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Sunday 17 November 2013

Cambridge (England)

The Saxons called Cambridge ‘Grantabrycge’ (bridge over the river Granta). The name of the town gradually changed to Cambridge.  The name of the river then changed to Cam, so it may be said that the river is named after the town, not the town after the river.


The precise beginnings of Cambridge University are obscure, but it is known that in 1209 a party of students arrived from Oxford, where there had been disturbances. At this time students made their own arrangements with individual masters and lived in whatever lodgings they could find.

The first residential college was Peterhouse, which was founded in 1284.

The saintly King Henry VI of England founded Kings College at Cambridge University in 1441. He left instructions for a choir of six lay clerks and 16 boys to be trained at the college school and to sing at daily services.

Sir Christopher Wren's first architectural design was the chapel at Pembroke College, Cambridge, which he was commissioned to do by his uncle the Bishop of Ely.

Written exams were first used at Cambridge University by the professor of chemistry in 1792..

England’s first football club was formed by a group of Cambridge University old boys who met up in Sheffield in 1857.

The most overdue book in the world was borrowed from Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, England and was returned 288 years later.

The university library (built 1931–34) is a copyright library, and is entitled to a copy of every book published in the UK.

According to research in 2009, residents of Cambridge spend more per head on takeaway meals than any other town or city in Britain.

In Cambridge, 29 per cent of working people cycle to work. This is the highest figure of any local authority in the UK.

Sources Hutchinson Encyclopedia © RM 2013. Helicon Publishing is division of RM, Daily Express

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