Cambridge, Cambridgeshire travel information
Cambridge Cambridgeshire England
|
|
|
|---|
Cambridge is just an hour north from London by train, (from Liverpool Street Station). Cambridge is a charming place, and visitors have plenty of places to visit and savour the unique atmosphere of this world renowned university town.
Most of its colleges are lined in a row with gardens backing on to the Cam River. The Riverside is consequently known as The Backs and is definitely a special place, with the opportunity to hire a Punt and relax amongst one of the great historic seats of learning in the World. The colleges are open for visitors to walk around and admire the magnificent architecture.
The first thing you notice about Cambridge is how busy the pedestrianised center is, not with cars obviously, but bicycles, they are everywhere. Obviously the large student population have realised it is the most convenient mode of transport! That aside the town centre is a lovely place, lots of bars shops and restaurants plus an unfeasibly large number of bookshops.
The first historical trace of Cambridge as a University is in 1209: a number of scholars migrated from Oxford to Cambridge in 1209-14 after a conflict with townsmen during which two or three students were hanged!
Its first recognition came in a royal writ to the Chancellor of Cambridge in 1230. The first college, Peterhouse, was founded in 1284 and another nine followed in the 14th and 15th centuries but the university did not achieve real eminence until the 16th-c. Reformation when it produced Tyndale, Coverdale, Cranmer, and Latimer.
After a prolonged period of stagnation, Cambridge was revived by its growth as a centre of scientific research in the late 19th and early 20th c. Womens colleges were founded in the mid-19th c, but women did not receive full academic status until 1948.
