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Abbey
Cambridge is growing! The number of people living in the city is already 123,000, with nearly 30,000 more expected by 2020. People need homes and flats …
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Barnwell Priory
Barnwell Priory was founded in 1092 and is the Abbey for which Abbey ward is named! It hosted numerous medieval kings and even a Parliament. But …
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Burning Bodies in Tudor Times
In Tudor times, religion was a matter of life and death. Martin Bucer was a celebrated Protestant theologian. While the Protestant boy-king Edward VI ruled England, …
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Cambridge Brick & Tile Works
There were kilns with very tall chimneys, used to make bricks and tiles in the 1800s and 1900s. They were located in buildings stretching across a …
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Cambridge Coat of Arms
If you look up in Cambridge you can spot the Coat of Arms on bridges, signs, and above the door of the Guildhall. The Coat of …
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Cambridge Gas Works
Prior to the mid-1820s there were no streetlights in Cambridge so gas pioneer, John Grafton was employed by the Cambridge Improvement Commissioners to light the streets …
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Cambridge United Football History & Abbey Stadium
The team was established in 1912 and initially named “Abbey United”, after the Abbey area where it was set up. The team settled in the Abbey …
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Charles Darwin's Stuffed Monkey
Charles Darwin was a scientist who studied in Cambridge. He was supposed to train as a vicar, but he found beetle collecting much more interesting, and …
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Coldham’s Common
Coldham’s Common is one of twelve commons in Cambridge. In the Middle Ages the area of Abbey was rural with farms and the work done by …
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Coprolite Mining
The industry began in the mid 19th century, when shortage of food after the Napoleonic Wars caused an influx in demand for fertilizers. The coprolite itself …
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Cromwell's Head & the King's Head
In the 1640s there was a civil war in England between King and Parliament, and this put Cambridge in turmoil. The University was largely royalist supporting …
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Datum Point & Cambridge Milestones
What many people don’t know is that Great St Mary’s is the official centre of Cambridge and has been so since 1725. Nationally, maps were printed …
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Eglantyne Jebb
Eglantyne Jebb was an educator and economist, a philanthropist and social activist, a political campaigner for women’s rights and children’s rights and refugees' rights in the …
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Electronic and Chip Industries
Electronic and Chip industries have represented an important sector in the development of Cambridge for more than a century. In the late 1800s William George Pye …
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Equiano
Cambridge was once home to two of the most prominent campaigners against the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797), who was an African, campaigned alongside Thomas …
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Flying Reptiles and Dinosaur Poo found in ‘Cambridge Greensand’
Back in the mid 19th Century coprolite mining took place on Coldham’s Common, it was discovered that flying reptiles used to live around Coldham’s Common millions …
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Great Market Fire of 1849
The Cambridge Marketplace is what it is today as a result of the Great Fire. This took place on the night of Saturday 15th September 1849, …
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Gwen Raverat- Artist and Wood Engraver
Gwen Raverat is one of the most important British wood engravers, and the artist who brought this form of printmaking technique into the 20th century. She …
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Hobson's Fountain of 1614
In the middle ages, Cambridge was a very smelly place. The college’s toilets emptied into the river, and the dirty water spread diseases. To help clean …
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Jewish Synagogue at the Guildhall
Did you know that the area close to the Guildhall and Market Place used to be called 'the Jewry' in the 12th and 13th Centuries? The …
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Leper Chapel
The chapel acted as a leper hospital during the Middle Ages, earning income from the annual Stourbridge Fair, which they were allowed by a grant from …
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Magdalene Bridge
During Roman times, the River Cam was fully navigable from the Wash as far as Cambridge and was the northernmost point where transport from East Anglia …
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Marshall Company
Marshall of Cambridge was established in 1909 by David Gregory Marshall as a car vehicle business, specialising as a chauffeur drive company. It was located in …
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Newton’s Apple Tree
On a warm evening in 1666, just after dinner, the soon to be famous Issaac Newton sat down beneath this tree outside of Trinity to mull …
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Parker’s Piece
Parker's Piece is one of Cambridge's most famous open spaces. Originally part of Trinity College, it was acquired by the town of Cambridge in 1613 as …
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Queens & Kings at Great St Mary's
In the summer of 1564, Queen Elizabeth I came to Cambridge, her only visit to the university city throughout her long reign. The students and professors …
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Riverside: The Cambridge Museum of Technology
As the population of Cambridge surged with businesses and housing, plus the University growing, there was a problem with sewage and smells in the River Cam. …
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Rosalind Franklin: Discovery of DNA
Ever since she was a child, Rosalind had a very logical and determined mind. She hated dolls and any game that would involve pretending. She loved …
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Stourbridge Fair
From humble beginnings in 1211, Stourbridge Fair became a vital feature of Cambridge life for the next 700 years. It was the largest medieval fair in …
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The Bells & Chimes of Great St Mary's
There have been bells at Great St Mary’s from at least 1303 and they rang to call everyone to Church services; to open the town Corn …
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The Coronation Festival on Parker’s Piece
On the 28th of June, 1838, the Municipality of Cambridge organised something that truly went down to history; one of the largest banquets ever prepared, hosting …
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The Iron Works
The Headly family was one of the major iron-founding families in Cambridge, and was casting iron in the town longer than anyone else. The Headly iron …
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The Lions at the Fitzwilliam Museum- Celebrating 200 Years
Since the very early years of the Fitzwilliam Museum’s existence four stone lions have been positioned outside the museum, two at the north steps and two …
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Tower of Great St Mary's
The first mention of Great St Mary’s in the records is 1205 when it was known as “St Mary-by-the-market’. When the first teachers and students arrived …
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Town Meets Gown at Great St Mary's
Nowadays, Cambridge people mix well with those who come to the city’s world famous University. Things haven’t always been this way, though. When the University first …
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Unsung Women 1897
Although you will see many women celebrating their graduations alongside their male classmates nowadays, this wasn’t always the case. Women’s colleges were founded in the mid-1800s, …
