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 Widdington is a village and a civil parish near Saffron Walden, in the Uttlesford district, in the county of Essex, England. The population of the parish at the 2011 census was 504. The village is located near the M11 motorway. Widdington has a c ...

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 Gr ...

, flowing north past Audley End House 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 becam ...

, running east through Caxton,

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 peopl ...

and Toft to join the Cam at

Byron's Pool Byron's Pool is a 4.4 hectare Local Nature Reserve in Grantchester in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by Cambridge City Council and the City Greenways Project. The site is named after Lord Byron, who used to swim in the water. It is a pool and adja ...

. In many maps the river changes its name at the Silver Street Bridge 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 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-Saxons happened wit ...

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 ''Graunts ...

and

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

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