 Cambridge is an ancient university town, an even older market town and a modern centre of the technology industry. In this video, celebrate 50 years of Cambridge Museum of Technology and explore a different side of Cambridge. It's industrial heritage from the air. Many industries grew, then disappeared from the landscape of Cambridge during the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 20th and 21st centuries former industrial sites have been redeveloped as commercial buildings and offices, business parks, research centres, retail outlets, leisure complexes and housing. Harnessing the latest in aerial drone video, take an aerial circumnavigation around 2020s Cambridge revealing the city's industrial landmarks, past, present and future. Revisit the sites of Cambridge's earliest aerial photography from the 1920s in order to see how the landscape and skyline has changed over the last century. Explore contemporary panoramas around the city, taken from dawn to dusk to night and through the seasons. In this video, Cambridge Museum of Technology will focus on industrial sites such as manufacturing, transport by rail, road, river and air. Utilities including energy, water treatment and construction work as Cambridge undergoes a 21st century growth spurt. There are many more Cambridge landmarks captured in these vistas. Spot one, please add it in the comments below the video. From above Cambridge Museum of Technology and under a supermoon, the reflected light of street lights along Newmarket Road stretch eastwards. As the sun rises, the eastern horizon of Stourbridge Common is revealed. The area has been important in the development of river trade along the Cam since antiquity and for hundreds of years hosted the largest medieval fair in Europe, Stourbridge Fair. The silhouette of the old Chedders Lane sewage pumping station, now Cambridge Museum of Technology, is revealed at dawn. In the 20th century, the nearby Pi radio works in Chesterton which overlooked Stourbridge Common pioneered its iconic sunburst radio. It's not difficult to see how the Cambridge Sunrise may have inspired its designers. In daylight, the view towards the north-eastern horizon reveals the rapidly changing landscape around Cambridge Science Park, Business Park, Commercial Park, Innovation Park and Cambridge North Railway Station. In 1928 when Aerofilms photographed north-east Cambridge, Milton Road by the Corporation Sewage Farm, where the Chedders Lane pumping station pumped Cambridge's effluent for processing, was still largely fields. In the 1940s, RAF Photography for Ordnance Survey revealed housing development along Cambridge's main roads. Printing has been an important industry in Cambridge for over 500 years, driven by the university's need for academic books. Commercial print shops are still present in industrial parks off Milton Road. Milton Country Park contains several pits. From the 1930s to 1960s, large-scale extraction of sand and gravel for the construction industry created large pits in Milton. When sand and gravel extraction ceased, the area became overgrown until it was transformed into a country park in the 1990s. The largest pit is named after Maurice Dickerson, a local entrepreneur whose company scooped out the gravel in straight lines using a large crane and bucket called a drag line. The A14, which runs adjacent to Milton Country Park, has undergone several construction projects, accommodating increased traffic from the development of Cambridge Science Park, Business Park and Innovation Park over the last 50 years. Cambridge Commercial Park hosts industries including public transport, a coach park and industrial aggregates for the construction industry. Cambridge North Railway Station was opened in 2017 on the site of former Chesterton sidings. The railway line crosses the River Can at Ditten Meadows. The current railway bridge, installed in 1930, is soon to be joined by the Chisholm Trail, Pedestrian and Cycle Bridge, connecting Central and North Cambridge railway stations through Ditten Meadows and Stourbridge Common. The old Maltings Brewery on Ditten Walk is just one of Cambridge's many former brewing-related sites. Cambridge's first aerodrome opened in Fenditon in the late 1920s, before moving to its current site south of the New Market Road in the late 1930s. A glimpse of the future site was captured by a private aviator above Cherryhinton in 1934. This eastern quadrant of Cambridge changed substantially from the 1930s, with the construction of residential housing, Marshall's Aerodrome, later Cambridge City Airport and the Abbey Stadium. The landscape is due to transform again by the 2030s, with residential housing planned for the Aerodrome site. The Barnwall, Abbey and Riverside areas around New Market Road have undergone some of the most substantial transformation of anywhere in Cambridge during the last century. Since Aerofilms recorded its industrial landscape of the University and Town Gaslight Company, Brickworks, Cheddar's Lane Pumping Station and the Pi radio works in Chesterton in 1920s and 1930s, Quarries in the New Market Road and Barnwall area, which also contains some of the earliest evidence the human habitation in the Cambridge area have been filled in and developed into retail and residential estates. Brickworks, which created Cambridge's white bricks, have been replaced by industrial estates. The Cheddar's Lane Sewage Pumping Station is now Cambridge Museum of Technology. A drone's eye view illustrates the changes to Cambridge's energy generation and consumption over a century. Two sites of carbon-based energy generation have disappeared from the Cambridge skyline. The synthetic gas of the University and Town Gasworks extracted from burning coke and stored in gas holders. The coal fire, electricity generating station on Thompson's Lane. The chimney of which was prominent among college spires. In 2020s Cambridge, wind turbines docked hills and solar panels are visible from a drone's eye view. From Romsey Recreation Ground there are fine views of buildings made with Cambridge white bricks fired at the local