Cambridgeshire

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Cambridgeshire
File:EnglandCambridgeshire.svg
Geography
Status	Ceremonial & (smaller) Non-metropolitan county
Region	East of England
Area - Total - Admin. council - Admin. area	Ranked 15th 3,389 km² Ranked 15th 3,046 km²
Admin HQ	Cambridge
ISO 3166-2	GB-CAM
ONS code	12
NUTS 3	UKH12
Demographics
Population - Total (2006 est.) - Density - Admin. council - Admin. pop.	Ranked 29th 752,900 222 / km² Ranked 20th 589,600
Ethnicity	94.6% White 2.6% S.Asian
Politics
File:Arms-cambs.jpg Cambridgeshire County Council
Executive	Conservative
Members of Parliament	Jonathan Djanogly (C) David Howarth (LD) Stewart Jackson (C) Andrew Lansley (C) Malcolm Moss (C) James Paice (C) Shailesh Vara (C)
Districts
File:Cambridgeshire Ceremonial Numbered.png Cambridge South Cambridgeshire Huntingdonshire Fenland East Cambridgeshire Peterborough (Unitary)

Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs) is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west. Cambridgeshire contains most of the region known as Silicon Fen. The county town is Cambridge.

Cambridgeshire is twinned with Kreis Viersen in Germany.

Contents 1 History 2 Geography 3 Economy 4 Education 4.1 Average score at GCSE by council district (%) 5 Settlements 6 Places of interest 7 Famous people from Cambridgeshire 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] History

Cambridgeshire was recorded in the Domesday Book as "Grantbridgeshire" (or rather Grentebrigescire). Covering a large part of East Anglia, Cambridgeshire today is the product of several local government unifications. In 1888 when county councils where introduced, two were set up, following the traditional division of Cambridgeshire into the area in the south around Cambridge, and the liberty of the Isle of Ely. In 1965, these two administrative counties were merged to form Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. In 1974, this then merged with the county to the west, Huntingdon and Peterborough (which had been created in 1965 by the merger of Huntingdonshire with the Soke of Peterborough - a part of Northamptonshire which had its own county council). The resulting county was called simply 'Cambridgeshire'.

Since 1998 the City of Peterborough has been a separately administered area, as a unitary authority, but is associated with Cambridgeshire for ceremonial purposes such as Lieutenancy, and functions such as policing and the fire service.

In 2002, the conservation charity Plantlife unofficially designated Cambridgeshire's county flower as the Pasqueflower.

A great quantity of archaeological finds from the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age were made in East Cambridgeshire. Most items were found in Isleham.

The Cambridgeshire Regiment (or Fen Tigers) county based army unit fought in South Africa, WWI and WWII.

Most English counties have nicknames for people from that county, such as a Tyke from Yorkshire and a Yellowbelly from Lincolnshire; the traditional nickname for people from Cambridgeshire is 'Cambridgeshire Camel' or 'Cambridgeshire Crane', referring to the wildfowl which were once abundant in the fens.

Original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies.

[edit] Geography

Large areas of the county are extremely low-lying and Holme Fen is notable for being the UK's lowest physical point at 2.75 m (9 ft) below sea level. The highest point is in the village of Great Chishill at 146 m/480 ft above sea level. Other prominent hills are Little Trees Hill and Wandlebury Hill in the Gog Magog Downs, Rivey Hill above Linton, Rowley's Hill and the Madingley Hills.

[edit] Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Cambridgeshire at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added[1]	Agriculture[2]	Industry[3]	Services[4]
1995	5,896	228	1,646	4,022
2000	7,996	166	2,029	5,801
2003	10,154	207	2,195	7,752

1. ^ Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
2. ^ includes hunting and forestry
3. ^ includes energy and construction
4. ^ includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured

AWG plc is based in Huntingdon. The RAF has a few bases in the Huntingdon and St Ives area. Most of Cambridgeshire is agricultural. Close to Cambridge is the so-called Silicon Fen area of high-technology (electronics, computing and biotechnology) companies. ARM Limited is based in Cherry Hinton.

[edit] Education

Cambridgeshire has a completely comprehensive education system with 12 independent schools and 29 state schools, not including sixth form colleges. The average number of pupils in England achieving 5 GCSEs at grades A-C including English and Maths is 45.8%; for Cambridgeshire it is 50.1% which is one of the highest in England for traditional counties. Huntingdonshire district has the highest school population by year, with Fenland having the smallest (closely followed by East Cambridgeshire). There is variation across the county with South Cambridgeshire having a very high percentage with 5 grades A-C; one of the highest performing districts in England. South Cambridgeshire simply does not have any bad schools. At GCSE, the best state school is Comberton Village College (CVC) in Comberton in South Cambridgeshire, with Parkside Community College in Cambridge also doing well. The worst school at GCSE is the Queen's School in Wisbech. Huntingdonshire has five good schools and two low performing schools, which could be similar to a selective education system. At A level, the county does reasonably well, but not as good as the results found at GCSE. In general the independent schools do the best at A level, which is not true for the situation in other nearby counties. In the East of England, only one Cambridgeshire state school has particularly good A level results - the Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge. The other state schools are average, but the county has A level results as a whole above the England average. Overall at A level, the best results are dominated by the independent schools, with Perse School for Girls being the best, followed by The Perse School, both in Cambridge.

[edit] Average score at GCSE by council district (%)

% of pupils with 5 grades A-C including Maths and English in 2006.

• South Cambridgeshire 61.1
• East Cambridgeshire 53.4
• Cambridge 51.9
• Huntingdonshire 48.9
• (City of Peterborough Unitary Authority 39.4)
• Fenland 36.6

[edit] Settlements

These are the settlements in Cambridgeshire with a town charter, city status or a population over 5,000; for a complete list of settlements see list of places in Cambridgeshire.

• Burwell
• Cambridge
• Chatteris
• Ely
• Godmanchester
• Huntingdon
• Littleport
• March
• Peterborough (no longer part of the administrative county)
• Sawston
• Linton
• Sawtry
• Soham
• St Ives
• St Neots
• Wisbech
• Whittlesey
• Yaxley

The town of Newmarket is surrounded on three sides by Cambridgeshire, being connected by a narrow strip of land to the rest of Suffolk.

[edit] Places of interest

Anglesey Abbey Brampton Wood Buckden Towers Castor Hanglands Nature Reserve Denny Abbey Devil's Dyke Down Field Windmill Duxford Chapel Duxford Airfield Elton Hall Ely Cathedral Flag Fen Fowlmere Nature Reserve Gog Magog Downs Grafham Water Nature Reserve Great Gransden Post Mill Hereward Way Hinchingbrooke House Houghton Mill Icknield Way Kimbolton Castle Lattersey Nature Reserve Lode Watermill Nene Park

Nene Valley Railway Nene Way New Bedford River Octavia Hill Birthplace Museum Old Bedford River Ouse Valley Way Ouse Washes Paxton Pits Nature Reserve Peckover House & Garden Peterborough Cathedral Prickwillow Drainage Engine Museum Ramsey Abbey River Cam River Great Ouse RSPB Nene Washes RSPB Ouse Washes Three Shires Bridleway University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Wandlebury Country Park Wicken Fen Wimpole Hall Wisbech and March Bramleyline WWT Welney

[edit] Famous people from Cambridgeshire

File:Cambridge-260x345.jpg As well as those born in the county there are many notable people from, or associated with, Cambridgeshire who moved there, particularly due to the presence of Cambridge University.

Cambridgeshire lays claim to Prime Ministers John Major and Oliver Cromwell, businessmen Henry Royce and Peter Boizot, social reformers Octavia Hill and Thomas Clarkson, and economist John Maynard Keynes. Scientists include Brian J. Ford and Stephen Hawking, and Nobel laureate Harold Kroto. John Clare, Samuel Pepys, Douglas Adams, and Jeffrey Archer are all famous literary figures who hail from Cambridgeshire.

In entertainment, cartoonist Ronald Searle, comedian Rory McGrath, television presenter Sarah Cawood, and radio sports presenter Adrian Durham are all from Cambridgeshire. Paul Nicholas, Richard Attenborough and Warwick Davis are all associated with film, while musicians include Andrew Eldritch, lead singer of The Sisters of Mercy; Andy Bell, lead singer for Erasure; David Gilmour and Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett of Pink Floyd; Don Airey, keyboardist in the rock band Deep Purple; trombonist Don Lusher; Keith Palmer, of dance music band The Prodigy; Nigel Sixsmith, founding member of The Art Of Sound and well known Keytar player; and Matt Bellamy. Athletes Joe Bugner, Sir Jack Hobbs, and Marty Scurll are also from the county.

Richard Garriott, televangelist Peter Foxhall, and Hereward the Wake are from Cambridgeshire.

[edit] See also

• Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely
• Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire
• High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire
• Cambridgeshire local elections
• Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies
• Cambridgeshire Constabulary
• Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service

[edit] External links

• Cambridgeshire County Council
• The Fens of North Cambridgeshire
• Cambridge Market Place Webcam
• Cambridgeshire Family History Society
• Cambridgeshire Community Archive Network

v • d • e Ceremonial counties of England

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This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Cambridgeshire. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.