28. A RECTOR WHO BROUGHT GAS TO LIGHT UP CAMBRDGE

Robert Phelps replaced John Graham as Rector in 1848. He too had an impressive career record. An outstanding mathematician, he was already Master of Sidney Sussex College when he was appointed to Willingham in 1848. He held both of these positions for a record-breaking span of 42 more years until his death in 1890. He was Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University in 1847. What marks him out from the usual academic of his time is that he developed a parallel career in commercial industry. He was a founding Director in 1843 of the Cambridge University and Town Gas Lighting Company, which introduced gas street lighting to the streets of Cambridge from large gasometers in Newmarket Road. The Company’s history suggests it was no sinecure. The directors were only just recovering from a long drawn-out legal contractual battle in the 1860’s, when they were faced with a major disaster. In 1870 one of the large gasometers in Newmarket Road toppled over in exceptionally high winds, taking with it hundreds of tons of wrought iron support structure. The gasometer contained 300,000 cubic feet of gas which started leaking from the bottom and caused a fire which, as a newspaper report described it, ‘illuminated the whole Cambridge sky in a very vivid manner’. Miraculously there were no fatalities, despite a great deal of damage. It is perhaps not surprising that Willingham very rarely saw its Rector! An indication of his involvement is that the village fire tender was stored in the church entrance porch. An idea of his character is revealed in a remark from a contemporary that he was ‘notorious for his conservatism and belief in tradition’

The second half of the nineteenth century was arguably the highpoint of the British Empire, and the Royal Navy had control of the seaways to maintain it. Most of the leading European nations were competing in a race to colonise the under-developed parts of the world, but Britain emerged with the largest slice.  In the world atlases of the time British colonies were coloured pink, which helped to emphasise the sheer extent of the Empire across every continent. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, Malaya, the East and West Indies, and almost half of Africa were the larger areas under British control. There were also a host of smaller territories like Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Aden, Singapore and Hong Kong that made up a network of global trade routes to provide markets for British manufactured goods in return for minerals and agricultural products.

There was certainly an awareness of the Empire in Willingham. There were well attended public lectures in the newly-opened Willingham British School from the late 1850’s about exploration and travel in Africa and the Americas. The mid-century ‘gold rushes’ in California, Southern Africa and New Zealand were well publicised too, and would have had a strong appeal to some who felt trapped in a traditional rural economy. A small but steady number of farmers emigrated from Willingham during this period, mostly to America.

The first resident doctor in Willingham appears to have been Dr. Robert Sage Ellis. He was living in Long Lane by the 1861 census and listed as a surgeon and apothecary (which qualified him to also prepare and sell compounds for medicinal purposes). He had been born in Bengal, India, where his father was a Captain in the Army. He was in practise in Swavesey for 20 years prior to coming to Willingham. He would have probably found much in common with one of the Curates in the village, Edward Laughlin, who had previously served as an officer in the Army in the Crimea, the West Indies, and West Africa before coming to Willingham in 1866. Dr. Ellis was appointed a Trustee of the Combined Willingham Parochial Charities. In 1876.

Next time:  A New Rector With a zeal for Restoration