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Stourbridge Common

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    • TravelerVelotour 2024
      Day 39–42

      Cambridge

      May 9 in England ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      In der Stadt hat es schon unglaublich viel Touristen. Wie ist es hier im Sommer? Universität ist wirklich sehr schön. Auch hier gibt es Studentenprotesten wegen Palästina aber sehr friedlich.

      Die Mathematiker-Brücke gehört zu den bekanntesten Sehenswürdigkeiten der Universität Cambridge. Um sie rankt sich eine Legende, in der Sir Isaac Newton eine tragende Rolle spielt: Es heißt, der Wissenschaftler habe den Steg erbaut, um damit die Gesetze der Schwerkraft zu demonstrieren. Dies wäre jedoch eine wahre Meisterleistung gewesen, denn der große Physiker und Mathematiker war bereits seit über 20 Jahren tot, als die Brücke konstruiert wurde.
      In Wahrheit wurde die Mathematiker-Brücke im Jahr 1749 von James Essex dem Jüngeren erbaut und später in identischer Weise zwei Mal wieder aufgebaut. Die Brücke wirkt wie ein Bogen über den Fluss. Bei genauerem Hinsehen erkennt man jedoch, dass sie ausschließlich aus geraden Balken besteht. Diese sind so intelligent angeordnet, dass eine stabile, bogenförmige Konstruktion entsteht.      Read more

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    • TravelerUK and a bit of Asia 2024
      Day 34

      Walkabouts

      September 25 in England ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

      We didn’t drive anywhere today, so we decided to split up for different activities. Christine and Tricia decided to visit the University Museum of Zoology in the David Attenborough Building. It’s full of skeletons, stuffed animals, and really stuffed animals like the Dodo and Giant Sloth. That was not my scene, so I visited the Centre for Computing History.

      I can’t speak to the ladies' choice of museum except to say it was a lot grander than mine and also free. I walked to mine and located it in a run-down industrial area. Not to be deterred, I went in and paid my entry fee. I was one of the first people in that morning, and the lady behind the counter said that I was lucky as no school groups were attending and that it should remain quiet. The museum was better inside than out, and there were many computers in there, most of the gaming or personal variety, but some other interesting machines. Many of the systems are working, and you can try them out,

      They had a working 1980s PC-type business system of some early English brand running an Operating system that wasn’t Microsoft, but one of the program choices was Microsoft Word (probably the first release). If you think the current Word is a bit overblown, be thankful you don’t have to use this one. I fired it up and had a play. There are no graphics—all text. It brought back memories… I even found a manual for it on a shelf nearby.

      There is a lot of information about Acorn Computers and its famous spinoff company, ARM (which designs the processors in many smartphones and many other products). Acorn started in Cambridge, and ARM is still here.

      A couple of systems reminded me of some of the machines I have worked on—large disks with little capacity, magnetic tapes, paper tape, and punched cards. Also a large display of the LEO computers developed in the late 1940s/1950s by the English Lyons company that ran the massive chain of tea rooms of the same name. They decided these new-fangled computers could help them with their vast clerical workload. They funded the development of a machine based on the EDSAC system built in Cambridge and started the Lyons Electronic Office subsidiary (LEO). The system they developed was sold to several organisations and is regarded as the first business computer system. Fascinating. Well, I thought that it was.

      I made my way out, bought a Melton Mowbray Pork Pie from Tesco and ate it on my way home. I beat the ladies back by 30 minutes.

      It was a good, if somewhat nerdy, day for all of us.      Read more

    • TravelerUK and a bit of Asia 2024
      Day 32

      Walking across Cambridge

      September 23 in England ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      Easy day today. Just a random walk into the city centre and then home via a supermarket near our apartment. It was pretty random as I hadn’t looked up any city centre destinations, and we walked on Christine's memory of a tourist map, my phone, and the name of a mall. We found the pedestrian and cycle bridges, separated on the bridge, over the river Cam. We walked along the river's edge and, using a set of subways, under the main road into Cambridge. We ended up in the Grafton Centre, but it turns out this will be redeveloped for other uses, so many shops were empty.

      We wandered around for a while, then decided to walk to a functioning mall - the Grand Arcade in the city's centre. We walked past one of several parks - weirdly called ‘Christ’s Pieces’ - which has something to do with nearby Christ’s College, I think. We found the Grand Arcade and went in. A bit expensive for us, but very nice. Saw a display with the new Smart EV - a nice looking 4-door saloon, but a lot bigger than the original Smart. I didn’t ask the price.

      From there, we navigated our way back via a large Tesco supermarket, where we bought a huge bag of groceries. We then went back home to rest as it was a long walk—over our 10,000 steps today.

      Later in the afternoon, we walked in the other direction to a small Tesco Express for the things we had forgotten at the big one. Such is life.      Read more

    • TravelerCambridgeshire; Cambridge City

      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

    • TravelerUK and a bit of Asia 2024
      Day 37

      Walking Cambridge III and shopping

      September 28 in England ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

      Apologies for the delay. Lots of travel and jet lag got in the way. Now, back to the story.

      It was our last full day in Cambridge. The weather was good, and we didn’t want to drive anywhere (in anticipation of a fun trip to Heathrow tomorrow), so we took a last walk into Cambridge.

      The first port of call was to visit another branch of Gails, a small chain of great cafes and bakeries. We had a memorable coffee/lunch when we were in Wokingham at the start of the trip, so we went to repeat that. We went for morning coffee, and it was as good as we remembered—as was the pastry that I had with mine.

      Next, we walked down the same street with its many Op Shops. That took a while and a few pounds. Then we stopped at Primark (cheap clothes) but made no purchases—perhaps saving up for Hong Kong.

      Walking back through the common, Tricia waved goodbye to the cows. Along the river, we waved goodbye to the rowers. Back home to eat all of the leftovers in the fridge and pack.

      It was a relaxing day, just what we needed.      Read more

    • TravelerCambridgeshire; Cambridge City

      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

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