Cambridge Landmarks

Duxford is home to the Imperial War Museum.

During World War I, the Duxford airfield was built. It was one of the first places where the Royal Air Force had a base. The Royal Flying Corps grew in 1917, and Duxford was one of several new airfields built to train RFC pilots. Unlike many similar airfields in a smaller RAF, it stayed open after the war. It was first used as a school for training. In 1924, it became a fighter station, where it did well for 37 years. In 1938, the No. 19 Squadron at RAF Duxford was well-known enough to be the first to get the new Supermarine Spitfire. The first Spitfire arrived at RAF Duxford in August of that year. In June 1940, German forces took over Belgium, Holland, and France. The next goal for Germany was to take over Britain. The RAF base at Duxford was made fully functional. After that, there was a lot of fighting in the air. This was called the Battle of Britain. After that, the station helped defend British airspace. On "Battle of Britain Day," September 15, 1940, its squadrons flew twice to stop attacks on London by the Luftwaffe. Then, test and trial units left the station. Before giving the new plane to the US Army Air Forces, this gave the RAF important information about how it would do in combat. In April 1943, the 78th Fighter Group moved to RAF Duxford, which the Americans quickly started calling "Station 357." Their main job was to protect the big groups of US Eighth Air Force bombers while they went on dangerous and expensive daytime raids on Germany. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, when the Allies finally started their long-awaited invasion of occupied Europe, every available 78th Fighter Group Thunderbolt attacked targets behind the Normandy beachheads. After World War II, the RAF station at Duxford was turned back on. This was the start of the last time it would be used. Now that it had jet fighters like the Gloster Meteor, Hawker Hunter, and Gloster Javelin, its pilots were ready to shoot down Soviet bombers. But Duxford's time as an RAF base was coming to an end because it was no longer needed for defence, which is why it had been a fighter station in the first place Sofa & Upholstery Cleaning Cambridge Omegaclean . It was too far south and too far inland for the expensive changes that would have been needed for supersonic fighters. The last flight from RAF Duxford left in July 1961, and for the next 15 years, no one knew what would happen to the airfield. IWM needed a place to store, fix up, and eventually show off exhibits that were too big to fit in its London headquarters. It was okay to use the airfield for this reason. Together with the Imperial War Museum and the Duxford Aviation Society, Cambridgeshire County Council gave the nearly empty aerodrome a new lease on life. IWM Duxford is now known as the centre for the history of aviation in Europe. This museum stands out because of its historic site, world-class exhibit collections, and regular world-famous Air Shows.

The Botanic Gardens at Cambridge University

Over 8,000 kinds of plants from all over the world are kept in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden (CUBG). This helps both in the classroom and in research. Researchers and teachers can use the Garden to find plants, learn about gardening, and use its facilities. But from the beginning, the Garden has also been a beautiful place where everyone can learn and have fun. It has a number of beautiful landscapes where people can learn about how dramatic plant diversity can be. The first Botanic Garden at Cambridge University opened in 1762 in what is now called the New Museums Site in the middle of the city. It grew plants that were used to teach students how to become doctors. When he took the Chair of Botany at the University in 1825, John Henslow was 29 years old. At the time, botany was at a low point. The Botanic Garden in the middle of the city was in bad shape because the last lecture had been 30 years ago. Henslow's persistence and political savvy convinced the University that the Botanic Garden needed to be moved to a much larger location so that serious experimental botany could take its place as natural science studies at Cambridge grew in the early 1800s. With the extra acres, people could grow and study the interesting new tree species that were being found in western North America at the time. Botanic gardens would no longer be seen as places where medical students learn about drugs by growing plants. Henslow, on the other hand, thought that this Garden should be used to study the plants themselves. Trinity Hall gave the University a 16-hectare plot of land one mile south of the city centre in 1831, but it couldn't be built on right away because of legal issues. But they didn't start planting until 1846, and the University only paid to develop the western half of the land because it was more expensive. Andrew Murray was the first Garden Curator. He and Henslow worked together to design the garden. Murray's plan calls for a path that winds all the way around the Garden. The Main Walk, which is made up of tall, stately coniferous trees, splits the path in half from east to west. Outside the perimeter path, a belt of trees from the same family was put in. There was a U-shaped lake to the north of the Main Walk, and there was a complex set of herbaceous systematics beds to the south. The Grade II* heritage landscape we see now was made possible by this plan. The design is in the "Gardenesque" style of the time, which mixes individual plants with carefully designed landscapes.

