Town, gown (and clergy): how the University and town Gas-Light company lit up Cambridge

Town, gown (and clergy): how the University and town Gas-Light company lit up Cambridge

Town, gown (and clergy): how the University and town Gas-Light company lit up Cambridge

event Saturday 19 September 2020 schedule 9.00am - 10.00am BST
Past event
Past event
event Saturday 19 September 2020 schedule 9.00am - 10.00am BST
  • Gas Light
Pre-recorded video by volunteers of Cambridge Museum of Technology, produced by Dr Gordon Davies
Online
Open to: 
Alumni and guests
Theme: 
Humanities, Museums and collections, Science and technology

Local resident Dr Gordon Davies (Robinson 1991) invites you to rewind 200 years to get a different view of Cambridge, when the construction of a gas works ushered in the area's first industrial revolution. The University & Town Gas-Light Company transformed how Cambridge looked, lived and worked. What are the lessons of Cambridge's energy past for its energy future?

Town, Gown (and Clergy): Cambridge's First Industrial Revolution

Speakers

Dr Gordon Davies (Robinson 1991)

Gordon Davies

After completing doctoral research in history and archaeology, Gordon has spent over 20 years working in the technology industry. As a resident who lives on the site of the former gas works in Cambridge, Gordon has researched the 19th- and 20th-century history of the University & Town Gas-Light Company from sources including: Cambridgeshire Archives, Cambridgeshire Collection and the University Library Map Room. 

As a volunteer at Cambridge Museum of Technology, Gordon produces a webinar series that explores the industrial history and archaeology of the city. 

Harriet O'Rourke

Harriet is the Collections Manager for the Centre of Computing History, Cambridge.

As a volunteer at Cambridge Museum of Technology, Harriet has co-presented a "floating museum" river-tour of the Cam, in which she has researched local industrial sites - from breweries to brick kilns - as well as the Cambridge gasworks.

Geoff Winckles

Geoff is a retired gas engineer with extensive international experience in building and managing gas-utility networks. 

As a volunteer at Cambridge Museum of Technology, Geoff has presented the history, physics and engineering of energy utilities, researched energy-utilities equipment within the museum's collection, and has also created wood carvings from illustrations of the early industrial revolution. 
 

Booking information

Booking for this event is now closed.

Contact

Events Team
Tel: 
+44 (0)1223 332288