The history of Owlstone Croft is part of the history of Paradise. In The Cambridge Nobody Knows, Frank Albert Reeve (1907–1996) wrote:
Today, the name Paradise designates the small island beside the nature reserve adjoining Owlstone Croft, but formerly it embraced the whole area up to the Lammas Land. There were once tennis courts known as the Paradise Courts on the University Hockey Ground. [This hockey ground, located at the corner of Grantchester Street and the Driftway to Lammas Land, has since been developed for housing]
References to Paradise go back a long way. The earliest mention of bathing in Cambridge records that in 1567[sic] the son [Clere Haddon] of Walter Haddon, while at King’s College, was drowned “while washing himself in a Place in the river Cham called Paradise”,
[1567 was the date of admission of Clere Haddon to King’s College: the drowning is believed to have been in 1571]and William Stukeley, the eighteenth century antiquary, when at Corpus College in 1704[sic] wrote:
“I used to frequent, among other Lads, the River in sheeps Green, & learnt to swim in Freshmens and Sophs pools, as they are called, & sometime in Paradice, reckoning it a Beneficial Exercise”.
[The Family Memoirs of the Rev. William Stukeley, M.D. …, Vol. 1, p. 24, recalling 1705]And it was here, in 1811, that Byron’s brilliant friend Matthews became entangled in weeds and was drowned.
[Charles Skinner Matthews (1785–1811), a former scholar of Trinity College, was an early Fellow of Downing College]… The larger area now called Owlstone Croft was formerly called Paradise Garden. In 1740 it was taken over by Mr [Richard] Rowe, who had introduced into Cornwall a system of forcing early vegetables for the London market, and here he produced them in a scientific way. His son Richard became associated with a Dutch bulb grower, outstripped all competitors in the production of beautiful flowers, and invented the hyacinth glass for growing bulbs in water only.
[“In 1740 a Richard Rowe of Cornwall took up his residence at Cambridge, he and his son were both famous wrestlers and botanists.”: see Cornish Wrestling, by William Tregoning Blake Hooper (1905–1974), in Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, n.s. Vol 2 Part 2 1954, pp.88–97.]
[This family Rowe were the antecedents of Cambridge Alderman Richard Rowe (1797–1878) and his son Richard Reynolds Rowe (1824–99), architect. See Memoir of the late Mr. Alderman Rowe of Cambridge, in the Cambridge Chronicle, 21 Dec 1878, p. 4, from which Reeve seems to have taken this paragraph.]
The site of Owlstone Croft lies within an area of Cambridge now known as “Newnham Croft”, a name which appears to be a corruption of the earlier name “Newnham Crofts”, where “crofts” means “enclosures”, referring to the enclosures which existed anciently before the Inclosure Acts of the 18th and 19th centuries. Before 1911, the Newnham Croft area was administratively part of the Parish of Grantchester, being at the parish’s north-eastern corner, bordered by Barton Road in the north and the River Cam in the east.
In 1799, Parliament passed “An act for Dividing, Allotting, and Inclosing the Open and Common Fields, Common Meadows, and other Open and Commonable Lands and Waste Grounds, lying in the Parishes of Grantchester and Coton, in the County of Cambridge” [39 Geo. III c.117 Pr]. Under that Act, the Inclosure Awards made by the Commissioners [Cambs Archives Q/RDz4, pp.210–309] took effect on 1803 February 12, supported by an illustrative map dated 1802 [Cambs Archives P79/26/2]. Both the Inclosure Map and the text of the Inclosure Award have wildly incorrect compass directions, errors which need to be taken into account when interpreting them.
In the Inclosure Award Map 1802, the site now known as Owlstone Croft is shown as plot 96, and listed as a “Garden” of 2 acres 0 roods 38 poles (2.24 acres, slightly smaller than the present site), owned by Mary Harrison, “in the Occupation of Rd Row”. In the detail shown here of the 1802 Inclosure map, plot 96 is shown shaded pink.