The Castle Hill in Cambridge

Castle Hill is a very important part of Cambridge's history, even though there are no ruins there. Here stood Duroliponte, a hill fort from the Iron Age that became a Roman town. When you get to the top of the Castle Mound, you can see the rooftops of the town and the countryside around it. If the sky is clear, you can see Ely Cathedral in the north. William I built Cambridge Castle in 1068 to protect the area from Hereward the Wake's rebellion. During the Anarchy, Matilda's forces tried to take it by besieging it, but they failed. During the First Barons' War, French forces took over the castle. In the late 1300s, a big part of the building was rebuilt, but it wasn't taken care of, so it quickly fell apart. During the Bronze and Iron Ages, people lived on Castle Hill. In the Middle Ages, a fort was built there. In 43 AD, when the Romans took over Britain, they built Ermine Street as a key route from London to the north. In the west of Cambridgeshire, it went through. The military wanted to keep the area safe after the Boudica rebellion in AD 60, so they built a fort on Castle Hill. Akeman Street was the way to get from Ermine Street to the fort. In the 70s AD, it was rebuilt, but the military left it and it became Duroliponte, which did well because it was close to a road and the River Cam. By the fourth century AD, it was hard for the Roman military to deal with raiders from Denmark and Germany who came by boat and used the river to get to the town. Limestone walls were built to protect the area. When the Roman army left Cambridgeshire at the beginning of the fifth century AD, it was taken over by the Angles. Before Mercia took over at the end of the eighth century AD, the county was made up of different tribes. The Mercians were in charge of Cambridge until 875, when the Viking commander Guthrum moved in and made it part of the Danelaw. But in the year 905, King Edward the Elder of Wessex attacked Cambridgeshire and took it over. By 921, Cambridge had become a town with walls around it (town). These defences, which may have been built in the same way as the Romans, were made up of an earth and wood rampart backed by a ditch. They surrounded an elliptical area with the River Cam on the west side. By the middle of the 10th century, Cambridge had become one of the biggest towns in Eastern England.

The Central Mosque Cambridge

Cambridge Central Mosque is the first mosque in the city that was built for that purpose. It is also the first eco-friendly mosque in Europe. Its goal is to help the Muslim community in the UK and around the world by promoting the best practises in faith, community development, social cohesion, and interfaith dialogue. On April 24, 2019, the Cambridge Central Mosque opened to the public. Julia Barfield, an architect, says that a mosque doesn't have a set look. It depends on where you are. In Egypt, Andalusia, Turkey, Indonesia, and the Arabian Peninsula, where Muslims need a place to pray, the architecture reflects the local style. In China, it could be a group of pavilions with roofs that look like pagodas. In Sub-Saharan Africa, it could be made of mud bricks or rammed earth. It could have one dome, several domes, or a flat roof that is held up by many columns. It could be made of concrete, stone, or wood. In the late 1800s, the first mosques were built in the United Kingdom. One was made out of a terrace in Liverpool, and another was built from scratch in Woking, Surrey. But no one knows what a typical British mosque looks like. The most common method, often driven by the need to serve as many people as possible with limited funds, is to build a plain box that is then decorated with motifs from the main country of origin of the congregations (Ottoman for Turks and Cypriots, Moghul for people from the subcontinent) or from which the majority of the funding came.

The All Saints Church

All Saints' is a well-known city landmark with a pale stone spire. It is in the centre of Cambridge, right across from the gates of Jesus College. It was built in the 1860s based on plans by the famous architect G.F. Bodley of the 1800s. It is considered a masterpiece of Victorian art and architecture. Inside, almost every surface is painted, stencilled, or gilded, and there are lots of flowers all over the walls. There are stained glass windows that let light in that were made by well-known Arts and Crafts artists like William Morris and Ford Madox Brown. The building is cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust and is open to the public every day. All Saints' is a well-known city landmark with a pale stone spire. It is in the centre of Cambridge, right across from the gates of Jesus College. It was built in the 1860s according to plans by G.F. Bodley, who was a well-known architect of the 1800s. It is a masterpiece of Victorian art and architecture. Behind the wooden door is a lively show of colour and pattern. Some of the best Arts and Crafts artists, such as William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and Ford Madox Brown, made the stained-glass windows.

