Society Plaques 1985 to 2012

Baker Perkins Apprentice School

Click on image to enlarge, will open in another window or tab.

This building was the first apprentice training school to be purpose-built in the United Kingdom after the Second World War, at a cost of £68,000. In the 38 years between its opening in 1954 and its closure in 1991, approximately 2,500 apprentices were trained here, providing much needed engineering craftsmen, technicians and professional engineers.

Barrass Memorial Hall

Click on image to enlarge, will open in another window or tab.

The original Barrass Memorial Hall (a church hall and Sunday School) stood next to the Baptist Church in Queen Street and was opened in May 1904. It was a memorial to the Rev. Thomas Barrass who came to Peterborough in 1852 to minister to the small Baptist congregation in Westgate. With love and care he increased that small congregation into one of several hundred by the time he retired in 1900, and such was the respect in which he was held that he was colloquially known as the 'Non-conformist Bishop of Peterborough'. He died a year after his retirement. The Queen Street Baptist chapel was destroyed by fire in October 1905 and the Hall was badly damaged. A new site, in Park Road, was chosen to build a new church together with a new Barrass Memorial Hall, of these the Hall was built and opened first, in July 1906, followed by the adjoining Church in April 1907. The architects were Dotteridge, Thompson & Watford of London. In 1987/88 the church was altered internally to include a church hall and the Barrass Memorial Hall was sold and demolished. The present office block, Geneva House, was built in 1989.

County Grammar School for Girls

Click on image to enlarge, will open in another window or tab.

Crescent Bridge

Click on image to enlarge, will open in another window or tab.

Crescent Bridge was built in 1913 to overcome the problems generated by the growth and success of Peterborough. It replaced two troublesome level crossings and a subway. The original Crescent of 1830s houses was demolished to make way for the bridge which was built by Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company of Darlington and subsequently refurbished in 2001 by Jackson Rail.

Deacons School

Click on image to enlarge, will open in another window or tab.

The Angel Inn

Click on image to enlarge, will open in another window or tab.

Dr Thomas Walker

Click on image to enlarge, will open in another window or tab.

Electric Transport

Click on image to enlarge, will open in another window or tab.

Peterborough's electric trams served the people of Peterborough from 1903 to 1930. They ran from this site to Dogsthorpe, Newark and Walton with a depot at Millfield. Electrical power was supplied from the power station at Albert Meadow, now part of the Rivergate site, by the River Nene. The trams were very popular and in 1924 carried nearly 1.4 million passengers.

Trams seen on Long Causeway below. Photo immediately below left shows two trams waiting to depart the terminus. Thanks to Peterborough Images Archive.

Great Northern Hotel

Click on image to enlarge, will open in another window or tab.

Two years after the arrival of the Great Northern Railway the original 13 bedroomed hotel, designed by architect Henry Goddard, was constructed in 1852 by builders Kirk & Parry at a cost of £2,500. In its early years the hotel had its own farm and stables. 12 bedrooms were added when it was extended in 1859. The Crown Prince of Prussia stayed in the hotel in 1863. A serious fire occurred in 1900 and during World War II the hotel closed to make room for London railway engineers. British Transport Hotels added an east wing in 1970 with 20 bedrooms and then sold the hotel in 1982. A notable former owner of the hotel was Peter Boizot, MBE, DL, Freeman of the City who owned the hotel from 1997 to 2009.

11 September 2019. We recently received the below photos of the bread ovens that were located in an outhouse to the hotel, and supplied bread to the hotel, and per the supplier of the photos, also supplied bread to the railway. The ovens were locally made and carry the name "Werner Pfleiderer and Perkins", the company dropped their German names at the outset of World War One (which shows their age) and eventually became Baker Perkins. More information can be found in "A Hundred Years of Baker Perkins" by Rita McKenzie.

The pictures were taken at the time of demolition of the outhouse, the date of which is not known. We are grateful to the supplier for passing the photos to us.

The Hake Family

Click on image to enlarge, will open in another window or tab.

Henry Penn

Click on image to enlarge, will open in another window or tab.

Henry Penn (1685-1729) cast over 250 bells at his Bridge Street foundry adjacent to this spot. It stood near to where the Peterborough Magistrates' Court stands today. A canal called 'Bell Dyke' ran to the rear of the foundry joining the River Nene on which many of his bells were floated to their destinations. The bells, mainly large and cast in bronze, were for over 100 buildings, churches, houses and schools in as many as 13 counties in England. Penn was known for his colourful bell inscriptions. At Wrangle church on the east coast of Lincolnshire his inscription on one of six bells reads

ALL SIX HERE MADE IN PETERBOROW BY HENRY PENN FOUNDER 1714

Many of his bells remain to this day.

In 1709 at the age of 24 he cast the first ring of 10 bells in Northamptonshire for Peterborough Cathedral, then in that county. The largest of these 10 bells, one and a half tons in weight, is now called 'The City Bell' and strikes out the time on the Cathedral clock. Penn was apprenticed to his uncle, bellfounder Henry Bagley at Ecton, Northamptonshire. He and his wife Diana had eight children who were baptised in St John's Church, Peterborough, just behind the Market Square.

Sir Henry Royce