Of the local roads, those now known as Grantchester Street (extending to Paradise Island in plot 93a) and Grantchester Meadows are shown, together with others described in the Award as:
{Private Road for Benet College and Mary Harrison} [shown tinted blue in the map]
One Private Carriage and Drift Road of the breadth of Twenty Feet leading from and out of the South East [sic, actually south] End of a Lane [now Grantchester Street] at East Newnham Crofts and extending in an Eastward [sic, south-east] Direction into through and over an Allotment [93] hereinafter awarded to the said Master Fellows and Scholars of Benet [Corpus Christi] College unto an Old Inclosure called Paradise Close [93a, now Paradise Island] belonging to Mary Harrison And we do award order and direct that the said Private Carriage and Drift Road shall for ever be and remain for the Use and Benefit of the said Master Fellows and Scholars of Benet College and Mary Harrison and of the Owners and Occupiers of the said last mentioned Allotment and Old Inclosure and also of the said Mary Harrison and of the Owners and Occupiers of her Garden Ground [96] now in the Tenure of Richard Rowe to which the next described Private Road leads and of their Respective Agents Servants and Workmen for the time being
{Another Private Road for Benet College and Mary Harrison} [shown tinted green in the map]
One other Private Carriage and Drift Road of the like breadth of twenty Feet leading from and out of the last described private Road and extending in a North [sic, East] and North West [sic, North] direction through and over an Allotment [93] hereinafter awarded to the said Master Fellows and Scholars of Benet College unto the said Garden Ground [96] belonging to Mary Harrison now in the tenure of Richard Rowe And we do award order and direct that the last described Private Carriage and Drift Road shall for ever be and remain for the Use and Benefit of the said Master Fellows and Scholars of Benet College and Mary Harrison and the Owners and Occupiers of the said last mentioned Allotment and Garden [96] and of their respective Agents Servants and Workmen for the time being
… All which said several Public and Private Roads and Foot Ways hereinbefore particularly mentioned We the said Commissioners do determine and adjudge and by this our Award specify and declare shall for ever hereafter belong to the said Parish of Grantchester and (Except the said Arrington or Turnpike Road) shall be maintained and kept in Repair by the Inhabitants of the said Parish of Grantchester in the same Manner as Ancient and Common Public Roads and Highways are by Law directed to be kept in repair …
Thus the Award made under the 1799 Act grants to the owner or occupier of plot 96 rights to a 20-foot carriageway between plot 96 and Grantchester Street.
In January 1805, a Richard Rowe (c.1770–1840), presumably the one named in the 1803 Inclosure Award, was declared bankrupt, and his lands, including the site that later became Owlstone Croft, were sold by auction 1805 March 28. The notice of sale described the site as:
“A very eligible FREEHOLD ESTATE; Consisting of a genteel Brick Messuage, lately erected, with stable and other outhouses, and large Hot-house, standing on three Acres, more or less, of excellent Garden Ground, well planted with the choicest fruit trees; situate at Newnham, in the parish of Grantchester, late in the occupation of Richard Rowe.”
[Cambridge Chronicle, 1805 March 16, p. 3]
Note that: (1) Rowe, previously a tenant of Mary Harrison, now appeared to be freeholder; and (2) a house has been “lately erected” on the site. This is the earliest reference to a house on the site, and might mean that the earliest parts of Block A date from just before 1805.
In a detail from Baker’s New Map of the University and Town of Cambridge, 1830, it can be seen that almost the only buildings in the area now known as “Newnham Croft” are those on the plot of land named “Paradise Gardens”, now known as Owlstone Croft, shaded pink. The house “Croft Lodge” on Barton Road was built around 1822. The house on Paradise island is not shown. This map, when enlarged, gives some indication of how the garden of the Owlstone site was laid out.
The road now known as “Grantchester Street” is shown as “Gravel Pit Lane”. [This name was perpetuated for the southern half of Grantchester Street in the series of maps by Bacon well into the 20th century, but no street directory ever used it. The area between the road now known as “Grantchester Meadows” and Paradise Island was shown as “Gravel Pitts” in a map of 1795. [Cambs archives K152/P/11]]
The site was sold by auction on May 27th 1879. The notice of sale described the site as:
“A Charming RESIDENCE, At Newnham, Grantchester.