Brickworks in the New Market Road area. Coldham's Common was the site of extractive industries in the 19th century. Copperlite fossilised dinosaur feces was excavated. Also visible to the south are cement works on Coldham's Lane. The extent of extractive industries in this area of Cambridge over the last century is captured in archive photography. The Atlas Stone Mason site was redeveloped as retail and office space in the 1970s. There have been railway stations in the Hills Road and Brooklyn's Avenue area of Cambridge since the mid 19th century. The railway station area was extensively photographed at low altitude and a bleak angle by city planners in the 1950s and 1960s. When good yards, train turntables, engine sheds, mills and the cattle market were all visible. In 2021 the railway station area looks very different. The frontage of the mill has been retained but converted office buildings, retail outlets and accommodation, cluster around the station. The cattle market has been converted into a leisure complex and industrial estate with warehouses. The footbridge at the corner of Devonshire Road has been rebuilt to provide pedestrian and cycle access between the east and west sides of the railway track. Several jib cranes are silhouetted along the stretch of railway track to the north of the station where former industrial yards are being converted into housing. Additional platforms have been constructed at the railway station and sidings and goods yards redeveloped for train servicing. A guided busway extends south past the university's printing presses towards the new Adam Brooks Hospital and Biomedical campus. In 1970 aerial photography captured construction at the new Adam Brooks Hospital to the south of the city by the Cambridge to London railway track. In 2021 construction continues at the Cambridge Biomedical campus. One of the most prominent landmarks in West Cambridge is the Tower of the University Library. The earliest aerial photography of West Cambridge in 1920 captured a glimpse of the former First Eastern General Hospital which had occupied the site from August 1914, accommodating over 70,000 casualties during the Great War. In 1919 the hospital had been converted into housing accommodation, the hot months of Burrell's Walk Estate. The later construction of the Cambridge University Library was photographed from the air by Aero Films in the early 1930s. Just down the road from the University Library in West Cambridge, a factory for the repair of short sterling heavy bombers operated during the Second World War, overlooked in the Nazi's own Air Atlas of Cambridge. Investigation by Cambridge University's Archaeology and Geography Departments has illustrated one of Cambridge's hidden industrial sites. Pino Lombardi 2015 short sterling the first of the RAF heavy bombers. I was told about a large factory in Cambridge which repaired damaged stirlings and that many who had worked there were women. I found what I thought was the factory on Maddingley Road hoping to find a sterling. Most of the buildings have been demolished. There were small pieces stamped with numbers while others even had the word sterling on them. Although there was little left of the factory I realised that it must have been a huge undertaking. In the 21st century there has been extensive construction of research facilities in the new Cavendish campus and residential development at Eddington in Northwest Cambridge. In 1930 the fruit preserving factory of Chivers in Histon, approximately two miles north of Cambridge, was photographed in detail. The Chivers factory continued to operate until the 1980s. The former factory site is now Vision Business Park with food processing factories now located to the north of the original factory site. Thatch cottages still nestle beside high-tech commercial buildings. The railway line through Histon and Impington has been converted into the Cambridgeshire guided bus way. Wind powered machinery has operated at Impington mill since at least the 17th century. The mill was rebuilt several times in the 18th and 19th centuries before being bought by the Chivers family in the early 20th century. By 1920 the mill was no longer powered by wind only by steamed traction engine. By 1930 the mill had ceased operation and its sails were removed. The property was sold by Chivers in the 1960s and listed as a monument. In the 21st century new owners have fitted sails, restored machinery and opened the mill again to visitors with the aim of bringing the mill back to working order. That's Jesus Green Lock. The 19th century where controls the flow of the river Cam. However this has not prevented flooding of the Cam in the city centre on several occasions in the 20th century. Beyond Mordellin Bridge Keyside was an important commercial area of Cambridge for many centuries. Enabling raw materials and finished goods to be transported along the Cam. The chimney stack of the coal powered electricity generating station on Thompson's Lane was a notable contrasting landmark with college spires close to Jesus Green. On Carlisle Road are the former buildings of Cambridge Instrument Company founded by Horace Darwin, son of Charles Darwin and makers of scientific instruments for academic research, commercial and military uses. Employees of the scientific helped save the old Chedders Lane pumping station prior to its reopening as Cambridge Museum of Technology. From the air several bridges are visible along the section of the river Cam from Jesus Green to Elizabeth Way. On Midsomer Common the outline of the former fork of the river Cam around what was the forts of George Island. Commissing from the air at the east end of Newmarket Road is the Elizabeth Way Bridge which opened in the same year as Cambridge Museum of Technology and connected Cambridge in the Ring Road. Anam's Boat Yard, site of a ferry across the Cam prior to the construction of Elizabeth Way Bridge is also visible in the 1970 aerial photos of the bridge's construction. The north bank of the river Cam in Chesterton was there during the operation of the gasworks in the 19th and 20th