Maddox House, Beech Drive. Photo: Andrew Roberts, 21 November 2015.
Beech Drive is part of the Glebe Farm development. The fourth turn to the left off Glebe Farm Drive, Beech Drive includes Dakins House (overlooking the junction of Addenbrooke’s Road and Hauxton Road), Fletcher House and Maddox House (overlooking Addenbrooke’s Road). The homes were constructed from 2012-14 and occupied from 2013-14.
Maddox House, Beech Drive. Source: © OpenStreetMap contributors (Howard Slatter).
Edmund Brookes gave a presentation about the origin of the name ‘Maddox House’ at the Local History Group meeting on 12 November 2015. Maddox House, Beech Drive, is one of a number of buildings and streets named after local personalities, in this case Reverend David Morgan Maddox (born June 1922, died January 1997).
There is a separate page with information about the derivation of street names .
Dakins House, Fletcher House and Maddox House. Photo: Andrew Roberts, 20 November 2015.
Dakins House, Fletcher House and Maddox House from Addenbrooke’s Road. Photo: Andrew Roberts, 21 November 2015.
David Maddox was Vicar of Trumpington from 1956 to 1990. When the Local History Group and the Residents’ Association were proposing names for streets and buildings in the Glebe Farm development, it seemed very appropriate to include Maddox as one of the names. When Trumpington parish was enclosed in 1804-09, over 80 acres of land between Hauxton Road and Shelford Road was awarded to the church (the Vicar) in lieu of the tithes that had been received prior to this. The farmland was later known as Vicarage Farm or Glebe Farm.
Edmund Brookes wrote that David Maddox (though Edmund thinks he was christened Dewi) was born on 13 June 1922 and grew up in Wales. When he married Lucy Griffiths, she said that she always thought she was marrying a teacher. David went to St David’s College, Lampeter, to train for the ordained ministry of the Church in Wales. Candidates for ordination were in the majority at St David’s College. The college is now a part of the University of Wales Trinity St David.
Reverend David Maddox.
Reverend David Maddox and Lucy Maddox, with David being presented with a gift by the Trumpington Tuesday Group on his retirement as Vicar, 1990. Photo: Sylvia Jones, included in Trumpington Past & Present , p. 144.
Before moving to Trumpington, David Maddox was Vicar of St Mary’s, Linton, 3 miles east of Ross-on-Wye, in the Diocese of Hereford. One of his predecessors at Linton in the 19th century was the Reverend Edward Palin, great-grandfather of Michael Palin.
In the mid 1950s, Trumpington had difficulty in filling the vacancy following the departure of Reverend Thomas Young. Through the good offices of Margaret Gardner, wife of Robert Gardner MA MC, Fellow of Emmanuel and resident of Barrow Road, David and Lucy moved to Trumpington in 1956 and he was inducted by Bishop Hudson in October 1956. So began a ministry which lasted 34 years. A much loved daughter, Carolyn, was born in 1964. Shortly afterwards, when David was hospitalised, Edmund’s mother pushed Carolyn in a push chair up and down outside, Addenbrooke’s while Lucy saw to David’s admission. Edmund remembered David saying later that they asked him his occupation, he correctly answered ‘Clerk in Holy Orders’ which flummoxed them, so he said ‘Parson’. Although David and Lucy retired to Barton in 1990, quite a few parishioners remember him (though Edmund is perhaps the only person who went to both his induction and last service). The projects and initiatives he saw through included:
• the recasting and rehanging of the bells, including the expansion to a peal of 8. They are one of the finest in the county, the work being supported by the generosity of the Lawrence and Willers family;
• major checks and repairs in the late 1950s to the roofs of the nave and chancel (checking that the Butterfield roof of the 1870s was not infected with death watch beetle, which was very prevalent then). This work enabled the medieval roof of the chancel to be repainted and restored to its former glory;
• overhaul of the Miller organ with the addition of 2 stops under the direction of Dr Arthur Wills, organist of Ely Cathedral;
• the procurement of the Old Church School and School House;
• moving the font to its rightful place by the main entrance to the church;
• putting the pulpit on a proper base similar to that when it was used in Emmanuel College chapel.
While a church is not just about fabric, ensuring that the fabric is maintained means that the human body of it can flourish. David moved the parish forward in a number of ways, including:
• changing the service pattern from the traditional Matins/Evensong to a more family orientated Parish Communion service each Sunday morning;
• reaching out to the schools;
• running a branch of the Church of England Mens’ Society, which met in the Bakehouse before that building fell into disrepair.
To improve his theology, early in his tenure David took a Cambridge BA in Theology, based at Trinity College where the Reverend Harry Williams was Dean.
Church finances were somewhat different in those days, and rubbing the brass of Sir Roger raised £1,500 p.a., enough to pay our Ministry Costs!
David had many talents, but he was very practical with machines, etc., and he also wrote hymns. David and Lucy ran a caravan site in the Vicarage Garden and had caravan holidays themselves. He was asked to move several times, to places as varied as Cirencester, Denver near Downham Market, and Minnesota, but stayed loyal to Trumpington until his retirement. Sadly David only enjoyed a short retirement. He lost Lucy after only two years and that hit him hard and he died in 1997 at the relatively early age of 75, his ashes being interred next to Lucy’s in the Churchyard. Equally sadly, he never lived to see his grandson who was born some years later and who, in Edmund’s opinion, does resemble his maternal grandparents.