About a quarter-of-an-hour’s walk of the town of Cambridge, comprising a substantially built HOUSE of moderate size, perfectly dry, standing in its own grounds, which are in extent 2a. 0r. 38p., Nicely laid out and planted with Coniferous and other Ornamental Trees, Not to be surpassed in the neighbourhood for growth and beauty, pleasure and kitchen gardens, Vinery, Conservatory, and well-planted Orchard, and there are upwards of 335 square yards of brick walls all clothed with choice fruit trees.
It was the residence of the late Frederick Thomas Finch, Esq., deceased, and is known as PARADISE.”
[Cambridge Independent Press, No. 3320, Vol. LXXIV, 1879 May 24, p.5]
Frederick Thomas Finch (1799–1879) matriculated at Peterhouse in 1820. He became a retail druggist with a shop on Market Hill, and in 1843 became Dispenser to Addenbrooke’s Hospital. [One of his sons, Frederick Charles Finch (c.1829–1908) was a student at Queens’ College, from 1846.] Finch seems to have owned this site since 1831 or before, as he advertised Paradise Garden and House for letting in 1831 [Cambridge Chronicle, 1831 April 1, p.3]. Finch and his family described their home address as “Newnham Crofts” in various publications. Finch was shown as a resident at this property in the census returns for 1851, 1861, and 1871.
The site plan accompanying this auction is titled:
Plan of an Estate at Grantchester, Cambs, known as “Paradise”.
The site is still shown as 2 acres 0 roods 38 poles. There is a house on the site of the later house, but smaller, and various other outbuildings, which no longer exist.
The estate was purchased from this auction by Major Reginald Calvert (1832–1888), Chief Constable of the County Police. According to F.A. Reeve, “The house was rebuilt, with cottages for a coachman and a gardener, in 1881.”
Careful scaling from the 1879 plan shows that all the external walls of the pre-1881 house correspond to external or internal walls of the later building, so the 1881 rebuilding work might have been just a major extension to the north of the pre-1881 building, more than doubling the size of the house. In 1880, Calvert took an 80-year lease from Corpus Christi College on a triangle of land south of his owned site, and several new out-buildings were built on the extended site, including cottages and stables.
In Kelly’s Directory of Cambridgeshire 1883, Reginald Calvert is shown as resident at “Paradise, Newnham”. But in Spalding’s Street Directory 1884 Reginald Calvert is shown at “Owlstone Croft”: this is the earliest reference found in print to the name “Owlstone” for this site, so it is possible that the Calverts invented this name sometime around 1883–4. No trace has been found of the use of the word “Owlstone” in any context earlier than this, other than in the title of an 1856 satire The Owlet of Owlstone Edge, by Francis Edward Paget (1806–1882): but I do not know of any evidence of a connection between that book and the name that the Calverts adopted for this site. The earliest Ordnance Survey maps of the site, surveyed in 1886, label the house as “Owlstone Croft”.
The site, now described as “Owlstone Croft, Grantchester”, was put up for sale by auction in June 1892. The plan shows the 1881 house labelled “Owlstone” and the cottages (now the Porters’ Lodge) described as “Two Lodges”. Behind the cottage is shown a “Carriage House”, and beyond that “Stables, Harness Room and Loft over”. These survive as part of the later Nurses’ Training School, converted to the college nursery in 2015–16. The 1892 plan shows the original site of 2 acres 0 roods 38 poles as being sold Freehold, with an additional area of 30 poles along the south side shown as Leasehold. It is on this leasehold southern extension that the cottages, carriage house and stables had been built. It is not clear whether this auction resulted in a sale, as the Calvert family seemed to continue to have an interest in the site afterwards.
In 1894, the parish of Grantchester was included in the newly-created Chesterton Rural District Council, to whom responsibility for highway maintenance was transferred.
In the 1901 census, the prime resident of Owlstone Croft was listed as Marianne Cotton (1838–1917), who was the sister of Maria Calvert née Cotton (1836–88), the late wife of former owner Reginald Calvert.
In September 1902, A.C. Calvert [son of Reginald] instructed the sale by auction of the contents of Owlstone Croft, the notice of auction also stating that the property itself had been sold.
