What factors contributed to the expansion of the Barnwell area from a small village in 1801 to a busy suburb of Cambridge by 1901?

University Degree Architecture, Building and Planning

Giovanni M. Berzuini

Question: What factors contributed to the expansion of the Barnwell area from a small village in 1801 to a busy suburb of Cambridge by 1901?

At the end of the eighteenth century Cambridge was suffering a significant reduction in the population. According to available statistics, in 1674 the population exceeded 9000, whereas by 1728 Cambridge’s population was under 8000. There are many possible explanations for this sudden fall in population. One is overcrowding, and its repercussions, such as poor conditions (lack of clean water for everyone, or excessive amounts of sewage which were hard to get rid of), lack of employment, and very high property prices and rents. The city was squalid, and the lack of a proper sewage disposal system lowered the already poor conditions. Another contributing factor to the mentioned fall in population was the attraction exerted by cities in the north around the beginning of 1750, a period of time marked by the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Cities such as Manchester or Leeds (typical northern cities) offered great opportunities of employment, particularly in the newly born industries. We will now analyze in more detail the expansion issue in Cambridge. The city of Cambridge was expanding at a very fast rate, but the space available for settlement was running short. The expansion of the University restricted the residential areas to delimiting and unpleasant territories. Cambridge was surrounded by land liable to flood, which was the main factor that stopped the centre of town and the residential areas from expanding. Cambridge was also surrounded by open fields, which seemed to be the only possible area in which the town could expand. But this was prevented by the way the land was divided into strips. These open fields, and areas surrounding the town, were mainly owned by the rich. This left the poor with the worst areas, both for settlement and agriculture. This unfair situation was by the Enclosure acts, which were put in practice in 1802 and 1807. This movement involved consolidating the scattered strips into single land holdings. Both the Cambridge and Barnwell fields were consolidated into larger fields, and in all of these new allocations were made to the former holders of the land, who included both colleges and private individuals. The new owners were now free to develop or sell their lands as they wished, and this resulted in what possibly was the single most important development in the evolution of the town’s urban form since the founding of the University and the colleges in the early medieval period. Cambridge enclosures took place very slowly, and were only completed in the mid nineteenth century. Land was enclosed gradually by a series of private acts, and by the end of the eighteenth century two agricultural board reports were stressing the urgent need to enclose in order to save the farming in the area. In 1802, the land surrounding the parish of St. Giles had been enclosed, and in 1807, the Barnwell fields had been enclosed. By 1811, the Barnwell field allocations were completed, 4 years after the enclosure. Now that the land had been redistributed, there was possibility for expansion. Generalising, the enclosure acts freed the land outside the medieval core and created the necessary space for expansion.

The city of Cambridge had various Ecclesiastical Parishes spread around throughout the town. Generally, each area had its own Parish. From 1801 to 1901, we notice a fast rise in the population of certain Parishes, and especially the Parish of St. Andrew The Less, which was allocated in the Barnwell area (1 mile away from the city centre). The Enclosure Award in 1811, resulted in an increase of population in nearly every Parish. It is not possible to directly attribute the rise in population in the parishes to the enclosure awards; there was a wider range of factors that made this possible in a much more direct way. During the nineteenth century, there was a general increase in population in Cambridge, which resulted from a decrease in the infant mortality rate and an increase in the general life span of the elderly, both of which kept more people alive for longer periods. These changes were brought about by improvements in public health provision (sewage disposal, cleaner and more plentiful water supplies), medical improvements overcoming fatal conditions (more doctors, improved surgery, new medicines, control of infectious diseases). Another factor was the industrialisation of Britain. Although this statement may seem contradictory to a previous section of this report, in which I claimed that the Industrial revolution moved people away from Cambridge, there are statistics (which I couldn’t get hold of) which state that the number of people that moved away from Cambridge at the end of the eighteenth century was balanced by the number of people coming into Cambridge from the rural areas in the nineteenth century. Even if East Anglia was not an industrialised part of Britain, the Industrial Revolution generally created employment throughout the country, attracting people that were previously employed in the agricultural sector. The population gradually grew in certain Parishes, and although St. Andrew The Less had always seemed to grow at a faster rate than every other Parish, it was not until 1845 and the following years that its population enormously grew to reach a final peak of 27860 people. In 1901 this population rise can be noticed when looking at the the graph. 1845 was the year in which the Railway was built in Cambridge, and this was a very important factor, which contributed to the rise in population of this Parish. This is because the Railway was constructed in the Barnwell area. We will analyze further the importance of the Railway, including an explanation of the location of this new mode of transport. For now we will only mention where the people that populated the Parish came from. They were mainly traders, that had previously been using the river and moved to the Barnwell area to make use of this new revolutionary transport which could have benefited their business, and students and labourers from other towns that decided to move to Cambridge. The railway was faster and therefore a better value for money. As we notice from our statistics and our graph, St. Andrew The Less was not the only Parish in which we encountered a rise in population. But Parishes that were situated near the riverside encountered a substantial decline in population. This was due to the decline of the river trade afetr the arrival of te Railway. This can be seen from fig. 4 (The River Cam toll receipts). We notice that gradually, from 1845 the tolls fell to eventually reach the value of 367 £ per annum. Many jobs near the river were obviously lost and people moved closer to the railway for work.

