The Friends organise events both independently and jointly with the Museum. These include an annual summer party in the Museum garden, lectures, and occasional visits  with a guided tour of an historic site.

After the formalities of the Annual General Meeting there is a social occasion with refreshments followed by a lecture from a guest speaker.

The Friends committee host the Preview evenings, with refreshments, to the 3-4 exhibitions during the year at the Museum; all Friends members are invited to these exclusive events.

News of Publications
Friends may be interested in three new publications.
Bridget Flanagan and Keith Grimwade have an article published in
the journal ‘Landscape History’:
‘The impact of watermills on the landscape of the River Great
Ouse valley between Brampton and Hemingford Grey, 1086–1350’.
If anyone is interested to read it, and is not a subscriber to the
journal, please contact for a free downloadable copy.
Bridget and Keith have also published a book

The Watermills and Landscape of the River Great Ouse, Cambridgeshire:

modelling the impact of Watermilling in a Lowland Valley’.

This is available to buy from Amazon or the publishers, Oxbow Books/Windgather Press at the RRP of £29.95.

The authors have copies available at £16.00 +p&p
Please contact them direct.
tobridget@hotmail.com
keithgrimwade@btinternet.com

Upcoming Events

Save the Date  :  Friday 8th May 2026,

We have arranged a visit to the Flag Fen Archaeology Park, near Peterborough, on Friday 8th May, starting at 10.30 am.  This is a particularly exciting time to visit Flag Fen because three of the Must Farm Bronze Age log boats are now on permanent display .  We will have a guided tour and an opportunity to visit the exhibition centre, which will take a couple of hours.  There is a cafeteria if people want to stay for a coffee and/or lunch.

The cost of the visit is £8.10 per person.  Participants will need to make their own way to Flag Fen.  It’s approximately a 50 minute drive from St Ives, post code PE6 7QJ.

You will need to arrive by 10.15 am to park and assemble for the tour (and use the facilities if you need them, which are only at the entrance.)

If you would like to join us, please email Keith Grimwade

keith.grimwade@btinternet.com.

with your name and a mobile/telephone number to book your place .

Please do not pay without first booking. Payment methods will be sent to you when your booking is confirmed .

If you would like to come on the visit but are not able to drive, we may be able to arrange a lift – email Keith Grimwade and he will let you know if a lift becomes possible.

(If you can offer a lift, likewise, please let Keith know.)

Places are limited, so please reply as soon as possible.

Please note – the site is flat and mostly level, although the ground is uneven in places.  It is partially accessible for wheelchairs and mobility scooters.

We are looking forward to an informative and enjoyable visit.

Previous Events

Farmers’ Market of Saturday Nov 15th

We will be selling our Christmas cards and books.

Annual General Meeting  7pm Thursday  9th October 2025

A short meeting to review the year  will be followed by

Natalie Leigh-Brown,Community Development Officer for Urban and Civic at Alconbury Weald, giving  a talk on the History of Alconbury Weald 

Thursday April 3rd 2025 , a guided tour of the Grade 11*Listed  Cold War Avionics Bunker , Alconbury

Members of The Friends enjoyed a wonderful guided tour of the Avionics building on part of the old airfield
site at Alconbury. This was the Cold War bunker, constructed to facilitate the information-handling from the U2/
TR1 aircraft. Membership Secretary, Ann Abraham and Events Organiser, Sue Belcher, arranged the tour as a
follow-on from Richard Carter’s talk to our AGM on ‘Airfields of Huntingdonshire’.
Natalie Leigh-Brown, Community Development Officer for Urban and Civic at Alconbury Weald, showed us around the bunker – and although it was
fascinating to see all the equipment of this rather eery military installation of the late 1980s, and be
relieved that it  was never called into active use, it was salutary to be so close to the reality of the very thin line between peace and war

A very interesting tour !

Friends visit to the tomb of Richard III in Leicester, June 2016

Friends enjoying a guided ‘handling session’ of early Renaissance ware at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, October 2015