In October 1902, Corpus Christi College granted a “Licence for Alexander Cotton Calvert [son of Reginald] to assign to Mrs Maud Lennox Peart a piece of land in Grantchester comprised in a lease to Reginald Calvert dated 30 June 1881”. [Corpus Christi College Chapter Book 8] The implication is that the new owner of Owlstone Croft was Mrs Peart.
In 1911, parts of the Grantchester civil parish, including the Newnham Croft area, were transferred to the Borough of Cambridge, from Chesterton R.D.C. The areas transferred from Chesteron R.D.C. to Cambridge Borough made up a new electoral ward “Cambridge Without”.
In the 1911 census, the residents of Owlstone Croft were Alfred Henry Peart (1859–1945) and Maud Lennox Peart née Patrick (1858–1942). Alfred was a graduate of Peterhouse, and listed himself as a “University Coach”. In 1912, Alfred became Alderman for the “Cambridge Without” ward, and Maud was elected to the Board of Guardians for “Cambridge Without”. [Cambridge Daily News, Vol. XXIII, No. 7399, 1912 April 4, p.2] Both posts were resigned in 1914, and the couple moved to Little Shelford.
Between 1904 and 1912, the land between Owlstone Croft and Grantchester Street was developed for domestic housing, serviced by a new road, which was given the name “Owlstone Road”, presumably named after the adjacent Owlstone Croft. At its southern end, Owlstone Road connected to the existing access lane from Grantchester Street to Owlstone Croft.
F.A. Reeve notes:
In 1914, A.B. Lassiter used it as a school for young women.
Arthur Bowring Lassetter (1868–1935) had, in 1896, married Mabel Annie Slater (1866–1941). Mabel Annie Lassetter was shown as the owner of Owlstone Croft by 1918. In May 1918, she purchased from Corpus Christi College the following adjacent lands: [Corpus Christi College Lease Book 133, pp. 144–6]
- the freehold of the leasehold part of the Owlstone Croft site (thus consolidating the present site under one ownership);
- the private road to Owlstone Croft from its junction with the private road extending Grantchester Street to Paradise House;
- all the pasture or meadow land down to the river between Paradise House and the Driftway that now constitutes the Paradise Nature Reserve and the Lammas Land car park.
She erected gates across her private road between its junction with Owlstone Road and the Owlstone Croft site. The extent of the Owlstone Croft owner’s estate from 1918 to 1946 is shown in this 1925 plan: the owned private road is shaded yellow.
In 1919, a small extension was added towards the north end of the house. Any evidence of this on the ground floor was swept away by the 1940s extensions, but on the first floor the room now known as OCA22 can be seen to have been extended beyond the original front of the house.
On 24 December 1925, all the above lands, including the access road, were sold to Theodore Fyfe, M.A., F.R.I.B.A., who was Director of the Cambridge School of Architecture 1922–36 and University Lecturer in Architecture 1926–41. During his ownership, further extensions to the Owlstone house were made:
- In 1929, a new three-storey extension was added to the south of the house, forming the rooms now known as OCA1–2, OCA35–38, OCA54–56.
- In 1936, a ground floor service block was added to the north of the original house.
- In 1938, the room now known as OCA20, and equivalent area on the ground floor underneath, was added on the north-east corner of the 1919 extension.
Mrs Fyfe [Mary Nina Fyfe, née Brown (1887–1978), married 1911] was running a girls’ boarding school at Owlstone Croft, and that might explain the need for the house extensions. This school was a migration from an informal school run at Hatherop Castle, Gloucestershire, by Ruth Evelyn Cadogan (1877–1962) on P.N.E.U. principles, for her own children, and others. After Mr Fyfe’s retirement in 1941, the Fyfes moved to Longstowe Hall, west of Cambridge, and occasional references can be found to “Owlstone Croft School” or “Mrs Fyfe’s” operating at Longstowe Hall during the 1940s.
On 7 May 1942, all the lands shown in the 1925 map above, including the access road, were sold by Theodore Fyfe to Horace Nutt and Company, Limited.
