High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire

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04/11/2026

ROTARIANS - PEOPLE OF ACTION IN THE COMMUNITY
Cambridge has four Rotary Clubs, Peterborough has two, and Ely and most of our market towns have one each. The members of the Rotary Club of Cambridge invited me to join their weekly lunch, to tell me all about their charitable work.

The Rotary movement started in Chicago in 1905 when a coal merchant, lawyer and tailor decided to meet weekly, initially rotating the venue round each other’s offices (hence the name) but later with a fixed venue. The concept – to create trusted business relationships and a code of good conduct – spread fast; the Rotary Club of Cambridge was founded in 1922. There are now 45,000 clubs round the world with 1.2 million members - it’s a vast concept. In some places, there are also Rotaract Clubs for people 18+ and Interact for 12-18s. Those names reflect the Rotary slogan of “we are people of action" with the motto "service before self”

Cambridge’s Clubs have about 30 members each. The weekday lunch I attended at the The Gonville Hotel, a member of Radisson Individuals was very convivial - one course, chicken and veg, almost no alcohol. I sat between a vet and a journalist, with a water engineer and a structural engineer opposite.

Rotarians are active organisers. At this time of year the Cambridge Clubs organise carol concerts for primary and secondary schoolchildren to sing at; arrange the extra Christmas shopping car parking spaces; and collect Christmas trees in January. In September the Rotarians volunteer as marshalls for the Bridge The Gap walk. All these raise funds for charities, including Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, Romsey Mill, Cambridge Aid and Centre 33 - supporting young people in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Further afield, the Rotarians’ proudest achievement is to have donated a staggering £2.5bn globally to a 40-year campaign to eradicate polio: over that time, it’s dropped from 350,000 cases pa in 125 counties to only a few cases in just two countries. What an achievement!

It’s wonderful to keep meeting dedicated volunteers in Cambridgeshire who are focused on helping our residents. Very many congratulations and thanks to our wonderful Rotarians for all that they contribute to our communities. They are definitely ‘people of action’.

Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland

03/11/2026

PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO – AND THEN RUSH TO WISBECH MUSEUM!!!
Wisbech & Fenland Museum is one of Cambridgeshire’s most extraordinary treasure-troves. I beg you to go and see it, even if it means driving across half or all the county from your home.

After all, which museum:
- is situated in one of the prettiest Georgian Squares I’ve been to outside of Bath?
- is one of the oldest museums in the UK, older than the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge?
- has Napoleon’s china dinner service… and his chair, which I sat on?
- has French King Louis 14th (the Sun King)’s chess set?
- has a gruesome ‘man trap’ for grabbing/breaking the leg of local poachers?
- has a collection dedicated to the famous anti-slave campaigner, Thomas Clarkson, born in Wisbech?
- was voted ‘my favourite museum’ by poet Benjamin Zephaniah and was in a TV series by classicist Mary Beard?
….. and has the original manuscript of Great Expectations, entirely written by Charles Dickens in his own handwriting, with all his crossings out and edits - including a completely different (and sadder) ending that you can see he deleted and re-wrote more happily at his publisher’s suggestion?

Chair Stephen McGregor and President Richard Barnwell kindly hosted me, and the encyclopedic Curator Robert Bell showed me round. There’s a small staff of Robert and four part-time assistants, and a team of dedicated volunteers, all supported by a vibrant Friends Group.

This is a museum like none other in our county. The building is Georgian, big, spacious, well-proportioned. The galleries are beautifully presented, brightly lit, not a speck of dust. Everything is clearly labelled and explained.

The reason for visiting is that there is so much in it. It’s a wonderfully eclectic collection of a bit of everything. It’s got Ancient Egyptian, China, Natural History, Archaeology, Local & Social History, Manuscripts, Photography and so much more. If you know the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square in London, it’s a bit like a mini version of that – and it’s our own, Cambridgeshire, version.

Wisbech is packed with great places to visit. Spend a whole day there!

02/11/2026

ALL SAINTS, ALL HALLOWS AND ALL SOULS
Yesterday was All Saints’ Day (also known as All Hallows’ Day, hence the evening before being Hallows’ Eve’n or Halloween) and today is All Souls’ Day. Both are important days in the Christian Calendar.

On All Saints’ Day, I was invited to the 11.00am Mass in the Catholic Church in Cambridge, properly called The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and the English Martyrs, Cambridge or OLEM. The invitation was from Rt. Rev. Mgr. Eugene Harkness, the Rector and Parish Priest, who’s also Chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of East Anglia. I also met the Deacon, Rev. Jonathan Wight, and the Rt. Rev. Alan Hopes, the Roman Catholic Bishop Emeritus of East Anglia.

