164 The Growth of Cambridge 



Intermediate Terrace gravels runs a depression occupied by Hobson's 

 Brook in the south and followed in part by the King's Ditch in the north. 

 To the east, these gravels are separated from the Higher Terrace gravels of 

 Barnwell by an outcrop of Chalk and Gault which coincides markedly with 

 the eastern belt of open land formed by the University Sports Ground 

 (Fenner's), Parker's Piece, Christ's Pieces and Butt's Green. North and 

 west of the river are gravel-spreads equally important to the settlement of 

 the area; the Higher Terrace gravels at Grantchester are comparable to 

 those of Trumpington; Intermediate and Lower Terrace gravels stretch 

 from thence to the valley of the Bin Brook and are separated by an outcrop 

 of gault from the high-lying Observatory gravels of Castle Hill. East of 

 Castle HiU lies a wide spread of Intermediate and Lower Terrace gravels 

 reaching to Chesterton and beyond. The Cam River is bordered by 

 alluvium, once marsh, but now largely drained and raised to form a belt 

 of open land to the west and north of the town, comprising Sheep's 

 Green, Coe Fen, the Backs, Jesus Green, Midsummer Common, Chesterton 

 Fen and Stourbridge Common. 



The gravels not only afforded well-drained building sites, but, para- 

 doxically, gave the early town an ample, if not always sanitary, water 

 supply. The underground seepage of water towards the Cam, held up by 

 the impervious Gault, was tapped by shallow weUs in the gravels, and 

 provided until the seventeenth century a water supply considered adequate 

 for all needs. In modern times,'' two sources of water supply have replaced 

 the easily contaminated surface wells; artesian water from the Lower 

 Greensand and, more important, water from the Chalk. 



THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD* 



Evidence of a pre-Roman settlement at Cambridge is lacking, but Bronze 

 Age fmds, beakers, and burials, clustered near the ford, point to its use at 

 this date; and in Roman times a fortified settlement mounted guard on 

 Castle Hill over the important crossing at its foot. In Anglo-Saxon times, 

 a flourishing settlement, or more probably settlements, developed in 

 association with the river bend: (i) to the south of the river the Saxon 



' {a) "This year [1610] the Town and University completed a new river from a 

 place called Nine WeUs in the Parish of Great Shelford to the Town of Cambridge." 

 C. H. Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, iii, 36 (1845). "This year [1614] Henry King and 

 Nathaniel Craddock with the King's sanction, and at the joint charge of the University 

 and the Town, undertook to convey water by pipes from the new river to the Market 

 Place, and there to erect a conduit of stone." Ibid, iii, 62. 



(fc) The Cambridge Town and University Waterworks Co. was formed in 1853. 



^ The theories regarding the early history of the town are discussed in an admirable 

 paper by H. M. Cam, "The Origin of the Borough of Cambridge ", Proc. Camb. 

 Antiq. Soc. xxxv, 33 (i935)- 



