The archive contains a large collection of documents relating to various aspects of the history of Sawston and a collection of publications on Sawston, the surrounding villages and Cambridge. These include a complete collection of the Parish Church Magazine, which included other parishes up to the 1950s, from 1887 to the present day, Sawston Scene, 1970-present day and the Sawston Crier 2002-2008. Newspaper cuttings relating to Sawston cover the period 1983-2002. Articles based on items in the archive appear in each edition of the Sawston Scene, usually with illustrations to accompany the text. Further details of the collection can be accessed here. Anyone wishing to consult the archive should contact the archivist at archivist@challis.org.uk.
The archive includes an extensive collection of photographs of people and places in Sawston, including the photographs taken of every house in the village in 2000 to mark the Millennium. Digitisation, to make a selection of images available more widely, is currently in progress.
We also offer KS2 Y5 a half day Victorian experience with hands-on activities for primary school pupils. These include handling Victorian and Edwardian artefacts, studying the industrial and commercial development of Sawston and shop-keeping and a typical Victorian school room with copybooks and the Cane!
For older students we can provide advice on resources for local history studies, on topics such as the pubs of Sawston, the impact of industrialisation on the village, and the Sawston men who fell in both World Wars.
We are happy to receive donations of documents and images relating to Sawston We reserve the right to offer items which are duplicates to anyone interested. The artefacts in the Museum collection are items connected to Sawston or from 1850 onwards which reflects the period of the Challis House. We do not have storage space for large artefacts.
The archivist and deputy archivist are normally in the House on Tuesday mornings from 10.00 to 12.00 noon and can be contacted there.