OLEM is a busy and important church. There were no less than six separate services yesterday, and over 3,000 people attended them. The Catholic Church’s reach is so wide that OLEM is a wonderful melting pot of people whose heritage is British, Irish, European, Eastern European, South American, African, Philippine and from many other Asian counties - it was probably the single most multi-national event I’ve been to as High Sheriff so far. Absolutely brilliant.

OLEM itself has a fascinating history. In the 1700s, the illegitimate son of a poor Cornish schoolmaster emigrated to Portugal to find his fortune. After the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, he cornered the market in window-glass though a combination of Royal and Prime Ministerial patronage, and made a vast fortune.

Being childless, his fortune ended up with his cousin’s grandson, making him England’s richest commoner (and, incidentally, High Sheriff of Norfolk where he had an estate close to Sandringham). When he died, childless, his widow inherited it all; she had been a French ballerina and, being French, a Catholic. In 1884, she donated £70,000 for the construction of the first large Catholic church in Cambridge, and OLEM was born.

Very many thanks to Mgr. Harkness and all of the Catholic community for including me in yesterday’s service - and for the way in which OLEM brings together so many residents from so many countries and heritages.

01/11/2026

FEN SKATER, BULWARK BITTER AND OLD RIVERPORT STOUT
If you like “deliciously drinking ales” and want to savour a crisp pale ale (4.0%), light amber ale (3.8%) or a session stout (3.4%) then you need to head to the Papworth Brewery - which isn’t actually in Papworth, but in Earith, just where the Great Ouse turns into the Old Bedford River.

Alongside the historic Elgood & Sons Ltd in Wisbech (established 1785, still family-owned), we in Cambridgeshire enjoy many more recent breweries, like Papworth Brewery (founded 2017). Founder and owner Chris Jones showed me round.

Chris had a 25-year career as a micro-biologist, but eventually swapped laboratory science for the science and art of brewing. After an early start in his garage in Papworth he moved to an industrial estate in Earith in 1997 where he now has a microbrewery (his description) and the next-door Brewery Tap - effectively a pub - called the Crystal Ship.

We inspected bags of East Anglian malted barley and tasted a standard malt and compared it to a bitter, roasted bag. Chris talked lovingly of the different sorts of hops he likes to use and how he chooses them. Most of his b**r is put into casks (naturally-pressurised metal barrels) but some is bottled. He sells it to pubs in a radius of about 30 miles, often driven there by his son - it’s a family business, with a team of half a dozen staff helping him.

In an age when so much of what we consume is mass-produced and often imported from thousands of miles away, our local breweries are worth celebrating and valuing - and their b**r is definitely worth drinking! Very many thanks to both of the brewing Chris’ I’ve met - Chris Barnes, Head Brewer at Elgoods, and now Chris Jones, owner and brewer at Papworth Brewery - for keeping their craft alive locally and supplying our pubs with their delicious b**rs.

31/10/2026

NEW RECRUITS TO THE THIN BLUE LINE
Cambridgeshire Constabulary has 2,745 people in it: that’s not many to Keep the King’s Peace and enforce the law amongst us 900,000 residents - but better than the old days when it was done by the High Sheriff alone!

Specifically, we have 1,722 police officers, 66 Special Constables (amazing volunteers with the same powers as regular officers), 29 Police Support Community Officers (PCSOs) and 928 police staff.

About 120 new recruits join our constabulary each year, keeping pace with retirements and job moves. Chief Constable Simon Megicks invited me to join him as he inspected the Passing-Out Parade of the latest 17. Looking on were proud family members and friends, with cameras clicking all the time.

Police forces recruit and train locally: for us, training is at Monk’s Wood, north of Huntingdon. There are two main courses: PC Degree Entry (joiners have or will get a degree) and the PC Entry Programme (no degree, joiners are often mid/late 20s and have had a previous job).

Shortly after starting at Monks Wood they become Student Officers and make a formal Attestation before a Magistrate – a serious matter, an oath to serve the King and act “with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality”, marking the legal line between civilian and constable.

Then follows five months of intensive training, after which they pass out. They’re still Student Officers but now have normal policing duties, accompanied by a tutor colleague. The next big milestone is when they’re judged Fit for Independent Patrol – Chief Superintendent Chris Treadwell told me “it’s like taking the stabilisers off your bike, you’re now able to be on your own”. Finally, after another year or so, the ‘student’ designation comes off and they become full Police Constables.

Gilbert & Sullivan humorously wrote that “a policeman’s lot is not a happy one” and I know it can be very stressful and indeed dangerous at times. But today’s Passing-Out was a very happy occasion. We should all thank these new recruits, and all members of the police, for all they do to keep us safe and sound.

30/10/2026

WISBECH’S MOST FAMOUS DAUGHTER
It’s quite incredible that one town has produced two of the UK’s most famous campaigners for social justice, but that’s just what Wisbech did.

Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846), son of a local headmaster, became one of the leading anti-slavery campaigners. Octavia Hill (1838-1912), daughter of a corn merchant and banker, became ‘the Florence Nightingale of Social Reform’.

Octavia came from a family of social reformers: her grandfather campaigned for decent living conditions for the poor, and her father built Wisbech Infant School.

In 1851, she moved to London, and was horrified by the grim urban poverty. She met John Ruskin and persuaded him to buy three houses to rent to the poor: 20 years later she had 15 housing schemes and 3,000 tenants. She and her volunteer assistants visited every tenant weekly to check on their wellbeing, and created tenants’ associations, after school clubs and community spaces. Today we’d call this a Housing Association, Social Services and Community Centres/Activities; then, her work was truly pioneering.

She didn’t stop there! To socialise urban youths struggling for direction, she started the UK’s first Army Cadet Force outside public schools. Because she believed in the virtues of green spaces and fresh air, she founded… wait for it… the National Trust, with two others. She was the first person ever to use the phrase “Green Belt”.

Octavia’s birthplace, Octavia Hill Birthplace House on South Brink, Wisbech is now a brilliant museum and education centre, owned and run by the local charity Octavia Hill Birthplace Museum Trust. Chair Mark Knight and several Trustees including Richard Barnwell kindly showed me round.

It’s a gem of a museum in a gem of a Georgian townhouse, full of fascinating material telling Octavia’s story alongside the development of social reform in the Victorian days. There are re-created slums, lots of interesting information and education material, an elegant upstairs ‘long room’ overlooking the River Nene, a beautiful garden and a delightful tea room.

Wisbech is rightly proud of Octavia Hill and her pioneering work. Do please go and visit her birthplace museum – you’ll love it!

29/10/2026

TEACHING THE HORSERACING INDUSTRY’S NEXT GENERATION
Most of Newmarket is in Suffolk, but British Racing School is just inside Cambridgeshire, so I can visit it without treading on the High Sheriff of Suffolk’s turf!

CEO Andrew Braithwaite and Beth Sullivan, Head of Fundraising, kindly showed me and a dozen others round their school.

It’s a big operation. Its core “Foundation Course” is an 18-week Level 1 course for 16-24 year olds from all over the UK plus a few international students; it’s a 7-day-a-week residential course and the school has hostel accommodation. You don’t need to know how to ride to go here; in fact, they almost prefer having a blank canvas to start from. It’s 70:30 girls:boys.

It’s great for children who prefer practical activity and skills, and about a quarter of students will have struggled with mainstream school – importantly, there’s no minimum GCSE requirement, just sufficient physical fitness and the right attitude. Tuition is paid by the Government (it’s an approved training provider) and the BRS itself is a charity.

It’s a tough gig. Work starts at 6.30am with a break for breakfast around 8.00am. There are 80 horses, most teaching is outdoors, and it feels like a real trainers’ yard. The students learn stable management and how to race-ride. By definition, it feels competitive: the whole point of the industry is winning!

The Foundation Course leads on to a Level 2 Apprenticeship where the BRA finds their students full-time jobs in racing yards.

There’s a range of other courses. A new focus is on a Pony Racing Academy for 8-14 year olds, to get newcomers into the sport. The BRS also has tutors who go round training yards to help jockeys continuously improve.

This is all incredibly important. UK horseracing trainers are among the best in the world; horses are sent to the UK from all over; and horses fly from here to all the major international race meetings. The UK racing industry is a big employer and a major contributor to the UK economy. But it entirely depends on trainers having a ready supply of high-quality new young riders, and that’s exactly what the BRS produces – in Cambridgeshire. All power to its elbow.

29/10/2026

TWO MAGICAL MARCH MUSEUMS
Bang opposite each other near the centre of March are Fossils Galore and the March & District Museum – two Aladdin’s caves of fascinating treasures.

Fossils Galore, run by founder/curator Jamie Jordan and his partner Sarah Moore, is a truly extraordinary celebration of dinosaur fossils. Jamie is acknowledged as one of the UK’s leading experts on dinosaur bones – he found his first one aged 4, launched a dinosaur fossil website aged 13, ran fossil hunting trips at 16, discovered a nearly complete Plesiosaur Skeleton at 18, and opened the museum and educational centre in March at 22. The Natural History Museum and Cambridge’s Sedgwick Museum regularly seek his help.

Dinosaur bones are being discovered all the time, particularly in some of the excavations around Peterborough. Jamie and his team of 40 volunteers get called in to dig them up and then painstakingly chip away the surrounding rock to reveal and re-create the animals. Half his volunteers are under 18 - this is a super way of engaging youngsters.

Fossils Galore is a combination of a workshop, display museum, educational facility and shop. You and your children will love it!

