Laundress Lane

This is a lane near Mill Lane in Cambridge. I always thought that is was an interesting name for a road but there are many in the UK! I went to a talk with Jane at the Museum of Cambridge. The talk was about the way that laundry impacted the town and gown as it is called. Town are the ordinary people and gown are those who worked at the University.

Many people used to work in the laundry business that revolved around the University. In fact, off of Newmarket Road back near the Grafton Centre, there used to a home for girls who were often prostitutes to learn how to work in a home. 

Many widowed women took in laundry to support their families.

Laundress Lane was also a place that took in laundry for the University. In fact, the fields where you see the cows near Mill Pond used to have a lot of lines there so that the laundry could be dried out there. When people tried to build on that land there was a lot of opposition, which is probably good because it is still a field and a nice place for a picnic in the summer.

Just thought I would tell you something interesting behind the name of this street.

All the Best!

American to Britain