{"id":5738,"date":"2026-01-27T14:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/?p=5738"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:36:28","slug":"swavesey-district-history-society-report-of-meeting-january-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/swavesey-district-history-society-report-of-meeting-january-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Swavesey & District History Society – report of meeting January 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thirty-five attended a talk on \u201cThe Young Charles Darwin in Cambridge\u201d by Murray Jacobs from Linton.\u00a0 Darwin\u2019s mother was part of the Wedgewood Pottery family and his father was a successful doctor.\u00a0 Charles attended Shrewsbury School as a boarder but hated it and was eventually removed as a failure.\u00a0 Aged 15 his father sent him to Edinburgh University, with his brother Erasmus, to study medicine but Darwin felt queasy at the sight of blood and he left Edinburgh without taking a degree. \u00a0His father, anxious that he did not become idle, insisted that Darwin take up clerical studies in Cambridge.\u00a0 His name was listed in the admissions book at Christ’s College in October 1827 but after spending time being tutored on his forgotten Greek, he eventually entered Christ’s in January 1828. \u00a0All the college rooms were full so Darwin took lodgings over the tobacconist\u2019s in Sidney-street, now occupied by Boot’s.\u00a0 \u00a0A blue plaque under the first-floor windows of Boot’s commemorates his stay there.\u00a0 Darwin was content at the thought of becoming a country clergyman since this would provide the freedom required to pursue his growing scientific interests. \u00a0While at Christ’s Darwin became an avid beetle collector. \u00a0He had a special six-drawer cabinet built to house his collection. \u00a0He decorated his room with eighteenth-century engravings of master paintings and was a fan of Shakespeare.\u00a0 He\u00a0enjoyed riding, visiting Kings College chapel and participating in the “Glutton Club”.\u00a0 He also spent much time shooting. \u00a0Darwin became irreversibly devoted to science at Cambridge. \u00a0His beetles were more than a hobby and his botany and entomology work under his mentor, Professor Henslow, prepared him for a life in science. \u00a0Shortly afterwards he was taught the rudiments of geology by Professor Sedgwick. \u00a0It was Henslow who passed on the suggestion to Darwin to accompany Captain Robert Fitzroy on board the voyage of HMS Beagle<\/em> as naturalist and gentleman companion.\u00a0 He sat his BA exam in January 1831 and was astonished to be ranked 10th out of 178 candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His father was strongly against him going on the Beagle voyage and progress was not easy since it seems he was the fourth choice of naturalist for the journey but on 27 December 1831 he finally set sail on The Beagle and his work thereafter revolutionised the life sciences.  After a heart attack Charles Darwin died aged 73 in April 1882 and in due course was buried in Westminster Abbey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next meeting-<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

24 February.  The Real Basil Brown: From Rickinghall to Sutton Hoo.  Sarah Doig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thirty-five attended a talk on \u201cThe Young Charles Darwin in Cambridge\u201d by Murray Jacobs from Linton.\u00a0 Darwin\u2019s mother was part of the Wedgewood Pottery family and his father was a successful doctor.\u00a0 Charles attended Shrewsbury School as a boarder but hated it and was eventually removed as a failure.\u00a0 Aged 15 his father sent him to Edinburgh University, with his brother Erasmus, to study medicine but Darwin felt queasy at the sight of blood and he left Edinburgh without taking a degree. \u00a0His father, anxious that he did not become idle, insisted that Darwin take up clerical studies in Cambridge.\u00a0 His name was listed in the admissions book at Christ’s College in October 1827 but after spending time being tutored on his forgotten Greek, he eventually entered Christ’s in January 1828. \u00a0All the college rooms were full so Darwin took lodgings over the tobacconist\u2019s in Sidney-street, now occupied by Boot’s.\u00a0 \u00a0A blue plaque under the first-floor windows of Boot’s commemorates his stay there.\u00a0 Darwin was content at the thought of becoming a country clergyman since this would provide the freedom required to pursue his growing scientific interests. \u00a0While at Christ’s Darwin became an avid beetle collector. \u00a0He had a special six-drawer cabinet built to house his collection. \u00a0He decorated his room with eighteenth-century engravings of master paintings and was a fan of Shakespeare.\u00a0 He\u00a0enjoyed riding, visiting Kings College chapel and participating in the “Glutton Club”.\u00a0 He also spent much time shooting. \u00a0Darwin became irreversibly devoted to science at Cambridge. \u00a0His beetles were more than a hobby and his botany and entomology work under his mentor, Professor Henslow, prepared him for a life in science. \u00a0Shortly afterwards he was taught the rudiments of geology by Professor Sedgwick. \u00a0It was Henslow who passed on the suggestion to Darwin to accompany Captain Robert Fitzroy on board the voyage of HMS Beagle as naturalist and gentleman companion.\u00a0 He sat his BA exam in January 1831 and was astonished to be ranked 10th out of 178 candidates.\u00a0 His father was strongly against him going on the Beagle voyage and progress was not easy since it seems he was the fourth choice of naturalist for the journey but on 27 December 1831 he finally set sail on The Beagle and his work thereafter revolutionised the life sciences.  After a heart attack Charles Darwin died aged 73 in April 1882 and in due course was buried in Westminster Abbey. Next meeting- 24 February.  The Real Basil Brown: From Rickinghall to Sutton Hoo.  Sarah Doig.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/joanna-kosinska-B6yDtYs2IgY-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1709&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Tb23-1uy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5739,"href":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5738\/revisions\/5739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.overvillage.co.uk\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}