Pairings: Sarah Claydon

Sarah Claydon

Deputy Head Gardener

I’ve always had an interest in history and the personal stories behind it. At one stage I wanted to be an archaeologist but today I am the Deputy Head Gardener at Trinity. The gardeners are often digging in the ground for one reason or another. It may come as a surprise that even after numerous renovations and developments on the site we still, almost daily, find pottery shards, building debris, coins and smoking pipes to name just a few of the sorts of things we find.

In 2015–2016 we did a renovation in Whewell’s Court and we found this teacup handle. It isn’t very big, it isn’t very ornate and it probably isn’t all that old – but it made me think that here is an item that someone must have held at some point, while here at Trinity, and probably had a cup of tea. Just like me every day. Every item we find will
have a similar story and we are unlikely to know what it was. But all of the items must have been touched by a previous member of the College or a visitor, providing a tiny link to all those that came before us.