Gladstone Street Improvements

30/09/1975

Information

In November 1972, the city's Engineers' Department had released proposals to radically transform the general Gladstone Street area that was home to some 8,000 residents. Nothing happened! Finally, in April 1975, following repeated complaints by residents about the state of the district, council leader Charles Swift ordered a massive clean-up of the area. In mid-June it was reported that 268 houses in the area stood empty, derelict and vermin-ridden - 12 per cent of the total and an increase of 150 over the previous year. The Evening Telegraph could finally report on this day that something was to be done. It had been promised, it reported, that by the end of 1975 work would be underway to refurbish and redevelop the whole of the Gladstone Street area. It would not be instant, though. The whole scheme was forecast to take around eleven years and cost something in the order of £4.25 million, with much of that money going in grants to existing tenants to do some of the work themselves. By the end of May 1981, the Peterborough Evening Telegraph was able to inform its readers that the work was almost complete, the council having agreed on 26 May to spend a further £428,000 to complete the neighbourhood improvements.

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.

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Oxney Monastic Community

1100

Information

Oxney was once home to a group of monks. The monks were from Peterborough Abbey and would stay there for short spells and then return to the abbey. A chapel was built there in the reign of Henry I, so between 1100 and 1135. It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and on occasion known as the Church of St Mary of Oxney.

Six monks would have lived at Oxney in what was known as a small cell. One of the monks took over all control of the site and was known as the warden. The last warden of Oxney was Edward Berney who lost his position in 1538 following the dissolution of the monasteries. The site remained in use as a farm or grange until recent times and several of the present buildings can be dated to the monastic cell.

Archaeological investigations have revealed habitation since the late Bronze Age. Other features include the remains of a considerable moat which once encircled the buildings, still partly intact, a figurine and a cauldron. There are also purportedly several previous inhabitants who never quite left the vicinity... The land is privately owned and not accessible to the general public.