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Europe : British and Irish Isles : United Kingdom : England : East Anglia : Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire[1] is a historic county in the East Anglia region of England, part the United Kingdom.

Cities, towns and villages

Cities

  • Cambridge - picturesque University city and Cambridgeshire's traditional county town
  • Ely - the cathedral city in the Fens
  • Peterborough - growing industrial centre and cathedral city

Towns

Villages

  • Duxford - location of the aircraft collection of the Imperial War Museum and much more besides... Air Shows!
  • Grantchester - the English village south of Cambridge made famous by war poet Rupert Brooke
  • Little Gidding Tiny village between Cambridge and Peterborough, made famous by TS Eliot and Nicholas Ferrar

Understand

Talk

Cambridgeshire residents speak in the standard form of English common across South East England, and there should be little difficulty for English speakers in understanding them. Contrary to popular belief, most locals do not speak in the distinctive upper-class accents common amongst Cambridge University students.

Get in

Get around

The region is well linked by rural bus services.

See

The region's chief attraction is the splending architecture historic city of Cambridge. Further afield, attractions include:

  • Imperial War Museum Duxford, [2]. Daily except for 24-26 December, summer (19 March - 29 October) 10am-6pm, winter 10am-4pm, last admission 45 mins before closing, admission adults £12, seniors and students £9, disabled £8, other concessions £7 - group concessions available, free admission for children 15yrs and younger. Parking is free. "Europe's premier aviation museum."
  • Wicken Fen, Lode Lane, Wicken, Ely, CB7 5XP, ☎ (+44) (0)1353 720274, [3]. One of the few remaining areas of the region's former marshland, preserved today as a Nature Reserve of international significance 
  • Wimpole Hall and Home Farm, Wimpole Estate, Arrington, Royston, Cambridgeshire, SG8 0BW, ☎ Telephone: (01223) 206000, [4]. 200 year old working farm and historic country house. See rare breeds of sheep, historic farming methods in use today, and wander through the landscaped country park. Particularly popular during the March/April lambing time.  

Do

  • Punting on the River Cam in Cambridge

Eat

Cambridgeshire isn't known for it's food specialities. Traditional English roasts are served in attractive country pubs throughout the regionCambridge offers the widest range of restaraunts to choose from, whilst Peterborough is the place to head for Italian.

Drink

The regions small towns and villages offer a particularly fine range of country pubs, many of which serve a good range of real ales. Most of the "local" beer served in the region comes from the Charles Wells brewery in Bedfordshire and Greene King brewery in Suffolk - you will see these names on pub signs everywhere in the region.

Stay safe

Cambridgeshire is a quiet and fairly prosperous region presenting relatively few hazards to the traveller. See the England section for more general safety tips.

Get out

This page was last edited at 03:13, on 28 March 2009 by David Tellett. Based on work by Paul Louis, Ian Kirk, Todd VerBeek, Michele Ann Jenkins and Evan Prodromou, Wikitravel user(s) Pjamescowie, Nickpest and Akubra and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel.