Cambridge local history website secured with £25K donation

Cambridge Town Gaol was built in 1827 at a cost of £25,000 and has now been demolished

A museum is to put a single £25,000 donation from a supporter towards its popular local history website.

The Museum of Cambridge said the money was its largest ever gift and would go towards developing its crowd-sourced website, Capturing Cambridge.

The site receives thousands of visits each month, from Cambridgeshire and around the world, the museum said.

It said cash from donor and museum trustee Roger Lilley would support the hiring of a digital engagement officer.

Mr Lilley said: "I am lucky enough to have seen first-hand the impact that this website has on its users - everyone from those discovering articles about their own house, street or area for the first time, to those who are kind enough to share their years of research with the users of the site.

"I hope my donation inspires others to make a donation to support the continuation of Capturing Cambridge."

A photo of a Coop store on High Street, Chesterton, taken in about 1960 and was a former pub dating back to 1786

In the last four years, the museum received no direct funding to support the continuation of Capturing Cambridge, and relied on volunteers to maintain the online research tool.

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Capturing Cambridge was founded in 2013 by the Mill Road History Society, as a way of supporting the people of Cambridge to record their research into their local areas.

The project was so successful, the website was made permanent in 2016, and management was passed to the museum.

Since 2016, Capturing Cambridge expanded to cover villages and towns across Cambridgeshire.

The site hosts more than 12,000 entries on houses, streets, villages and towns across the region and receives 8,500 visits monthly from users.

Annie Davis, of the Museum of Cambridge, said it was "grateful" to Mr Lilley for the investment which would "secure the future" of the Capturing Cambridge website.