Grantchester

This article is about the village in Cambridgeshire, England. For the Rupert Brooke poem, see Grantchester (poem). For the necktie knot, see Grantchester knot. For The TV series, see Grantchester (TV series).
Grantchester

The banks of the River Cam at Grantchester
Grantchester
 Grantchester shown within Cambridgeshire
Population 540 (2011 Census)
OS grid referenceTL432555
DistrictSouth Cambridgeshire
Shire countyCambridgeshire
RegionEast
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town CAMBRIDGE
Postcode district CB3
Dialling code 01223
Police Cambridgeshire
Fire Cambridgeshire
Ambulance East of England
EU Parliament East of England
List of places
UK
England
Cambridgeshire

Coordinates: 52°10′44″N 0°05′42″E / 52.179°N 0.095°E / 52.179; 0.095

Grantchester is a village on the River Cam or Granta in South Cambridgeshire, England. It lies close to Cambridge.

Name

The village of Grantchester is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as Grantesete and Grauntsethe. It is also mentioned briefly in book IV, chapter 19 of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. John de Grauntsete, a lawyer who had a successful career as a judge in Ireland, was born in Grantchester, c. 1270. The present name derives from the common Old English suffix -ceaster (variously developed as "-cester", "-caster", and -"chester"), used in names of forts or fortified cities throughout England.

Grantchester is sometimes identified as the Cair Grauth[1] ("Fort Granta") listed in the History of the Britons among the 28 cities of Britain,[2] but the Roman Duroliponte and subsequent major British and Saxon settlements in the area were at Castle Hill in Cambridge, whose Old English name was Grantabrycge. The confusion arises from the lower stretches of the Granta having been renamed the Cam after the city.

Overview

St Mary and St Andrew Church

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.[3] Students and tourists often travel from Cambridge by punt to picnic in the meadows or take tea at The Orchard. In 1897, a group of Cambridge students persuaded the owner of Orchard House to serve them tea in its apple orchard, and this became a regular practice.[4] Lodgers at Orchard House included the Edwardian poet Rupert Brooke, who later moved next door to the Old Vicarage. In 1912, while in Berlin, he wrote a poem of homesickness entitled "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester". The house is currently the home of the Cambridge scientist Mary Archer and her husband, Jeffrey Archer.[4] Grantchester has been the home since 1969 of the sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld OBE.[5]

The footpath to Cambridge that runs beside Grantchester Meadows is nicknamed the Grantchester Grind.[4] Grantchester Grind is the title of a 1995 comic novel written by Tom Sharpe.[6] Further upstream is Byron's Pool, named after Lord Byron, who is said (by Brooke, at least) to have swum there.[7] The pool is now below a modern weir where the Bourn Brook flows into the River Cam. Byron's Pool is a Local Nature Reserve.[8][9]

The Church of St Mary and St Andrew is a Grade II* listed building.[10]

Grantchester is the subject of "Grantchester Meadows" (composed and performed by Roger Waters) a song by Pink Floyd, with the village being home to band member David Gilmour.[11] A few years later, David Gilmour also wrote a song about Grantchester Meadows, called Fat Old Sun. The village is also the setting for James Runcie's sleuth novels The Grantchester Mysteries, now adapted as an ITV drama titled Grantchester shown in the UK from autumn 2014[12] and filmed on location in Grantchester.

Barrel Race

A Grantchester barrel race in 2007

Every year on Boxing Day (26 December), Grantchester holds an inter-village barrel race which is around 40 minutes long and ends with a hog roast at the Rupert Brooke pub. This tradition dates back to the 1960s.[13]

Legends

An underground passage is said to run from the Old Manor house to King's College Chapel two miles away. It was said that a fiddler who offered to follow the passage set off playing his fiddle; the music became fainter and fainter, until it was heard no more and the fiddler was never seen or heard of again.[14] This story is told of many supposed tunnels. On a 17th-century map of Grantchester, one of the fields is called Fiddler's Close.[15]

The Green Man
Grantchester Meadows
Road name sign in front of foliage
Manor Farmhouse
Road name sign in front of foliage
Grantchester Meadows sign
Small thatched building
Grantchester Village Hall

References

  1. ↑ Nennius (attrib.). Theodor Mommsen (ed.). Historia Brittonum, VI. Composed after AD 830. (Latin) Hosted at Latin Wikisource.
  2. ↑ Ford, David Nash. "The 28 Cities of Britain" at Britannia. 2000.
  3. ↑ "Nine things you didn't know about Grantchester". Cambridge News. 13 October 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 Kelly, Tony (10 August 1997). "Yes Rupert, there's still honey for tea...". The Independent. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  5. ↑ Wright, Karen (9 June 2012). "Helaine Blumenfeld: 'Art is a commitment to risk, a reflection of life – nothing stays the same'". The Independent. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  6. ↑ Reynolds, Stanley (6 June 2013). "Tom Sharpe obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  7. ↑ Jordison, Sam (9 July 2009). "Going swimming with Roger Deakin". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  8. ↑ "Byron's Pool". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  9. ↑ "Map of Byron's Pool". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  10. ↑ Historic England. "Church of St Mary and St Andrew (1309436)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "A Pink Floyd spotter's guide to Cambridge". Cambridge News. 26 August 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  12. ↑ Archived 1 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ↑ "Where to go bonkers on Boxing Day". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  14. ↑ Ash, Russell (1973). Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain. Reader's Digest Association Limited. p. 235. ISBN 9780340165973.
  15. ↑ Archived 20 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
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