Our Journey presents stories from the Big Bang to the present day in a digital format for everyone to enjoy both during this very special year and beyond.
Public
As residents and visitors, we invite you to explore a showcase of the most interesting, poignant, bizarre, hilarious and impactful stories of the past, as well as submitting your own stories, past and present, to add to the ever changing and colourful fabric which is the story of the city.
You can join in by creating you own ‘Our Journey’ account from August 2018, to submit stories to be published online as well as create your own custom timeline.
Schools
For schools, we are launching a comprehensive, digital place-based curriculum. This has been developed through significant consultations and workshops with historians, curriculum specialists, and teachers from across the city.
From September 2018 we invite our schools to explore and discover the city’s past through images, poetry, music, text and film extracts that have been hand-picked by our teams to accompany this completely unique suite of local resources which celebrates Peterborough’s heritage whilst supporting almost all areas of the national curriculum.
On the first of January 1883, the cathedral tower was said to be in such a terrible state it was in danger of collapsing and taking the entire Cathedral down with it. The total cost of pulling down and rebuilding the tower and fixing other parts of the building was estimated at £55,000. A request went out in local newspapers for people to collect small amounts in boxes to help raise the money needed. There was also a subscription list, the head of the subscription list being none other than Queen Victoria.
Burghley House was built by William Cecil, later Lord Burghley, Elizabeth I's Secretary of State and closest adviser. It was originally designed in the shape of an 'E' to honour the queen, although she was never to visit. However, Queen Victoria was one of many high-profile visitors to the house and she planted a tree in the family's personal gardens at the back of the house. The gardens and park of Burghley House were laid out by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in the 18th century, in line with many great houses of the time.
William Cecil's descendants still live in the house and hold the Burghley Horse Trials every September, which have been running since 1961.