A Portrait of the Cherry Hinton and Coldham’s Brooks

A Portrait of the Cherry Hinton and Coldham’s Brooks

Judging by the interest shown in the CVF 2025 Summer Walk along Coldham’s Brook, readers may be interested in the fascinating ‘portrait’ found on the website of the Friends of the Cherry Hinton and Coldham’s Brooks here

Though the article ranges from the Cherry Hinton Hall vanity project c. 1839 to the unfamiliar activities in 1852 of The Cambridge University and Town Waterworks Co. at Giant’s Grave, and the historical Cherry Hinton Brook channel dredging debacle, not to mention the devastation caused by industrialisation, the Summer Walk followed what must be the very saddest tributary of the Cam, further downstream, the Coldham’s Brook.

It can be conceded that most of its water eventually reaches the Cam but not as a tributary in the conventional sense. It is not a happy state of affairs. To cut to the chase see the six maps in the Appendix.