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History: How the University locked up the city’s women




This month sees the publication of The Spinning House: How Cambridge University Locked up Women in its Private Prison, a fascinating account of a shocking time in the city’s history, by local author Caroline Biggs. Velvet’s Sarah Ingram finds out more

Caroline Biggs by Elodie Giuge
Caroline Biggs by Elodie Giuge

Caroline Biggs is on a mission: a mission to bring to life the history of Cambridge, the town not the University. “So much has been written about the history of the University,” she says, “but Cambridge is more than the University. It has its own history, one that is just as important and interesting as the history of the University. After all, the town existed long before the University was established.”

That hunger to find out about the history of the town she was born and grew up in was nurtured by Allan Brigham, much-loved local historian, tour guide, street sweeper and Caroline’s fellow trustee at the Museum of Cambridge. “Allan made me curious, just as he was endlessly curious,” Caroline says. “He was a massive influence on me.”

The Spinning House - Courtesy of The Museum of Cambridge
The Spinning House - Courtesy of The Museum of Cambridge

It was Allan who first told her the story of Daisy Hopkins, a local girl arrested for prostitution in the 19th century who brought a case against the University of Cambridge and inspired an Act of Parliament that would change the law. Caroline was intrigued; she wanted to find out more. And so she began digging. What she discovered shocked her and made her determined to bring the whole story – not just of Daisy Hopkins but of other girls like her – to public attention.

It all began with Elizabeth I. The Queen passed a Charter granting the University of Cambridge the power to arrest and imprison any woman suspected of soliciting. The ordinary law of the land required there to be proof before a woman could be arrested for prostitution, but under this Charter, senior members of the University, the Proctors, accompanied by special constables known as bulldogs, could arrest and imprison any young woman out on the streets after dark simply on suspicion that she was up to no good (and by ‘up to no good’ they meant threatening the moral character of the young male undergraduates).

The Spinning House - Courtesy of The Museum of Cambridge
The Spinning House - Courtesy of The Museum of Cambridge

The women were tried by the Vice Chancellor in a private court; there were no sworn witness statements; they were not allowed a legal defence; and the women themselves were not allowed to speak except to say their names. Then they were incarcerated in the Spinning House, a former workhouse that was notorious for its terrible conditions.

“The Spinning House was essentially the University’s private prison for the women the Proctors and bulldogs seized off the streets of Cambridge,” Caroline says. “And there is no evidence that any of the women who were arrested between 1830 and 1890 – 2,500 of them according to the records – were prostitutes. Any woman walking in a street in Cambridge at night was at risk of being arrested and imprisoned.”

The more Caroline found out, the more convinced she became that this story needed to be told, and that she was going to be the person to tell it. “What my book throws light on is the tension between town and gown, and how the town was run for the benefit of the University not the townspeople. The women in my book represent the ultimate example of how the University wanted to run things to suit themselves. They were so frightened of the undergraduates being tempted that they treated the townswomen, mainly working-class women, with great cruelty.”

The Spinning House - Courtesy of The Museum of Cambridge
The Spinning House - Courtesy of The Museum of Cambridge

Caroline confesses she is a research addict, and she haunted the University Library for material. It was there she discovered the Committal Books for the Spinning House. “I’ll never forget turning the pages and seeing the names of the girls and of the Proctors who’d arrested them. Their crime was usually just ‘street walking’ or ‘suspected of evil’. They were literally just walking in the street but were suspected of evil!”

The more she read, the more Caroline felt she knew these girls. She was lucky, she says, because there was a lot of information to find, which is unusual when it comes to working-class women. “It was exciting and moving to see the names there in front of me, on official documents.”

One of the girls that Caroline writes about, Elizabeth Howe, died because of the terrible conditions in the Spinning House. “When I started to read the inquest documents into the death of Elizabeth Howe, I just had to keep reading,” Caroline tells me. “I stopped taking notes, I just had to read. It was December and freezing cold; the cell was damp and there was a broken window. Elizabeth caught cold and became very ill.

The Spinning House - Courtesy of The Museum of Cambridge
The Spinning House - Courtesy of The Museum of Cambridge

“There’s a statement from one of her friends who described her as a gentle and kind girl. The friend had rushed off to get a doctor for Elizabeth but was stopped by a Proctor who threatened to arrest her if she didn’t get off the streets immediately, so she went home empty-handed. Elizabeth died that night. I can’t tell you how it made me feel to read that.”

Having already written several booklets on aspects of local history, Caroline had caught the writing bug. “I wanted to write the very best book I could, a book to be enjoyed and understood by everybody,” she says. So she enrolled on creative non-fiction writing courses at Madingley Hall and from there went to the University of East Anglia where she gained an MA in Creative Writing (Non-Fiction).

I ask Caroline how she feels now that the book is finished and ready for publication. “I’m sad in a way because I’ve been writing the book for over five years. And I love doing research. But there came a point when I had to say, enough is enough, it’s time for people to read this story.”

The Spinning House by Caroline Biggs
The Spinning House by Caroline Biggs

The Spinning House is published by The History Press on March 7. To find out where you can buy a copy, and to hear more about local launch events, follow Caroline on Instagram @carolinebwriter or read her blog therealcambridge.com


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