Sawston Cross

It is believed that the original Cross was built by the Knights Templar reference the Survey of Sawston 1580: "Here standith a crosse covered with tyles". As recently as 1815 the Cross was enclosed by a building shaped like an amphitheatre, only the top part of the Cross being visible. The Table Book Vol. 2, William Hone, The Gentleman Magazine 1815. In the summer of 1815 the Cross was removed for some unknown reason and later replaced; in the process of these operations the top of the Cross was broken off and for the following seventy years only the shaft remained. In the [eighteen] eighties ...another Cross was refixed to the top of the shaft, and later on in 1919 there were further alternations, the Cross being adapted to form the central feature of the Village War Memorial, being raised on a new foundation of Cornish granite. The iron railings were removed at the same time and replaced by a surround of a more dignified character. In February 1943 the top of the Cross was again broken off, this time by an Army unit, who failed either to apologise for such a thoughtless if unintentional act of vandalism or even to report the matter to a responsible authority. The replacement was carried out later by Messrs. Rattee an Kett, of Cambridge. [Extracted from Traviss Teversham's book 'T. F. Teversham, History of Sawston Part II 1947']

Photographs Copyright © Ann Thompson 2000

Sawston World War I

The following article is taken from Sawston as Seen edited by Mary Dicken and Audrey Lambart, available from the Sawston History Society.

This extract (c.1942) is from a previously unpublished article written by Traviss Teversham. It may originally have been intended to be included in the History of Sawston Part II.

Forty Sawston men fell in the campaign, and the majority were killed in action in France. I knew most of them by sight, many of them personally and a number of them rather intimately. All of them were junior to me except Arthur Giggins, a regular soldier, and Harry Baker and Jack Samuel, who were my own age. Harry was at school with me under John Falkner, and we played cricket and football together for Sawston St. Mary's. His nickname was "Jumbo", a suitable name for one who smiled and joked his way along. Sturdy and stockily built, many will remember him as a useful winger for the Church Institute Football Club. Bert Coleman was also a schoolfellow with me under Falkner. He was a quiet and retiring boy; he won a minor county scholarship. Arthur Edwardes was a handsome lad of charming disposition who was still at school when war broke out. As a pilot in the R.F.C. he crashed during training and we were again reminded that those whom the gods love die young; Bill Gee, who fell early on in Flanders, was a typical guardsman, buisiness-like and to the point. I remember bidding him goodbue and good luck as he entrained at Whittlesford Station with Jack Barker and other reservists on the eve of the war. Who could ever forget dapper little Freddie Goodwin in his Sunday best, with a flower and a sprig of maiden-hair in his button-hole?

Sidney Hall was a tall, clear-skinned youth of genial disposition, with a complexion a girl might envy. Ronald Jennings had the qualities to be expected of an 'old regular' of the Rifle Brigade. He was handsome, dashing and upstanding, with a masterful air. Wilfred, his younger brother, had a quiet happy disposition.

Harry Moulton was an only son, whose ready smile reflected his happy outlook on life.

Sidney Parsons, quiet and unassuming, was born a few doors away from me in New Road. He lies in France in an unknown grave.

George Rickett and his brother Leonard, both of the Canadian Army, had emigrated to Canada shortly before the war. Leonard was quite a lad, beautifully built and of striking appearance.

Percy Runham was one of several only sons in the list. He was a boy with bright brown eyes and immaculate appearance. As a sergeant in the Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, he was killed in France leading a bombing raid on the German lines.

Alfred Barker of the Lincolnshire Regiment, was another tall, upright handsome lad, who for many years drove one of Crampton's oil vans.

I said goodbye to Eric Fortin for the last time, in the early Autumn of 1915 at Hanley Castle Worcestershire. He was training at Malvern with a Birmingham City battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and he called to see me with two of his pals. All three lie across the channel. Eric's chief concern in 1914 was the fear that the doctors would turn him down since he had had a nervous breakdown shortly before the war broke out. On his last leave at his Hillside home he said goodbue to Herbert Reed at our garden gate, "Cheerio," said Herbert, "Here's to our next meeting in Berlin". Eric was mortally wounded at Arras in June 1916, while on patrol, and I heard of his death when I was in the trenches in front of Poloegsteert (Plug Street) Wood. Herbert, only a lad, fell in the bitter Passchendaele fighting in July 1917, Alfred and Arthur Mackay were the twin sons of Stephen Mackay, who, with his brother Sam (a tough pair indeed), dug many wells for the houses along Hillside and elsewhere in the village.

Corporal Frank Mackay, cousin to Alfred and Arthur, was a smart soldier of very striking appearance. Their grandparents were Scots who came to this district about a century ago. Mackay is a famous fighting name in Scotland, and the blood ran true in the strain that settled in Sawston.

Only dimly do I recall Percy Nunn, as a fair curlyhaired schoolboy, the youngest son of Humphrey Nunn, the former well-known fast bowler and centre forward, who also served during the war in France with the Royal Engineers.