Cambridgeshire County
(Historic)

Map Reference: (52.310638, 0.240599)

Cambridgeshire is an inland county of East Anglia. The county's dominant natural feature is the fenland, now drained but leaving a flat landscape from Cambridge northward. The main town is the university city of Cambridge. The University of Cambridge is the oldest in Britain after Oxford. Its beautiful old colleges sit on mediæval streets and their delightful “backs”, look out on the banks of the River Cam. The Gogmagog Hills south-east of Cambridge are the highest features in the county. Wandlebury Ring is an Iron Age hillfort. South of Cambridge is an agricultural landscape of small villages and drained by the rivers Grant and Rhee. The northern part of Cambridgeshire, known as the Isle of Ely, is a different world; remarkable for its flatness and its fertile soil drawn out by past generations’ labour from the Great Fen. The city of Ely stands on a low hill above the fens, dominated by its cathedral. Ely Cathedral is visible for many miles across the level fenland and is known as “the Ship of the Fens”. In the north of the county lie the Fenland market towns of Whittlesey, March and Chatteris. Wisbech is noted for its unspoilt Georgian architecture.