, comprising an area of 4,667A. n.. 2R 36p., according to a survey made in 1803 under an inclosure Act; about 50 acres of this land are in roads, drains, &c.


The Parish is an agricultural district, containing (with the exception of the Town) not more than three or four small cottages, inhabited by servants of the proprietors of the land. The total annual value of the real property value of the the parish, áccording to a valuation made thereof in 1825, for the pnrpóse of parochial assessment, is 7,8761. 16s. 3d. * The Population of the Parish (according to the Census of 1831) is 2,146. 

by Shirley Dunaetz (nee Evans)

Shirleys original article can be found here.

I remember at least once a week walking to Gill's Garage to pick up pink paraffin. You might think what was that for? Well pink paraffin burns cleaner and doesn't have the smell that regular paraffin has. Pink paraffin was used in the oil lamp that hung from the ceiling. We kids were threatened within an inch of our lives if we touched it. It was a pretty thing, with a brass bottom and a lovely china lamp shade. It of course had a glass chimney and the wick could be turned up our down. When I was very little, I was afraid of the dark, so I was allowed to stay downstairs until the grownups went to bed. If there was no one reading or doing sewing in the room, the lamp was turned down low, I suppose so I would go to sleep. This lamp could be moved from room to room, as needed, but didn't go upstairs, candles were the rule there.

My brother and I recently talked about the "Hunt" that met at the corner of West Street and Old Court Hall. That was a sight to see, all those horses, dogs and the ladies and gentlemen all dressed up in their hunt clothes. They usually started their hunt by going down Silver Street. The Tally Ho's and dogs barking and baying are still with me today. There would be a crowd of us locals watching as they congregated and got ready to leave.