Stourbridge Common
A riverside common in north-east Cambridge where Stourbridge Fair was held from 1211, now partly a local nature reserve.
Stourbridge Common is a large open space in the north-east of Cambridge, beside the River Cam. Part of it is a local nature reserve, and cattle grazing is used there to encourage a variety of plants and animals. It has a play area for children of all ages, and a group called the Friends of Stourbridge Common helps look after the site.
Home of Stourbridge Fair
The common is the site of Stourbridge Fair. King John gave the leper hospital at Steresbrigge permission to hold a fair in 1199 to raise money for its patients, and the first fair on the common took place in 1211. The river allowed barges to reach it from the Wash, and a road to Newmarket passed close by.
The fair was once called "the largest in Europe", and John Bunyan took it as the inspiration for the Vanity Fair of Pilgrim's Progress. Daniel Defoe visited it and wrote about it at length in his Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain. Isaac Newton visited in 1665 and bought a copy of Euclid's Elements there. Control of the fair passed to the town, with the University overseeing quality, under a charter of 1589. The fair declined in the late eighteenth century and its last event before the revival was held in 1933. A free community fair returned in 2004.
Nearby
The Leper Chapel stands off Newmarket Road, and the common runs behind it down to the river. The common lies in the Chesterton area.
Practical notes
Cambridge City Council manages the common, and problems in the park can be reported on 01223 457000.
People connected with this place
- Isaac Newton (1643–1727), Mathematician and physicist