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Cambridge University

In 1209, students escaping from hostile townspeople in Oxford fled to Cambridge and formed a University there. The first College, Peterhouse, was founded by the Bishop of Ely in 1284, and in the next centruy Clare, Pembroke, Gonville & Caius, Trinity Hall and Corpus Christi followed.  The total is now 31, the latest being Robinson College, the gift of the self-made millionaire David Robinson.

The Colleges represent the various architectural styles, the grandest and most beautiful being King's.  Robinson has the look of a fortress; its concrete structure covered with a 'skin' of a 1,250,000 handmade bricks.  The colleges are all well worth a visit, but places that simply must not be missed include Kings College Chapel with its breathtaking fan vaulting, glorious stained glass and Rubens' Adoration of the Magi; Pepys Library, including his diaries, in Magdalene College; and Trinity College's wonderful Great Court.

Cambridge University played a unique role in the invention of modern football as the game's first set of rules were drawn up by members of the university in 1848. The Cambridge Rules were first played in Parker's Piece and had a "defining influence on the 1863 Football Association rules.


Acknowledgements to Wikipedia.com & The Guide to Country Living - East Anglia.


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Cambridge University Botanic Gardens
Cambridge University Botanic Gardens
Cambridge University Botanic Garden opened to the public in 1846, and develops and displays over 8,000 different plant species in 40 beautiful landscaped acres.   Professor John Stevens...
Christ's College
Christ's College
Christ's College can trace its origins back to 1439 when it was founded by William Byngham as "God's-house" and adopted by King Henry VI. When the King required its site for the chapel of...
Museum of Classical Archaeology
Museum of Classical Archaeology
The Museum of Classical Archaeology Cambridge is one of the few surviving collections of casts of Greek & Roman sculpture in the world. The public collection of the Museum is made up of over...
Pepys Library
Pepys Library
Samuel Pepys bequethed his diaries to Cambridge University and they are now housed, all 3000 volumes, in the Pepys Library for all to see.   The Building itself was also bequeathed by...
The Backs
The Backs
The back facade and grounds, as opposed to the front of the University Colleges Cambridge are known as The Backs. This is an area of the City where the various Colleges back onto the river Cam and...
University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology
University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology
The University of Cambridge Museum - Archaeology and Anthropology houses the University's collections including local antiquities and archaeological and ethnographic artefacts from around the...
Whipple Museum of the History of Science
Whipple Museum of the History of Science
The Whipple Museum holds an internationally important collection of early scientific instruments dating from the Middle Ages.   Whipple Museum shows instruments of astronomy,...
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