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August 2019 - May 2024
An open-ended adventure by Andrew's Travels Read more
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  • TravelerCambridge

    Mill Road, Cambridge

    April 26, 2021 in England ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    Mill Road is a mile-long byway linking central Cambridge to the ring road; it runs from Parker's Piece (see "Cambridge - Fantastic beasts and where to find them" post) to Brooks Road (see "Cambridge - Cherry Hinton / Coldham's Brook" post). It forms the spine of two distinct communities, the wards of Petersfield and Romsey Town, separated by a railway bridge; Petersfield, on the west side, was developed in the early 19th century on land owned by the Colleges whereas Romsey grew to house workers on the new railway - thus historically, Petersfield has always been thought of by local residents as being on the "Gown" side and Romsey on the "Town" side of the town and gown divide. The Mill Road area was, and is, often thought of as being "Bohemian" and there are many interesting / independent shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs in the area.

    Starting on the Petersfield side of Mill Road bridge, we pass some of the interesting businesses that can be found there and reach Gwydir Street. The old Dales Brewery building is now home to a Hot Numbers cafe and opposite this is the David Parr House; this modest, terrace house is a time capsule decorated by a painter in the manner of the grand Arts and Crafts interiors he used to do as a day job - there are hand-painted wall decorations, Gothic carvings and stained glass panels. Nearby is the old Cambridge Bath House, now a community centre; further down the road is the Cambridge Blue pub - this backs onto the Mill Road Cemetery (see "Cambridge - Urban Ramble, part 3").

    We cross the Mill Road bridge, covered in colourful murals, into Romsey. Recently, an R-shaped sculpture has been erected; it was commissioned to celebrate the people and history of Romsey and their relationship with the railway - the destinations on the sculpture show residents' significant railway journeys. Further along is Salisbury House, now a social club with bar. Nearby is the small St Philip's church which functions as a church / community centre / cafe and further on is what is now Hilary's Fruit and Veg; this building was originally built as a corn merchants and bakery in 1886 - the type of produce traded has not changed drastically. Towards the end of Mill Road we reach the Cambridge Central Mosque which was opened to the public in 2019. Europe's first eco-friendly mosque, it was featured as part of a profile in the Sky Arts programme "The Art of Architecture" in 2021.    Read more

  • TravelerCambridge

    Cows about Cambridge

    July 24, 2021 in England ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    When one thinks about cows about Cambridge, you usually think of the classic image of cows grazing close to Kings College or on Midsummer Common..... but, there is currently a public art event in the city called Cows about Cambridge; this is a free trail of 90 individually designed cow sculptures (44 large and 46 small) around the city that is available until 4th September 2021, after which they will be auctioned off for charity.   All the cows are based on the same two moulds, are made from fibreglass and have been painted by regional artists and sponsored by businesses from many different sectors.

    The trail had to be done, of course, and the pictures show some of the large cows (they are approx. 1.34m tall, 2.13m in length and 0.55m wide and weigh approx. 45kg).    Read more

  • TravelerCambridge

    Chisholm Trail, Phase 1

    May 23, 2023 in England ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    The Chisholm Trail is a walking and cycling route which will link the business and science parks via Cambridge North railway station to Addenbrooke's Hospital, the Biomedical Campus and the proposed Cambridge South railway station; it will also connect with the Guided Busway to St Ives, Cambs and the National Cycle Network.  Phase 1 was opened in December 2021 and covers the area from Cambridge North Station to Coldham's Lane; Phase 2 will connect to phase 1 at Coldham’s Common on Coldham’s Lane.

    We start at Cambridge North railway station; the aluminium roof cladding has a mathematical design derived from the Game of Life 'cellular automaton‘ and outside it is a 2021 statue depicting the Greco-Roman deities Hercules and Galatea where the man looks "rigid and dated" and the woman appears  “strong, dynamic and empowered".....  We walk down to the river and cross the new Abbey Chesterton bridge for bicycles and pedestrians across the River Cam, installed in November 2020, before crossing Ditton Meadows towards Newmarket Road via properly surfaced paths.  We reach the 12th century Leper Chapel, part of the buildings of a leper hospital that stood a little beyond the outskirts of the city on the road to Bury St Edmunds.