The Corpus Clock

Since its opening in 2008, both Cambridge residents and tourists have thought of the Corpus Clock as one of the city's most interesting public landmarks. It is a one-of-a-kind watch that is both stunningly beautiful and very scary. Dr. John C. Taylor OBE FREng thought of it, made it, and gave it to Corpus Christi College (m1959). The Clock was built with the help of a local engineering company called Huxley Bertram. The face of the clock is made of pure gold, and the ripples around it are a reference to the Big Bang, the event that started the universe and could be thought of as the beginning of time. The clock is on top of a strange creature called the Chronophage, which means "time-eater" in Greek because it eats each passing minute with a snap of its jaws. It comes from a grasshopper, which is the name that horologist John Harrison gave to the strictly functional escapement he made in the 1700s. At first glance, it seems hard to tell the time on the Corpus Clock because it doesn't have hands or digital numbers. If you look closely, you can see that there are three rings of LEDs. The middle one shows the time in hours, minutes, and seconds. When the time comes, there are no bells, just chains swinging and a hammer hitting a wooden coffin. As the words "the world and its desires pass away" written in Latin under the clock show, time goes by and we all die. The word "Joh. Sartor Monan Inv. MMVIII" is written on the pendulum in Latin. This means "Joh. Sartor Monan Inv. MMVIII." Joh. is the name Johannes, Sartor is the mediaeval Latin word for tailor, Monanensis is the Isle of Man, Inv. is the verb invenit, which can mean discovered, made, or brought to fruition, and MMVIII is the year 2008. In 2008, this was done by John Taylor of the Isle of Man. The Clock is on the site of a Natwest Bank, which used to be the London County Bank and was designed by architect Horace Francis in 1866.

Market Square

Cambridge is known for its many markets, and since the Middle Ages, merchants have set up shop in the city's historic market square. The stalls are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Sunday and sell street food, books, vinyl, CDs, and DVDs, among other things. Some of these things are clothes, jewellery, and bags. Nutrient-rich foods include fruits, vegetables, and fresh fish. There are plants for sale and used bikes for sale There is a lot more to cell phones and their parts than meets the eye. On Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., there is a busy food, arts, and crafts market in the market square. Some of the most talented artists, craftsmen, potters, sculptors, and photographers in the area are among the people who sell their work at the market.

Mathematical Bridge

William Etheridge (1709–1766) designed the bridge in 1748, and James Essex the Younger built it in 1749. (1722–84). It was fixed in 1866, and the same design was used to build it again in 1905. On the right side of the picture, you can see the riverside building. It was built around 1460 and is the oldest building on the river in Cambridge. Now, it is a part of the President's Lodge. The design, from the middle of the 18th century, is a small engineering triumph. James King made it. He died in 1744. A 50-foot river is crossed by the bridge, which is made of several shorter pieces of wood. For example, the horizontal piece that looks like it goes across the whole river is actually made of six shorter pieces of wood that are joined together. The design is a wooden version of a voussoir arch bridge, and each part is compressed by the force of gravity acting on the whole structure: For a voussoir bridge to work, the compressive forces at the point where the arch springs must be balanced by strong abutments. Bending wood weakens it (think about how easy it is to break a match by bending it). In this bridge design, the side trusses don't have to bend much or at all: The triangulation in the side trusses gives them strength without making them too heavy, and it keeps the joints between the arch's segments from bending. Side winds don't do as much damage to the structure because the sides aren't filled in. Under the walkway is the only place where the beams cross. People said that if a side truss needed a new piece of wood, that piece could be taken off and replaced without affecting the other parts of the bridge or having to take the whole thing apart. In the real world, this has never been done.

The Wren Library

The Wren Library is a well-known and historically important college library in Cambridge. If you like books, old buildings, or both, you should go. Sir Christopher Wren, who was a well-known British architect and stonemason, made the plans for the library. It is one of the buildings at Cambridge colleges that he planned or built. The chapel at Emmanuel College and the Wren (Kitchen) bridge at St. John's are two more of his works in Cambridge (although he did not build this). This library is where Cambridge's most valuable and well-known books are kept. Here are the first two folios of Shakespeare's works and the first edition of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica. It also has original drawings by A.A. Milne of Winnie the Pooh.