Peterborough
Peterborough names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Peterborough a city partly in Huntingdonshire
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city partly in Huntingdonshire, but chiefly in Northamptonshire, England, the latter portion being on the left or N. bank of the Nen river, at the edge of the fen country, 76 miles N. of London. Here, at Medeshamstede, in 655, the Mercian thane Saxulf founded the great Benedictine abbey of SS. Peter, Paul, and Andrew, which, destroyed by by the Danes in 870, was restored in 966, plundered by Hereward in 1069, and again burned down in 1116. Its noble church, the cathedral since 1541 of a new diocese carved out of that of Lincoln, was built between 1118 and 1528, and thus, while essentially Norman, offers every variety of architecture down to the Perpendicular. It is 471 feet long, by 202 across the transept, and 81 high. The Early English W. front (1200-1222) consists of three mighty arches. Noteworthy also are the flat painted wooden ceilings of the 12th century, the portrait of "Old Scarlett" the sexton (1496-1594), the blue slab inscribed "Queen Catharine, A. D. 1536," and the grave for 25 years реп (1587-1612) of Mary Queen of Scots. In 1643 Cromwell and his troopers did hideous havoc to monuments, stained glass, and cloisters. Of the abbots may be mentioned Ernulf, Bishop of Rochester (1115); and of the 27 bishops, Lloyd ; and White the non-jurors, Richard Cumberland, Archbishop Magee of York, and Mandell Creighton the historian. Paley was a native. Two ancient gateways, the bishop's palace and the deanery (once the abbot's and prior's houses), and the chancel of a Becket chapel (now a museum) make up the remaining objects of interest. Peterborough is an important railway center, has manufactures of agricultural implements, and carries on a large trade in malt, coal, farm produce, etc. Incorporated as a municipal borough in 1874, it has returned two members to Parliament from 1547 till 1885, and since then one. Pop. (1917) 33,574.
Peterborough a town and capital of Peterborough co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a town and capital of Peterborough co., Ont., Canada; on the Otonabee and Trent Valley canal, and on the Grand Trunk and Canadian Pacific railroads; 85 miles N. E. of Toronto. It is well laid out, having wide and regular streets. The town is in the center of a rich agricultural rewheat, flour, cheese, wool, and pork. The manufactures include steam engines, agricultural implements, mill machinery, largest largest lift-lock lift-lock in the designed to lift vessels 140 feet long, 65 feet in the air in one motion, was built in 1904. Peterborough was settled in 1825 by Col. Peter Robinson, in whose honor it was named. Pop. (1918) about 25,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote in 1921 the English Peterborough was a railway town of 33,574 people "partly in Huntingdonshire"; designation as a New Town in 1967 brought waves of overspill housing, and the city now holds roughly 215,000 residents and has been a unitary authority within Cambridgeshire since 1998, Huntingdonshire having ceased to be a county in 1974. The cathedral described here still stands much as Collier's has it, Catherine of Aragon's grave included, though an arson fire in 2001 badly damaged the north choir aisle and its organ, prompting years of restoration. The Canadian Peterborough, then "about 25,000", is now a city of some 83,000; its hydraulic lift lock of 1904 remains the highest in the world, but it lifts pleasure craft rather than freight, and the Grand Trunk line named here was absorbed into Canadian National in 1923.
Written for this edition, 2026.