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

  • 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

    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

    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

    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

    Cambridge - It's in your DNA

    April 23, 2021 in England ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    DNA is now known by most of the general public to carry genetic information, the instructions that a living organism needs to grow, reproduce and function.

    The structure of DNA - a double helix twisted-ladder - was first realised by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953 at the Cambridge University Cavendish Laboratory and gave rise to modern molecular biology; the contribution of Rosalind Franklin is now recognised as crucial to the discovery DNA structure, however, as her work in X-ray crystallography established that the molecule existed in a helical conformation. Their discovery is commemorated in several relevant places in Cambridge.

    The first announcement was made by a jubilant Francis Crick as they walked into the nearest pub to their laboratory, The Eagle, and proclaimed that he and James Watson had "found the secret of life"; this lovely old pub has a fine courtyard as well as a ceiling covered covered with writing by Allied pilots who frequented it during WWII. There is a blue plaque outside it to commemorate the event (it has been recently defaced to mention Rosalind Franklin) and their old laboratory nearby also celebrates it.

    Francis Crick lived in a house in Portugal Place and there is a double helix above the door to mark this. James Watson was an alumnus of Clare College, where he began his post-doctoral research in 1951 and became an honorary fellow in 1967, and there is an aluminium sculpture of the double helix close to an entrance there.

    Further afield is the DNA cycle path, which runs from Addenbrooke's Hospital to Great Shelford; there is a double helix sculpture at the start and part of the route is decorated with 10,257 colourful stripes which represent the four nucleotides of the BRCA2 gene (discovered at the Sanger Centre in Hinxton).    Read more

  • TravelerCambridge

    Cherry Hinton Brook / Coldham's Brook

    March 17, 2021 in England ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    The idea for this walk came from the entry for "Cambridge - A place of springs, cliffs and lakes" by seeing the Cherry Hinton Chalk Pits (cliffs) and then following part of the route of Cherry Hinton Brook along Snakey Path (lakes).

    The source for Cherry Hinton Brook is a fresh, spring pool close to the Chalk Pits at the southern end of Cherry Hinton; this provided the reason for settlement of a cottage industry laundering for the Cambridge Colleges - at one time there were a couple of water mills along its route. After seeing the source, we visit Cherry Hinton Hall and follow the urban stream as it skirts the park area here; the Hall is now owned by Cambridge Council and is currently home to Oaks International School. Cherry Hinton Hall park is well known as it provides the site for the annual Cambridge Folk Festival. We follow the route along Snakey Path; the stream flows beside two old chalk pits filled to form private fishing lakes on one side and Saint Bede's School on the other. We reach Brooks Road via Burnside and then turn off behind houses and a large Sainsbury's to reach Coldham's Lane. Here, the stream is culverted under the busy Barnwell Road which we cross and re-join via a small entrance onto the back end of Coldham's Common.

    The stream is renamed Coldham's Brook at this point; it is a joy to walk this south eastern part of Coldham's Common as it seems so far from civilisation - there is scrub, woodland and unimproved grassland here. Skirting round and across, we reach a close mown area with football pitches (for English, Gaelic and American football); the urban area to the north is known as Abbey and, indeed, Cambridge United have their home here at the Abbey Stadium. We follow the path of the stream with the football stadium on one side with Barnwell Lake (now a fishery) on the other.

    We reach Newmarket Road, the A1134, and cross; it will soon be possible to follow the stream all the way to the River Cam along what will be known as the Chisholm Trail, but for the time being we have to divert via a small industrial estate and housing to reach Stourbridge Common. Before doing so, we see the Leper Chapel of Saint Mary Magdalene (13th century, Grade 1 listed and managed by Cambridge Past, Present and Future); in 1211, King John granted an annual fair to be held on Stourbridge Common behind it in order to support the work of the leper hospital - this grew to become the largest medieval fair in Europe.

    We walk across and around Stourbridge Common and see where the Coldham's Brook joins the River Cam; Ditton Meadows is on the other side of the stream. A great walk.    Read more

  • TravelerCambridge

    Fantastic beasts and where to find them

    November 19, 2020 in England ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    The idea for this post came from Atlas Obscura (thanks Ant) - an online catalogue of unusual / obscure travel destinations - and its entries for Cambridge.
     
    Perusing this, I saw the entry for "Reality Checkpoint"; this is a large cast-iron lamppost with intertwined, wide-eyed dolphins on its base, and is situated in the middle of Parker's Piece at the intersection of the park's diagonal paths. I have walked past this many, many times and never really clocked it! I had to go and see it - check the Atlas Obscura entry on-line or Wikipedia for the theories regarding its curious name.... 

    I also saw in Atlas Obscura the entry for the Corpus Clock and Chronophage ("time eater") which overlooks King's Parade at the junction with Bene't Street.  It features a large, toothed grasshopper devouring time and is particularly interesting on the hour and at night; I have seen and photographed this before.

    So, what other beasts are on display in Cambridge?
     
    From the University's perspective, the Great Gate of St John's College features mythical beasts called yales - these have elephants' tails, antelopes' bodies and goats' heads, with horns which can, supposedly, swivel from back to front.  Heading from here to Downing Street, we reach the University Museum of Zoology and see an excellent display showing the diversity of animal life.
     
    Shopping at Scotsdales Garden Centre along Cambridge Road is also interesting; you never know what you might see lurking in the undergrowth surrounding the displays.....
         Read more

  • TravelerCambridge

    A place of springs, cliffs and lakes

    November 17, 2020 in England ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Who would have thought that the beautiful university city of Cambridge would contain these geographical features within its boundaries?  The idea for this post came from Cambridge Critique, an occasional email on the local cultural scene, describing some local hidden delights; visiting these made for a really enjoyable few hours out and about.
     
    Springs
    Nine Wells is a small area of woodland and nature reserve close to Addenbrooke's Hospital; concealed within the trees are four natural springheads.  Hobson's Conduit was constructed in 1610 to bring water from here to the city in order to sanitise the open sewers and to provide water for the population (see Cambridge Urban Ramble, part 3); water continues to flow into Cambridge to this day.  It is a lovely place to walk around and there is also a monument to Hobson's Conduit here.
     
    Cliffs
    It is short drive from Nine Wells to Cherry Hinton, where hidden between Fulbourn Road and Limekiln Road are the Cherry Hinton Chalk Pits - a 12 hectare site.  It was astonishing to see this for the first time after many, many years of living in the Cambridge area!  It is possible to discern coloured strata in the rocks, showing the levels of ancient seas that used to cover Eastern England.
     
    Lakes
    A couple of miles away close to where Mill Road meets Brooks Road is access to a walk that runs alongside a clear chalk stream known as Cherry Hinton Brook; it is called "Snakey Path" and it was another first for me - the walk passes several designated City Wildlife Sites.  Concealed behind a fence and trees are two old chalk pits that have been filled to form private fishing lakes.  Occasionally there are some wonderful views across these impressive stretches of water.    Read more

  • TravelerCambridge
    1

    Cambridge lock down, part 2 - Gown

    June 2, 2020 in England ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    As a result of the lockdown, there are no students at the University. The photos show:
    1. The University Library,
    2. Empty punts viewed from Garret Hostel Bridge,
    3. Trinity College chimneys,
    4. The Great Gate of St John's College; the animals are mythical beasts called yales, which have elephants' tails, antelope' bodies and goat's heads with swivelling horns,
    5. The Senate House and
    6. The Mathematical Bridge spanning the River Cam at Queens' College.    Read more

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