In 1574 Andrew Perne, Master of Peterhouse and Vice-chancellor of Cambridge\u00a0University that year, wrote to the Chancellor of the University, Lord Burleigh,\u00a0about the recent outbreaks of the plague in Cambridge.\u00a0In this letter he suggested taking water from the existing stream that flowed from\u00a0Nine Wells in Great Shelford into the River Cam, and diverting it into Cambridge\u00a0itself, in order to clean out the medieval King\u2019s Ditch, on the southern and\u00a0eastern edges of the town. The filthy state of the King\u2019s Ditch was seen as being\u00a0responsible for the plague.
\nBy 1610 this \u201cNew River\u201d had been constructed. In that year Thomas Chaplin,\u00a0Lord of the Manor of Trumpington, signed a \u201ctripartite agreement\u201d with the town\u00a0and the university giving them rights over the newly made watercourse and the\u00a0soil either side in order to maintain it in good order.\u00a0When Thomas Hobson, the well known Cambridge carrier (referred to in the\u00a0phrase \u201cHobson\u2019s choice\u201d), died in 1631 he bequeathed land so that its income
\ncould be used to maintain the supply of water to the market place, for in 1614\u00a0some of the water from the original stream had been diverted to Market Hill\u00a0where it was used as a public water supply. Since that time the name of Hobson\u00a0has been associated with the new stream and the water that it brings into\u00a0Cambridge. It is not clear whether the stream ever achieved its original aim of\u00a0flushing out the King\u2019s Ditch, but the water has been put to a number of
\nalternative uses.
\nThe original stream that fed the King\u2019s Ditch ran down the centre of Trumpington\u00a0Street, but is nowadays restricted to two \u201crunnels\u201d down either side of the road.\u00a0They are fed by underground pipes which come from the Conduit Head at the\u00a0junction of Lensfield Road and Trumpington Road.\u00a0Since 1856 the Conduit Head has been graced by the presence of a structure\u00a0(often, confusingly, also referred to as \u201cThe Conduit\u201d) which originally stood in the\u00a0market place, and provided the water supply which Hobson was so keen to
\npreserve. That had been fed by another underground pipe from the Conduit\u00a0Head.
\nTwo more underground channels leave the Conduit Head. One, now disused,\u00a0ran under the old Addenbrooke\u2019s Hospital (now the university\u2019s Judge Business\u00a0School) and the grounds of Pembroke College to feed the original University\u00a0Botanic Garden north of Pembroke Street. The modern Botanic Garden\u00a0alongside Trumpington Road also uses water from Hobson\u2019s Conduit to fill its
\nlake.<\/p>\n
The final underground watercourse started its life in about 1630 as an open\u00a0channel, cut to deliver water to Emmanuel and Christ\u2019s Colleges as well as to\u00a0cleanse St Andrew\u2019s Street. Ponds in the gardens of both colleges still benefit\u00a0from a supply of \u201cHobson\u2019s water\u201d.
\nSince the early 17th century various benefactors, including Thomas Hobson, have\u00a0given money and property for the benefit of maintaining Hobson\u2019s Conduit.\u00a0Those funds have always needed managing, and in the early years a group of\u00a0feoffees were responsible for doing so, on behalf of both the town and the
\nuniversity. In 1868 \u201cThe Conduit Trust\u201d registered with the Charity Commission,\u00a0and a revised scheme was approved in 1899, which is still in place today, with\u00a0one recent amendment.
\nUnder the 1899 scheme fifteen trustees were to carry out the business of the\u00a0Trust. Five were \u201crepresentative trustees\u201d appointed by the Borough (now City)\u00a0of Cambridge, and ten were \u201cco-optative trustees\u201d being \u201cpersons residing or\u00a0carrying on business in or near Cambridge\u201d. In recent years the City Council has\u00a0ceased to appoint representatives to outside bodies, so the Trust has now\u00a0obtained permission from the Council and the Charity Commission to convert the\u00a0five representative positions into co-optative ones.
\nToday Hobson\u2019s Conduit continues to benefit the people of Cambridge as a\u00a0unique part of the city’s history, a green corridor that links the city centre and\u00a0recent urban expansion with the countryside.<\/p>\n
A fuller history was written by W D Bushell, and published by CUP in 1938:\u00a0\u201cHobson\u2019s Conduit: The New River at Cambridge commonly called Hobson\u2019s\u00a0River\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 1574 Andrew Perne, Master of Peterhouse and Vice-chancellor of Cambridge\u00a0University that year, wrote to the Chancellor of the University, Lord Burleigh,\u00a0about the recent outbreaks of the plague in Cambridge.\u00a0In this letter he suggested taking water from the existing stream that flowed from\u00a0Nine Wells in Great Shelford into the River Cam, and diverting it into … Continue reading History<\/span>