[Mr Fyfe died at Longstowe Hall in January 1945. In 1946, “Owlstone Croft School” left Longstowe Hall and moved back to Hatherop Castle, where Mrs Fyfe remained in charge of the school, which was later renamed “Hatherop Castle School”. The school logo depicts an owl, in reference to its former name.]
On 27 March 1946, Horace Nutt & Co. Ltd sold to The President and Governors of Addenbrooke’s Hospital the principal Owlstone Croft site only, together with a right of way over the access road, ownership of which was retained by the Company (along with the lands later to become Paradise Nature Reserve).
The former “Owlstone Croft” became known as the “Addenbrookes Training School”. The single storey extensions, originally kitchens and dining rooms (now the Common Room and rooms OCA11–16), and the Sisters’ Dining Room (now Computer Room) were erected quite soon after the site was purchased, and the stables were extended to become Nurses’ Training School classrooms.
Around 1955 the four-storey building now known as Block B was erected to the south of the 1929 extension. It originally had 75 bedrooms, but 10 were subsequently converted to self-catering kitchens and a launderette. The original Owlstone house, with all its 20th century extensions, became known as Block A.
In 1963, a new single storey block of light-weight construction was erected in an L-shape surrounding a tennis court. It provided a further 48 bedrooms, together with bathrooms, kitchens and laundry rooms. This was known as Block C. A glazed corridor connected it to Block B.
On 22nd May 1963, Horace Nutt & Co. Ltd conveyed to the Cambridge Borough Council the access road to the Owlstone Croft site, “subject … to the right of the owners for the time being of the said messuage or tenement known as “Owlstone Croft” to pass and repass over and along the said roadway”.
As Addenbrooke’s Hospital moved out of the city centre to its new site south of Cambridge, the usage of Owlstone Croft began to diminish. The communal kitchens and dining halls closed, and were replaced by self-catering arrangements. The Nurses’ Training School closed, and for a while in the 1980s it was leased to the Social Services department of the County Council. The 1963 Block C closed at the end of 1986. For a period, some of the rooms in Blocks A and B were let to students of the C.C.A.T. (now Anglia Ruskin University).
These floor plans show the layout of Owlstone Croft in 1982, with coloured shading to indicate the age of each part.
Owlstone Croft was purchased by Queens’ College on 8 July 1988. A campaign began to refurbish Blocks A and B for post-graduate accommodation, but this could not be completed in time for the new academic year starting in October 1988. Block A and part of Block B were made ready in time. Because of an accommodation crisis, Block C was re-opened for a short but memorable period. Following that, Block C was finally de-commissioned, and the connecting corridor demolished. The whole of Blocks A and B were occupied for October 1989.
In 1997, all bedrooms were supplied with telephone service (since discontinued), and an entryphone system from the main front door.
In 1998, the former Sister’s Dining Room was set up as a computer room and study area.
In the summer of 2001, Block B was refurbished. The self-catering kitchens were relocated and extended, and the launderette was closed, with a net gain of two new student bedrooms (which necessitated a complete re-numbering of rooms). All baths, showers, and WCs were scrapped and renewed in an improved layout. A new launderette was built in the refurbished 1936 extension north of Block A. The derelict Block C was demolished down to its foundation slab. The cottage was re-roofed to prevent further interior decay, and internally stripped out.
In 2014, the disused single-storey dining room attached to Block A was converted to six units of en-suite student accommodation, OCA11–16.
In 2015–16 the former nurses’ training school building was converted, on the ground floor, to a college nursery, and, on the upper floor, five en-suite units of student accommodation, OCD1–5, first occupied March 2016.
In 2017–18, the two cottages at the entry to the site were converted to a new Porters’ Lodge, opened in April 2018.
In 2018, the iron gates which had formerly been the 1936 vehicular entry gates to the Round, at the Silver Street site, between Fisher Building and the river, were widened and installed as vehicular entry gates at Owlstone Croft.
In 2025, a major re-development of the site was started, involving the demolition of Blocks D and E, and of the NHS extensions to Block A, and erection of new houses fo student accommodation, as described at this link.
The quotations from F.A. Reeve are from The Cambridge Nobody Knows © 1977 F.A. Reeve and The Oleander Press.