Welcome to the website of Hobson’s Conduit and the Trust which is charged with preserving the quantity and quality of the water which it carries, and the character of its environment. You may well be a regular visitor to the Conduit itself, but we hope that you will find in these pages some information which may enhance the pleasure of exploring it on foot, bike, or horseback. It was constructed (in 1614) to divert water from Hobson’s Brook, which is a chalk stream arising from the Nine Wells, near the foot of the Gog Magog Hills whence it flows northwards and divides, between Long Road and Brooklands Avenue, into the Conduit and Vicar’s Brook, a tributary of the Cam. It drains an area of some 12.25 km2 and the slightly over 4 km long course (as the crow flies) of the waterway forms a delightful green corridor into the city, providing a habitat for a variety of natural life. It all but disappears from sight at the Conduit Head monument at Lensfield Road, where it dives underground to split once more into a subterranean channel which accompanies that road towards the east, and another which emerges in the shape of the runnels either side of Trumpington Street. These are a source of occasional diversion to pedestrians but much inconvenience to some xx unwary motorists a year when they reverse their rear wheels into them while parking and are unable to drive them out again.[Anyone know an approx number? Or how to find out? I imagine that big fat 4×4 wheels can get out by themselves, but that elderly vehicles with narrow wheels might have to call for help: contact with council so far unrewarding]
The waterway is easily taken for granted, but it is cherished by the residents who live close to it, and is a vital part of Cambridge’s heritage. It is a permanent reminder of its supposed founder whose name it (not altogether deservedly) perpetuates, and it represents an early, and not wholly successful, public health measure as well as fulfilling an important function to this day by providing a supply of water to three most enchanting ponds.