Millennium bridge at Abington - geograph

The River Granta is the name of two of the four tributaries of the

River Cam The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distance from Cambridge to ...

, although both names are often used synonymously. The Granta starts near the village of Widdington in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, flowing north past

Audley End House Audley End House is a largely early 17th-century country house outside Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It is a prodigy house, known as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England. Audley End is now one-third of its original size, but is sti ...

to merge with the other contributary Rhee, which is also commonly called River Cam, a mile south of Grantchester. From source to its confluence with the Rhee it is in length. A further tributary, also known as the Granta, runs from south of Haverhill to join the larger Granta south of

Great Shelford Great Shelford is a village located approximately to the south of Cambridge, in the county of Cambridgeshire, in eastern England. In 1850 Great Shelford parish contained bisected by the river Cam. The population in 1841 was 803 people. By 2001 ...

. Another minor tributary is Bourn Brook which has its source near the village of

Eltisley Eltisley is a village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England, on the A428 road about 5.5 miles (9 km) east of St Neots and about 11 miles (18 km) west of the city of Cambridge. The population in 2001 was 421 people, falling ...

, west of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, running east through

Caxton Caxton may refer to: Places * Caxton Street, Brisbane, Australia * Caxton, Cambridgeshire, a village in Cambridgeshire, UK ** Caxton Gibbet, a knoll near the village * Caxton Hall, a historic building in London, UK * Caxton Building, a historic ...

Bourn Bourn is a small village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England. Surrounding villages include Caxton, Eltisley and Cambourne. It is 8 miles (12 km) from the county town of Cambridge. The population of the parish was 1,015 peo ...

and Toft to join the Cam at Byron's Pool. In many maps the river changes its name at the

Silver Street Bridge Silver Street Bridge, officially known as Small Bridge is the sixth river Cam bridge overall and the second bridge on its middle stream in Cambridge. In 1959 the concrete bridge with the design by Sir Edwin Lutyens replaced an 1841 cast iron brid ...

in Cambridge and is called "Granta" above and "Cam" below it. In earlier times even the lower part of the Cam was also named the Granta, but after the name of the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

town of Grantebrycge had been modified to Cambridge, the river was renamed to match.

Grantchester Grantchester is a village and civil parish on the River Cam or Granta in South Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about south of Cambridge. Name The village of Grantchester is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as ''Grantesete'' and ''Grauntset ...

and

Granta Park Granta Park is a science, technology and biopharmaceutical park based on the bank of the Granta (river), River Granta in Abington, Cambridgeshire, Great Abington near Cambridge, England. The first idea for the park came from the then Chief Exec ...

are on the river banks of the river Granta and their names refer to the river itself.

Literature

* Franz X. Bogner & Stephen P. Tomkins: ''The Cam. An Aerial Portrait of the Cambridge River''. Laber Foundation, 2015. (http://www.cambridgeriver.info/).

Links

''geograph'' – River Granta at Shelford
{{authority control Geography of Cambridge

Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

ang:Granta