About me …

… and my Cambridge pub ancestors

Mark Tinkler BMus (Hons), GRNCM, PPRNCM

From the letters after my name it will be clear to most that I am not (conventionally-speaking) qualified to write about pubs. But, you might ask, what qualifications do I have to write about pubs – other than an oddly obsessive interest in my subject matter? Cambridge is my hometown. My mother’s family (family name Burgess) has been in Cambridge / Chesterton since at least the end of the 18th century. The family were very much ‘town’ and not ‘gown’ and worked mostly as labourers and brickmakers. And, some of them ran pubs.

The White Horse in Chesterton, Cambridge. It stood on the High Street next to Thrifts Walk and was demolished in 1910.

Joseph BURGESS (1799-1872) my 3 x great-grandfather ran the White Horse (above) in the 1860s.

30 City Road, “The Eagle” – as it is nowadays –  in residential use

Charles William Clark (1820-NK), another of my 3 x great-grandfathers, ran the Fox and Hounds (Trumpington Street) later called the Huntsman. He then moved on to run the (Spread) Eagle in City Road (see picture above).

My mother’s father broke the mould when, largely self-educated, he became a Methodist minister, insurance agent, Town Councillor – and medal-winning champion of the Temperance movement (The Band of Hope)!

I don’t know if all this adds up to make me qualified to write on this subject – but I hope you enjoy all of this nonetheless.

Thanks to:

Katie Hawks, Mary Burgess (Cambridgeshire Collection), Aubrey Johnson and many others