centuries. Logan's Meadow is now a flourishing nature reserve with woodland and wetland wildlife. Partly visible in the background of the 1928 aerial photograph of the Newmarket Road Industrial Quarter is the manufacturing site of the electronics company Pi in Chesterton. Founded in a garden shed in Cambridge in 1896 the company grew in the 20th century to be leaders in scientific instruments, radio and television equipment, home entertainment and telecommunications with its headquarters always remaining in the St Andrews area of Chesterton south of Elizabeth Way Bridge by St Matthew's Peace is one of the former sites of electronics company Pi which operated in numerous sites across Cambridge for much of the 20th century. Completing our aerial odyssey around Cambridge we revisit the chimney of Cambridge Museum of Technology from where we started our circumnavigation of the city. In 1992 Fred Dibner a well-known steeplejack and television personality was contracted by the museum to repair the chimney. Fred arrived at the museum on 11th of May 1992 to start the work and set up his famous Dibner flying scaffold. The repair work was completed by June. Fred's presence at the museum gained a lot of attention and helped generate enough money to cover the remaining cost of the chimney repairs. Many books have been written in Cambridge numerous publications have been written about Cambridge but there's been relatively little documentary video about the development of the city. The legacy of aerial photography pioneers Aerofilms was to document numerous industrial landscapes in Cambridge that have since been transformed sometimes beyond recognition. As you have seen on this aerial odyssey around Cambridge Crane Bridge is not a recent phenomenon on the Cambridge skyline. Cambridge Museum of Technology has been a maker museum ever since its establishment. Over the last 50 years generations of volunteers have built, maintained and added to the museum. To celebrate 50 years of Cambridge Museum of Technology and to fulfill the museum's mission as a base of wider exploration of Cambridge's industrial heritage. The goal of this video was to make a contemporary aerial circumnavigation of industrial Cambridge with low level oblique angle photography in the style that Aerofilms pioneered over a century ago when they commercialized military reconnaissance techniques from the Great War and repackaged them for the commercial and tourist markets. To fulfill regulatory requirements for drone flying and to ensure that photographs of the same locations can be replicated accurately in future the production team record public places across Cambridge. The city is fortunate to have numerous commons, recreation grounds and public spaces often adjacent to former industrial areas. Sequences were shot over the course of a year in order to capture the changing seasons, weather and sunlight. Other than speeding up or slowing down video to fit the narration, minimal post-processing was added during video editing. What you see is what you get. The raw drone video footage does not contain an audio track so select audio soundtracks were recorded separately at the takeoff sites capturing the ambient sound of machines, wildlife and human activity. The parameters for flying aerial drones are limited by wind speed so these panoramas of Cambridge will inevitably appear artificially still. Visitors to Cambridge will appreciate just how windy the city can be. We tended to shoot in early mornings or late evenings to harness optimal angles of natural sunlight particularly when the Sun illuminates the white stone and bricks that predominate across Cambridge's buildings. But we also couldn't resist a night shoot during one of 2021's Supermoons. Alas the chimney of the museum was not illuminated but the sequence does at least reveal the extent of light pollution of Cambridge at night. As you will have noticed from the video footage, viewing conditions varied dramatically by season. In sub-zero winter we could capture the crisply rendered horizon towards East Anglia in the midst of a sweltering heat haze in July 2021. Cambridge smog and the glare of sun had reduced visibility to a few miles even at six o'clock in the morning. The master video footage of this project will be archived at the Cambridge Collection for future reference under a Creative Commons license to encourage future generations of planners, architects, engineers, geographers, archaeologists and more to reference this aerial odyssey. And in 50 years time when Cambridge Museum of Technology celebrates its centenary we hope this video inspires a future generation to revisit Cambridge's industrial heritage. You can explore more about the industries featured in this video by visiting Cambridge Museum of Technology from sewage pumping to gas works, brickworks to chivers fruit preserving factory, pie electronics, scientific instruments and much more. Cambridge, just a town in 1951, had many trades and industries in the age of steam and beyond. It was a place of smoke and chimneys with the River Cam playing an important part in transport. It was also the birthplace of pioneering businesses such as Pi and Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company. Industry offered livelihoods to many people and brought about improvements in their health and living standards through the provision of clean water and hygienic waste disposal. Cambridge Industries united practical and intellectual skills, imaginative thinkers and researchers, workers toiled to make companies into household names. Thirsty workers drank beer from the town's breweries and lived in homes built with Cambridge Bricks. If you would like to get involved as a volunteer to support the work of the museum, please do get in touch. Thank you to our funding organisations including the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England and our partners and our volunteers for creating this tour. We're also running a fundraiser to help us to continue to care for our industrial heritage for another 50 years. Please consider giving us a birthday present.