The city of Cambridge is located at a strategically important location for a town: the furthest downstream that the River Cam could be forded, and the furthest upstream that the river is navigable to seagoing vessels. The flood-prone alluvial flat narrows at the site of the Roman crossing (and later bridge). This crossing point is dominated by a spur of rock running to the North-West. This outcrop, which is steep-sided to the river, has been the site of fortifications from Roman times onwards, providing military control of the crossing. Even today, the site is the location of the County Hall, giving continuity of purpose for nearly 2000 years.[1]
Pre-Roman Cambridge edit
Farming was introduced to southern Britain during the Neolithic period (3000–2000 BC). At this time, the Cambridge area was forested, with only small pockets of land suitable for agriculture. There is archeological evidence for a couple of small permanent settlements, alongside a larger number of temporary camps for seasonal visitors from elsewhere. As around much of the edge of the fens, these visitors would have felled trees for timber, hunted wildlife, and gathered local resources.[2]
During the Bronze Age (2000–700 BC), human activity had an increased impact. There is a cluster of former burial mounds dating from the Early and Middle Bronze Age. These were in highly visible locations: along the river, and on the chalk upland to the south-east (near present-day Cherry Hinton). Caches of broken bronze tools have been found, and interpreted to be a supply of raw metal, ready to be melted down as required. By the Late Bronze Age, the Cambridge area was beginning to act as a local power base.[3]
During the Iron Age (700 BC–43 AD), farming became established in the Cam valley. Cambridge was sited at a crucial bridging point between territorial units, with a number of hill forts within the modern city boundaries, as well as purely agricultural settlements. In the Late Iron Age, major tribes in the region include the Trinovantes, the Catuvellauni and the Iceni. The major village of that time was a regional centre with control over local trade and taxation. The site extended over at least seven hectares, with fortifications controlling the river crossing.[4]
The Roman Town edit
Cambridge lies on the roman road running from the major military and civilian colonia at Colchester (Camulodunum – the original Roman capital of Britannia) to meet the major north–south route of Ermine Street at Godmanchester.[5]. (The route of this road was almost certainly dictated by Cambridge's location as the first point at which the impassible fens could be skirted at their south-east corner.[6]) The Iron-Age centre near the crossing satisfied the requirements the Romans had for a fort and a town: a defensive position commanded a major river crossing, a convergance of several roads with the water transport system that was important in the marshy fens, and a transition between several agricultural regions.[7]
Plan edit
- General intro and summary
- Pre-Roman
- Archeological finds in area
- Iron age fort on castle
- Roman
- Took over Iron age fort
- Location wrt Roman Roads
- Bridge / Ford, probably canalised river. Causeway to river
- Settlement to North of River
- Probably extra of influence (18th century parishes of Chesterton / Cambridge)
- Saxon / Viking
- Immediately post-roman, archaeological evidence is of scattered settlement around area, not concentrated near roman town
- Near boundary of Mercia & East Anglia
- Evidence that Cambridge is result of two separate foundations
- Early idea of two opposing village, one Mercian & one East Anglian no longer in favour
- Instead, one settlement based in north, then a later settlement in south, each taking lands, with Chesterton representing the "rump" of the old estate (notably a royal estate & countains castle)
- Mercia
- Seaport
- Bridge (name change, and taxes on mercian villages)
- Vikings
- Settled "in Holmo" - near bridge, in an area defended on ditches to north and south (north one being a former route of the river)
- Made cambridge a regional centre
- Reconquest
- Probable foundation of second town. Likely to be planned, with a central market, and mills.
- Likely this is the time when the river was canalised to its current location. Formerly ran to the west (on a line still followed by boundary ditches)
- Talk about "1000 willows"
- Minster Church, other churches - represent scattered communities - lots of space in town
- King's Ditch
- Norman
- Picot
- Mills
- Anglesey Abby
- Religious Houses
- Foundation of University -> Tudor
- Tudor ->
Misc:
- Rise of Lynn
- Draining of Fens
- 20th Century
Notes edit
- ^ RCHME (1959), Part 1 p. xxxiii.
- ^ Taylor (1999), pp. 15–16.
- ^ Taylor (1999), pp. 16–18.
- ^ Taylor (1999), pp. 18–24.
- ^ Bryan (1999), p. 2. (The road from Colchester to Godmanchester is shown on this map of Roman Britain.)
- ^ Bryan (1999), pp. 2–4 & p. 8.
- ^ Taylor (1999), p. 29; Bryan (1999), p. 8; Lobel (????), p. 1.
References edit
Bryan, Peter (1999). Cambridge: The Shaping of the City. Privately published.
Haslam, Jeremy (1982). "The Development and Topography of Saxon Cambridge". Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. 72: 13–29.
Mitchell, J.B. (1965). "Cambridge: its origin and growth". In J. A. Steers (Ed.), The Cambridge Region: 1965, pp. 162–179. The British Association for the Advancement of Science. Printed at the University Printing House, Cambridge.
Royal Commision on the Historical Monuments of England (1959). An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge: Part I. London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office. ISBN 0-11-300023-5.
Sager, Peter (2005). Oxford & Cambridge: An Uncommon History. trans. Wilson, D.H. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-51249-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |orignyear= ignored (help)
Taylor, Alison (1999). Cambridge: A Hidden History. Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-1914-5.