The village of Grantchester is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as Grantesete and Grauntsethe.[1] Before, it is also mentioned briefly in book IV, chapter 19 of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. John de Grauntsete, a lawyer who had a successful career as a judge in Ireland, was born in Grantchester, c. 1270, and took his surname from his birthplace. The present name derives from the common Old Englishsuffix-ceaster (variously developed as "-cester", "-caster", and -"chester"), used in names of forts or fortified cities throughout England.
Grantchester is said to have the world's highest concentration of Nobel Prize winners, most of these presumably being current or retired academics from the nearby University of Cambridge.[4]
Students and tourists often travel from Cambridge by punt to picnic in the meadows or take tea at The Orchard. In 1897, a group of Cambridge students persuaded the owner of Orchard House to serve them tea in its apple orchard, and this became a regular practice.[5] Lodgers at Orchard House included the Edwardian poetRupert Brooke, who later moved next door to the Old Vicarage. In 1912, while in Berlin, he wrote a poem of homesickness entitled "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester". The house is currently the home of the Cambridge scientist Mary Archer and her husband, Jeffrey Archer.[5] Grantchester has been the home since 1969 of the sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld OBE.[6]
The oldest parts of the Church of St Andrew and St Mary (Church of England) date from the twelfth century. The chancel is mid-fourteenth century and the tower is late-fourteenth or early fifteenth century. The porch is sixteenth century. The nave was extensively restored in 1876–1877. The church is a Grade II* listed building.[14] Rachel Rosborough became vicar in 2017.[15]
Graveyard
The church is surrounded by a graveyard, where the burials include:[16]
Every year on Boxing Day (26 December), Grantchester holds an inter-village barrel race which is around 40 minutes long and ends with a hog roast at the Rupert Brooke pub. This tradition dates back to the 1960s.[18]
Legends
An underground passage is said to run from the Old Manor house to King's College Chapel two miles (3 km) away. It was said that a fiddler who offered to follow the passage set off playing his fiddle; the music became fainter and fainter, until it was heard no more and the fiddler was never seen or heard of again.[19] This story is told of many supposed tunnels. On a 17th-century map of Grantchester, one of the fields is called Fiddler's Close.[20]
^Cambridge: A Cultural and Literary History Martin Garrett - 2004 -- Page viii 1902669797 "Its propensity to flood has threaded through Cambridge from the pubs in Grantchester to the Ditton Plough, a broad green ribbon of flood plain — Grantchester Meadows, The Iammas Land, the Backs, Jesus Green, Midsummer Common, ... "
^Reynolds, Stanley (6 June 2013). "Tom Sharpe obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
