Walter R ‘Snowy’ Farr

Walter Reginald Farr was born in Longstanton in 1919 and worked as a road sweeper in Oakington from the 1950s. He lived in Westwick Terrace, at one time in No. 3 and later in No. 8 where, upon being moved in, he promptly dug up the garden (which had been the pride and joy of the previous occupant) and planted cabbages instead. In 1964 a newspaper reported that he always wore a ‘bowler’ to work and that he had a yellow (later grey) beard, a lobster red face and blue eyes.

Snowy first attracted attention with his colourful tricycle dustcart that he made for himself. He then began to take his pet animals around with him. These included a cat that he trained to sit on his hat and mice that he trained to run around the rim. With people gathering to see him and his animals, he began to raise money for charity. By 1972 he was reported as having raised more than £1,400 for the blind in just two years. In 1970 he replaced his tricycle with a tractor that he used to transport his menagerie around, as the self-styled King of the Road. His tractor made the newspapers in December after he was told that he needed to have a general haulage tractor license (costing £60) for it instead of the £5 concessionary license he had used previously; he replied that he didn’t have the money.

After he retired from his road sweeping, Snowy moved from Westwick to Oakington, and lived in one of the terraced bungalows on Cambridge Road by the crossroads. He kept a display of flags, dolls and teddy-bears in his front garden, along with a board displaying a running total of the amount raised for charity, which in 2002 was reported as being over £120,000.

Snowy died in 2007, and a memorial to him was erected in Cambridge Market Square near the end of Petty Curry where he had previously collected donations.