Town, Gown (and Clergy) in Cambridge’s First Industrial Revolution

What are the lessons of Cambridge’s energy past for its energy future?

As part of Cambridge Museum of Technology’s contribution to Cambridge University’s online Alumni Festival 2020, volunteers have produced an updated, extended video compilation of recent research into the development of the first energy utility in Cambridge, known for most of its operational history as the Cambridge University & Town Gas-Light Company, which stood on the site adjacent to the Sewage Pumping Station (now Cambridge Museum of Technology).

The video will premiere publicly on the Cambridge Museum of Technology YouTube channel on Saturday 19 September 2020, 09:00-10:00 BST, and then be available for on-demand viewing throughout the festival.

About the video

Newly updated and expanded (September 2020) with:

  • previously unpublished photographs, enhanced (full High-Definition) graphics and audio. Historic Cambridge? Hideous Cambridge? Assess the legacy of this industry on Cambridge’s landscape and environment during 19th and 20th centuries.

  • an acknowledgement to the late Allan Brigham, whose 2004 research paper “Gas and John Grafton: new technology comes to Cambridge“ formed the starting point for museum volunteers’ further research into the lifecycle of the gas-works site on River Lane, Cambridge during the 19th and 20th centuries

  • an introduction to the museum by Curator Pam Halls

  • narration by Robert Lloyd Parry (Nunkie Theatre) who transports the audience back two centuries to the early decades of the Industrial Revolution, and a dramatic reading of a poem by one of Cambridge’s most celebrated literary figures...

Written by: Gordon Davies, Harriet O’Rourke, with Geoff Winckles

Narrated by: Robert Lloyd Parry, Harriet O’Rourke, Gordon Davies

Produced by Gordon Davies for Cambridge Museum of Technology.

How to watch

  • Tune into the Cambridge Museum of Technology’s YouTube channel for the premiere of this free, public video to coincide with Cambridge University online Alumni Festival 2020

  • Closed Captions (English -> United Kingdom) and multi-language automatic subtitles available.