Millennium bridge at Abington - geograph

The River Granta is the name of two of the four tributaries of the

River Cam The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distanc ...

, although both names are often used synonymously. The Granta starts near the village of Widdington in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, flowing north past

Audley End House Audley End House is a largely early 17th-century country house outside Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It is a prodigy house, known as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England. Audley End is now one-third of its original size, but is st ...

to merge with the other contributary Rhee, which is also commonly called River Cam, a mile south of Grantchester. From source to its confluence with the Rhee it is in length. A further tributary, also known as the Granta, runs from south of Haverhill to join the larger Granta south of

Great Shelford Great Shelford is a village located approximately to the south of Cambridge, in Cambridgeshire, in eastern England. In 1850 Great Shelford parish contained bisected by the River Cam. The population in 1841 was 803 people. By 2001, this had g ...

. Another minor tributary is Bourn Brook which has its source near the village of Eltisley, west of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, running east through Caxton, Bourn and Toft to join the Cam at

Byron's Pool Byron's Pool is a 4.4 hectare Local Nature Reserve in Grantchester in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by Cambridge City Council and the City Greenways Project. The site is named after Lord Byron, who used to swim in the water. It is a pool and ad ...

. In many maps the river changes its name at the Silver Street Bridge in Cambridge and is called "Granta" above and "Cam" below it. In earlier times even the lower part of the Cam was also named the Granta, but after the name of the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

town of Grantebrycge had been modified to Cambridge, the river was renamed to match.

Grantchester Grantchester () is a village and civil parish on the River Cam or Granta (river), Granta in South Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about south of Cambridge. Name The village of Grantchester is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as ''Granteset ...

and

Granta Park Granta Park is a science, technology and biopharmaceutical park based on the bank of the Granta (river), River Granta in The Abingtons, Cambridgeshire, Great Abington near Cambridge, England. The idea for the park came from the chief executiv ...

are on the river banks of the river Granta and their names refer to the river itself. The literary magazine ''

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story's supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make ...

'', founded in 1889 by students at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

as ''The Granta,'' is named after the river.

References

Literature

* Franz X. Bogner & Stephen P. Tomkins: ''The Cam. An Aerial Portrait of the Cambridge River''. Laber Foundation, 2015. (http://www.cambridgeriver.info/).

Links

''geograph'' – River Granta at Shelford
{{authority control Geography of Cambridge

ang:Granta

See also

References

Literature

Links