Over the road is the March & District Museum, also entirely volunteer-run, where Chair Irene Bates, Archivist David Edwards and their colleagues showed us round their fabulous collection of local heritage items - including details of the 19 High Sheriffs that March and its surrounding villages have produced!

The museum’s a wonderful treasure trove of items from March’s past, and a celebration of the wider fenland area. It’s so important to preserve our local history, not just so the next generation can learn what life was like in the past, but also to give all residents a sense of ‘place’ and ‘belonging’, which is so important in today’s fast-moving world.

Being a glutton for this sort of thing, we then popped into St. Wendreda’s Church, whose beautiful double hammerbeam room is one of the glories of the fens – 120 angels and 19 saints and martyrs, all huge and carved in wood, look down at you from its roof. John Betjeman said it was “worth cycling forty miles into a head wind” to see it, and it inspired Dorothy L Sayers’ “The Nine Tailors”, the most famous fenland detective story.

I urge you to spend a day visiting March’s treasures – you’ll love them!

28/10/2026

LOVE IN ACTION IN LITTLEPORT
Branching Out is a lovely, active Littleport charity, providing day care for adults with learning difficulties like Downs Syndrome, cerebral palsy and severe autism; one gentleman was also blind. Founded 30 years ago by a local farmer, it focuses on practical skills like crafts (there’s a carpentry shop and repair area) and handiwork (everyone was making Halloween material and starting work on Christmas decorations) and has a big emphasis on outdoor work (vegetable beds, polytunnels).

It’s called ‘branching out’ as the staff and volunteers are the tree trunk, supporting the adults, who are the branches, enabling them to stretch out and grow - what a lovely image. There’s a big oak tree in the garden to bring that image to life.

General Manager Debra Smith showed me around. She has 40 adults with learning difficulties on her books - called ‘service users’, which we agreed is a slightly clunky phrase - of whom 20 are on-site at any one time: some come a day a week, some for two or three, others for five.

I met a team of about 20 wonderful, compassionate, enthusiastic, friendly, cheerful staff. They really are ‘love in action’ - the care is intensive, nearly 1-to-1, and the service users are fun, laughing, engaged, busy, joyful – we had lots of handshakes, fist-bumps and hugs as they enthusiastically showed me all they’d been making and doing. “Best job ever” they told me, “I love it”.

Most of Branching Out’s funding comes from Cambridgeshire County Council, but the charity also had a lovely shop near the middle of Littleport, run by Sharon Sykes, which raises extra funds. Some of the service users work there, integrating into the community, and it sells some of the products and produce from the main site alongside other goods.

Branching Out is one of a number of charities performing this important service - The Prospects Trust and Burwell Print are others. Individually and together, they and their teams are looking after some of the most vulnerable people in our society - and doing so in a very loving and happy way. Very, very many thanks to all of them.

27/10/2026

THANKING OUR CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE
When someone’s prosecuted in Peterborough, Huntingdon or Cambridge’s Magistrates or Crown Courts, the hard work is done by a team of CPS officers from a few light and airy rooms in Cambridge Crown Court, plus more at CPS East Anglia’s HQ in Norwich.

There are two main sides to their work. First, the CPS’s “Legal Team” has to build the case. I met their Legal Manager Henry. He works with colleagues called Crown Prosecutors and Lawyers, who are legally-qualified and a bit like in-house solicitors. They work closely with the police and other agencies to assemble the evidence, build the case and, ultimately, assemble a document quaintly called a “bundle” which contains all the material.

Crown Prosecutors and Lawyers don’t themselves stand up and present the case in court – indeed, they usually don’t attend court at all. Instead, they pass the case and bundles to an in-house CPS ‘Crown Advocate’ or, more usually, they instruct an external Barrister.

At Court, the second part of the CPS’s work comes into play: “Operational Delivery”. Maisie, Paralegal Business Manager, explained the team’s role. About ten Cambridgeshire paralegals pilot the cases through the courts: at any one time, each has about 175 live prosecution cases and there are 800 across Cambridgeshire (the balance is them helping in other counties).

It’s complex and lengthy work. A typical case will go before a Judge for a Plea & Pre-Trial Hearing, then (if pleaded not guilty) a Pre-Trial Review, and finally the Trial itself (average 4-5 days). There’s other stuff as well. When I visited, a victim of assault was giving pre-recorded video evidence and being cross-examined, to save them the trauma of appearing at the trial itself; someone who’d pleaded guilty before Magistrates had been sent by them to a Judge for sentencing; and the team was ‘mentioning’ some additional information to a Judge who was about to sentence a criminal.

It’s fascinating work. Very many thanks to Maisie, Henry and all their CPS colleagues for the vital public service they perform. I hope they never have to prosecute you!

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Peterborough

Website

https://www.highsheriffcambs.org.uk/

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