Grantchester
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Grantchester | |
|---|---|
| OS Grid Reference: | TL431559 |
| Lat/Lon: | |
| Population: | 552 (2001 Census) |
| Dwellings: | 265 (2001 Census) |
| Formal status: | Village |
| Administration | |
| County: | Cambridgeshire |
| Region: | East of England |
| Nation: | England |
| Post Office and Telephone | |
| Post town: | CAMBRIDGE |
| Postcode: | CB3 |
| Dialling Code: | 01223 |
Grantchester is a village on the River Cam or Granta in Cambridgeshire, England. It is listed in the Domesday Book as Grantesete and Grauntsethe.
Tourists and students often travel from Cambridge by punt to eat a picnic in the meadows or at a Tea Garden called The Orchard. In 1897 a group of Cambridge students persuaded the owner of Orchard House to serve them tea, and this became a regular practice. Lodgers at Orchard House included the poet Rupert Brooke, who later moved next door to the Old Vicarage. In 1912, while in Berlin, he would write his well-known poem The Old Vicarage, Grantchester. The Old Vicarage is presently the home of the Cambridge scientist Mary Archer and her husband, Jeffrey Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare.
Grantchester is said to have the world's highest concentration of Nobel Prize winners, most of these presumably being current or retired academics from the nearby University of Cambridge.
The footpath to Cambridge that runs beside Grantchester Meadows is nicknamed the Grantchester Grind. Further upstream is Byron's Pool, named after Lord Byron, who is said (by Brooke, at least) to have swum there. The pool is now below a modern weir at the junction of the Bourn Brook and the River Cam.
Grantchester is the subject of Grantchester Meadows, a song by Pink Floyd, whose lead singer and guitarist David Gilmour was born there.
[edit] Legends
An underground passage is said to run from the Old Manor house to King's College, Cambridge Chapel 2 miles away. It was said that a fiddler who offered to follow the passage set off playing his fiddle, soon the music became fainter and fainter, until it was heard no more. The fiddler was never seen or heard of again. On a 17th century map of Grantchester, one of the fields is called Fiddler's Close.
