176 The Growth of Cambridge 



20 ft. contour and so above the flood level. This district w^as also largely 

 buUt up, during the second half of the nineteenth century, to provide 

 accommodation for the growing working-class population: indeed, by 

 the end of the century it had stretched out and joined the expanding village 

 of Chesterton. The remarkable growth in the Chesterton district was 

 already foreshadowed in 1851. The Census Returns attribute a decrease 

 in the non-coUegiate population of St GUes' to "the removal of many 

 famihes to the neighbouring suburb of Chesterton"; and the return for 

 Chesterton noted diat "upwards of 200 houses have been erected in the 

 last ten years principally inhabited by persons attracted by low rents and 

 light taxation to reside there, though engaged in business in the town of 

 Cambridge". Finally, there was also a considerable expansion of the 

 residential area during this period. Building proceeded apace to the south, 

 along the higher ground on either side of Hobson's Brook, to the west, 

 along the Newnham gravel terrace, and to the north, along the Casde Hill 

 ridge. 



Three factors account, in the main, for the growth of the town at this 

 period: (i) the development of railway communication, (2) the develop- 

 ment of industries, and (3) the marked growdi of the University. 



The negotiations between the Town and University authorities took a 

 long and arduous course. A suitable site for a station was very much 

 discussed: that of the Eastern Counties Railway, the first opened, occupied 

 the present site, but it was felt "it was so exceedingly bad that altogether 

 the advantages of the railway were almost superceded by the disadvantage 

 of the station"." The Midland and Eastern Company "proposed to remedy 

 that evU" and "to rim their Hne through Coe Fen and bring dieir station 

 to the very heart of the town". Numerous sites were considered. Sheep's 

 Green, Butt's Green, Midsummer Common among them, but eventually 

 "the difficulties hkely to stand in the way of obtaining a site easily acces- 

 sible and convenient to all the railways likely to branch off from the town 

 and at the same time not interfering with the beautiftd walks around the 

 town or with College grounds" proved insuperable. The project for a 

 central station, which might have radically altered the town plan of 

 Cambridge, was abandoned. 



It was urged that the railway would "afford unquestionable advantages 

 to a large district hitherto shut out from the benefit of railway communica- 

 tion";^ and it was argued that "the river would feed the railway and the 

 railway feed the river ".^ The opening of the railway did bring Cambridge 



' Report of a Railway Meeting, Cambridge Chronicle, 22 Nov. 1845. The remaining 

 quotations in this paragraph are also taken from this report. 

 ^ Cambridge Chronicle, 11 Feb. 1843. 

 3 Ibid. 3 Oct. 1834. 