    We are now able to cross Newmarket road via the new The Newmarket Road underpass, an important link in the Chisholm Trail, that reopened in 2022 with proper artwork to replace the graffiti and "street-art" that was there previously.  On the other side is Coldham's Common and a proper view of Barnwell Lake - previously, it could only be glanced through trees.  The Chisholm Trail crosses the common outside the Abbey Stadium, home of Cambridge United, before reaching Cromwell Road.

    Phase 2 of the Chisholm Trail will connect here, providing a route through the city via Cambridge main railway station to the south of the city on both sides of the railway track.  Watch this space.........    Read more

  • TravelerCambridge

    University Library; Spitting Image

    February 17 in England ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge and the largest of over 100 libraries within the university; the current building opened in 1934. The main University Library hosts exhibitions in its purpose-built Milstein Exhibition Centre; this is the reason for our visit, as there is an exhibition relating to Spitting Image, a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn in 1984.  There is a Cambridge connection as Fluck and Law both attended the Cambridge School of Art; indeed, Robert Fluck used to live in Duxford, where I live.

    The series featured puppet caricatures of contemporary celebrities and public figures, including British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major and the British royal family.  Some of these were on display together with original drawings, letters, and notes at the small exhibition.  It was excellent and brought back many memories of the program.

    From there we walked across the University's Sidgwick site (home to several of the university's arts and humanities faculties, and where there are a couple of interesting statues and carvings) and past Ridley Hall (a theological college that trains men and women intending to take Holy Orders as deacon or priest of the Church of England - it is not a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, but the school does have ties with the university's Faculty of Divinity).    Read more

  • TravelerCambridge

    Hobson's Conduit; Nine Wells - Cambridge

    May 2 in England ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    I have long wanted to do this complete walk, from the source of Hobson's Conduit to the city centre, having walked parts of various sections over the years.  Hobson's Conduit, also called Hobson's Brook, is a watercourse that was built from 1610 to 1614 to bring fresh water into the city of Cambridge from the freshwater chalk springs at Nine Wells; the scheme was financed by Cambridge University, but Thomas Hobson, a local businessman, was involved in the construction and set up a maintenance endowment for the waterway which is now named after him.  

    Nine Wells is a nature reserve close to Addenbrooke's Hospital; there are four springs here and a monument, one of two, to the conduit.  Hobson's Brook runs past the hospital and biomedical campus; there is a slight diversion for walkers away from the brook due to ongoing building work at the new Cambridge South railway station, but I soon re-join the path and follow it with the Hobson Park Bird Reserve on one side and the edge of Great Kneighton village on the other.  I then cross the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway track before walking through more green space to reach Long Road (A1134); after this, the waterway reverts to its original name of Vicar's Brook as I cross over and onto Darien Meadow.

    At the end of the meadow, the man-made channel of Hobson's Brook branches off from Vicar's Brook - there is a small bridge to cross here (obviously) and the two run parallel for a while enclosing a stretch of common ground, now used for allotments (the Empty Common Community Garden), emerging at the junction of Brooklands Avenue and Trumpington Road.  The waterway passes the west side of the Cambridge University Botanical Gardens (it supplies water to the small lake here) before reaching the conduit head at Lensfield Road, where there is the second monument to Hobson and the conduit - the original Market Fountain was moved here in 1856.  

    The flow of water was divided into four separate branches from here for different uses, but only one branch remains - the Trumpington Street branch, which fed Peterhouse and Pembroke Colleges, as well as the original Addenbrooke's Hospital.  I follow this, seeing the deep channels known as runnels at the side of the road that did this, and then divert to the Market Square; the original fountain was partly moved to form the monument in Lensfield Road and soon after a Gothic Revival gabled fountain was erected, but most of this Victorian fountain was pulled down in 1953.

    It has been a very interesting 4.4-mile walk with great views in places (see captions on photos).    Read more

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