This is Hobson's Memorial at the end of Hobson's Brook. Now you learn a lot doing 365... Thomas Hobson (1544-1630) brought fresh water to Cambridge from Nine Wells spring south of the city and it ran (and still does) along this brook and then along the culvert on Trumpington Street to the city centre. I always thought that the saying 'Hobson's Choice' (i.e. no choice at all) comes from the fact that you could either pay for the fresh water and survive or not pay etc. However it turns out that Hobson was also a 'carrier' of messages and he ran a stable of message horses from the George Hotel on Trumpington Street. He realised that his best horses were getting over-worked so he used a strategy of strict rotation and became famous for his saying 'that or none' - Hobson's Choice. I wonder if these blokes were told 'that or none' when they were allocated this job! They had used an inflatable dam up stream and were busy cleaning up. I asked the really filthy chap sitting down if I could take his photo and he said I could and then got all embarrassed and looked away. His mates were all laughing at him - poor man - he probably had thought his day couldn't get any worse!
Funny the way he has his head hanging down like that , poor chap are they making him do all the dirty work ? Interesting story about ' Hobsons Choice '' & a little about the man himself...sounds like Cambridge was & still is rather indebted to the man
Fascinating picture - I researched the history of Hobson's Conduit some years ago for some engineers who were tendering a bid to repair the fountain in the market place which is the end point of Hobson's water system. It is quite a remarkable story and interesting to see the work being done to maintain the conduit.
@happypat He certainly was very successful and lived in a huge house and was a great benefactor to the city and university. I feel bad for thinking that Hobson's Choice was a sort of blackmail rather than animal welfare!
Fascinating! We see pictures posted of beautiful architectural or landscape features and they are such fixtures we tend to forget that they need to be maintained. I admire the people that do that hard work so that we may enjoy.
I bet it stank rotten..i hope they were well payed...nice story on the Hob sons choice.. not a few words one hears these days,so many of those snippets from the past have faded away...sadly...
So you did - maybe we also need a muddy-feet tag? Also - if you don't add the hyphen this might be a lonely wet-feet shot too...Think I looked a bit like this when I got in today....
