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Cambridgeshire lies at the southern tip of The Fens, a formerly swampy region, which remained an isolated
marshland until partially drained in the Middle Ages. The job was done more thoroughly in the 17th century.
Cambridge, the beautiful medieval city at the heart of the region, is world renowned for its beautiful 13th
century University, which has turned out 62 Nobel prize winners, 13 Prime Ministers and nine Archbishops of
Canterbury. Street scenes in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire, based on the true story of Olympic runners
Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, were filmed around Cambridge.
Click on the headings to find out more:
King's College Chapel was established in 1441 by Henry VII, father of the more feared and more libidinous
King Henry VIII. While Henry VII's chapel is simple in design, it boasts a lavishly decorated interior and
some fabulous 16th Century stained glass - among the best in existence. Enter via Trinity Lane.
Between November and Easter you can also enter from the main college entrance in King's parade.
The Chapel's boys' choir is renowned - the boys sing evensong in term time (Tue-Sun 5.30pm).
The Backs (located, as the name suggests, at the back of the Cambridge colleges) are lush and green - a great
place to relax after shopping or sightseeing. Perhaps try your hand at punting on the River Cam - or take
it easy and hire a punt chauffeur to do the hard work for you! The Anchor in nearby Silver Street,
adjacent to the punt rentals, is a pleasant place to take in the view and savour a pint.
Downing Street Cambridge (not to be confused with Downing Street London, home of the Prime Minister) is home to
several worthwhile museums, including the Sedgewick Museum (fossils, skeletons and geology), the Museum of
Zoology (evolution), the Whipple Museum (scientific instruments) and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
The latter museum is filled with ethnographical exhibits, including a 50-foot totem pole.
For many years, tourist information pamphlets available in the centre of Cambridge advised visitors that they
could view shrunken heads at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The museum does in fact hold in its
collection several specimens of tsantsa (shrunken heads, originating in this case from Ecuador), but it removed
them from public view about 10 years ago, when displaying them came to be regarded as politically incorrect.
Curious visitors still turn up to view the heads, only to be disappointed. When I popped my curious head around
the museum's door a couple of years ago, Anita Herle, curator of the anthropological section there, was emphatic
that the shrunken heads could be viewed only by appropriate academics. "We've been trying for years to get the
tourism people to take that shrunken head reference out of the brochure," she sighed. "The heads were on display
for five years but they have been removed. Its time people realised our shrunken heads are not available for
view." Even so, the museum remains an authority on Jivaro Indian head-shrinking techniques. "The scalp is
removed from the skull by being slit up the back and peeled off," an exhibit advises. "The skull is thrown
away. The scalp is boiled, the slit at the back is sewn up and it is reduced by the repeated insertion of
hot sand." (Do not, as the saying goes, attempt this at home.)
Grantchester, a village two miles up the Cam from Cambridge, is quintessential postcard material, complete with
thatched cottages and shady chestnut trees. It's an easy cycle ride or a pleasant stroll from Cambridge -
or a more arduous punt. Punting becomes most challenging in midsummer, when hundreds of amateur punters
throng the river, sometimes accidentally tipping themselves into the water, along with their luncheon
hampers, their companions - and you, if you happen to collide with them.
Grantchester's Old Vicarage was where Rupert Brooke, the strikingly handsome young British poet killed in
World War I, lodged as an undergraduate. Later, homesick in Germany, Brooke wrote the immortally wistful
lines: Stands the Church clock at ten to three? And is there honey still for tea? Rest assured the church
clock (broken for centuries) still stands at 10 to three. The Old Vicarage is owned these days by Jeffery
Archer, the multi-millionaire pulp novelist (Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less; Kane & Abel; The Prodigal
Daughter; A Matter of Honor; The Eleventh Commandment, etc etc). Archer was a senior figure in Britain's
Conservative Party until early 2000, when he was kicked out of the party for five years in disgrace.
Archer had admitted asking a friend to fabricate an alibi for his 1987 libel action, where he won �500,000
from a newspaper for false claims that he had sex with a prostitute. The scandal knocked Archer out of
the race to become Lord Mayor of London. Now he's in Jail...Naughty, naughty...
Angelsey Abbey in the nearby village of Lode is surrounded by an outstanding 100-acre garden. Contents of the
Abbey include the Fairhaven collection of paintings and furniture, works by Constable and Gainsborough,
Ming vases and other eclectic objects.
Ely, north along the A10 from Cambridge, is truly a Fen town, notable for its great Cathedral and for Oliver
Cromwell's House. The cathedral houses the remains of the tomb of St Etheldreda (630-79AD), Queen of
Northumbria and Abbess of Ely. Hereward the Wake, who led Anglo-Saxon resistance against the conquering
Normans in the 11th century, hid in the cathedral until the Normans crossed the Fens in 1071.
The family home of Cromwell in Ely has a 17th-century kitchen and parlour, a craft shop and a Tourist Information
Centre. It even offers a haunted bedroom. No, you can't spend the night there - but we will happily find you
local accommodation with a resident ghost if you desire! Ghost tours operate around Ely - the town
is well suited to them.
Duxford, not far south of Cambridge, is home to the Imperial War Museum, (Also the superb US army 8th Air
Force Museum) and is Europe's (some say the world's) top aviation museum, with over 140 aircraft on
display plus tanks, vehicles and guns. Every year Duxford hosts Europe's premier war bird air-show,
with some of the rarest original WW2 aircraft in the world still flying. This year (2002) the B17
star of the movie "Memphis Belle", scores of Battle of Britain Spitfires & Hurricanes, the famous
"G for George" Avro Lancaster, along with possess of Mustangs and other original WW2 aircraft took
part in the 60th anniversary of the US Army 8th Air Force in England for WW2. A beautiful summers day,
with a squadron of Spitfires flying along the original Duxford strip 300 feet off the ground at over
200 miles per hour, Merlin engines screaming, is a spine tingling, truly once in a lifetime experience.
The Duxford airshow is world famous, attended by hundreds of thousands of people from all over the
world, and is NOT TO BE MISSED! This part of England has a long association with flying;
(Douglas Bader commanded a Spitfire Squadron here in WW2) the famous Dambuster Squadron was
based not far away at Woodhall Spa, and Britain's Red Arrow aerobatic squadron is based nearby.
Cambridge American Cemetery at Coton, operated and maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission,
is the final resting place of many US airmen who lost their lives in World War II. The Eagle,
a pub in the centre of Cambridge still has the names of hundreds of US flyers based here written on the
ceiling with candle smoke. Some wonderful, funny, very poignant & very sad graffiti is preserved here.
It's a must see.
Hinchinbrooke House in Huntingdon, a large country house with its origins in a 12th-century nunnery, was the
home of the Cromwell family and the Earl of Sandwich. In the 18th century, the fourth Earl of Sandwich,
John Montagu, asked for a piece of meat to be placed between two slices of bread so he could eat
while continuing to play at the gaming tables. Amazed waiters christened it a sandwich - it sounded a
bit better than a montagu.
Island Hall at Godmanchester is a mid-18th Century mansion of architectural importance on the Great Ouse river.
Peterborough is known for its Norman cathedral, which has an early English west font, a 13th Century nave
painting and the tomb of Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII. A refusal by Pope Clement VII
to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine triggered the break between Henry and Rome, which led to the
English Reformation. In an uncharacteristic gesture of goodwill, Henry decided not to have Catherine
beheaded. She was buried in Peterborough after being exiled to the provinces. Henry decided that
giving her a St Paul's funeral in London would cost more than was "either requisite or needful".
Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery houses a famous collection of works by POWs of the Napoleonic Wars.
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