The iconic Cambridgeshire river that changed its name by mistake

The city and the river have both seen their names evolve over the centuries

Cambridgeshire is known for its many natural landmarks and among the most famous is the River Cam. People may think that the city was named after the river, but it was actually the other way around.

Long before the university, there was an Anglo-Saxon trading town on the river ‘Granta’, which likely meant ‘Muddy Waters’. This Old English town was called ‘Grantabrycge’, or ‘Granta Bridge’. It centred on the Great Bridge that features on the city’s crest.

After the Norman Conquest of 1066, French-speaking nobles struggled with pronouncing Anglo-Saxon placenames. ‘Grantabrycge’ evolved into the more elegant ‘Cantebrigge’ by the late 14th century before the middle was thrown out entirely to form ‘Cambridge’.

All the while the river continued to bear its Anglo-Saxon name, ‘Granta’. But as ‘Cambridge’ grew in popularity, its inhabitants started to question its source of life.

Assuming the town was named after the river, they changed its name. By the 17th century, the River Cam had usurped the Granta.

Beyond the city walls the ancient moniker survives. Residents upstream from the Mill Pond embrace the River Granta, as does the Granta pub on Newnham Terrace. Indeed ‘Grantchester’ itself survived the fate of ‘Granta Bridge’.

Grantchester joins the hundreds of other Old English placenames that proudly survived the Norman Conquest.