I will now analyze in more detail the wide range of factors, which contributed to the growth in population in the Barnwell area (parish of St. Andrew The Less). I will commence with the one that comes first n chronological order. The Enclosure movement initiated the process of expansion of this Parish (and of Cambridge in general). I have analyzed in detail the enclosure movement in a previous section of this report; therefore, I will not describe it again. This movement created the space for expansion by freeing the land outside the medieval core. Throughout the eighteenth century ...

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I will now analyze in more detail the wide range of factors, which contributed to the growth in population in the Barnwell area (parish of St. Andrew The Less). I will commence with the one that comes first n chronological order. The Enclosure movement initiated the process of expansion of this Parish (and of Cambridge in general). I have analyzed in detail the enclosure movement in a previous section of this report; therefore, I will not describe it again. This movement created the space for expansion by freeing the land outside the medieval core. Throughout the eighteenth century the rise in population in the Barnwell area, was also due to foreign immigration as well as to the movement of people from other parts of Britain. There were many factors, which determined this movement to Cambridge and more particularly to the Barnwell area. An Agricultural Depression occurred between the 1870’s and the 1880’s had caused a large amount of people to leave their jobs in the countryside. In the American plains, producing wheat was much cheaper than producing it in England. It was much cheaper to consume wheat imported from America, than to produce wheat in England, therefore English farmers were not able to compete.1 million English farmers abandoned their farms and started looking for alternative occupations. Many of these labour-seeking individuals arrived in Cambridge, and an obvious place to settle in was Barnwell, because of its closeness to the Railway. A similar situation happened in Ireland in 1846, where Blight (crop disease) destroyed potato crops. The potato wass the stable diet of most irish people at that time. Because of this catastrophe, 1 million people starved and another million people emigrated. The main destinations were America (where nowadays a politically powerful Irish community is present), and Britain. One of the cities, which encountered a high Irish immigration, was Cambridge. We will now explore the reason behind Cambridge’s popularity. Around 1850, Coprolite was discovered in the Cambridge area. This discovery created a big employment opportunity: a labour force was requested. This became a major attraction for job-seeking individuals. The Irish peasents, whose crops were destroyed, took this opportunity to come and work in Cambridge. Working in the Coprolite mines was exactly the type of job they were seeking for: a well-paid unskilled job. The profits varied because labourers were paid (piecework) according to the amount of work they completed. There is no evidence of anyone mining for Coprolite before the 1850’s. There are two main reasons behind this. Firstly, in such a widespread and traditional industry as agriculture, practices always take a long time to catch hold; in the same way, crop rotation spread extremely slowly after Townshend’s initial experiments. Added to difficulties of opening a market there were transportation problems; the railway network was still limited and river tolls still high. The second important factor was the lack of accurate knowledge, on the part of the public, that was so important with thin seams of mineral. The first recorded discovery of a coprolite bed after 1851 that I have found was actually at Cambridge in 1858 on Coldham’s Common. As we can see from fig. 5 ( map of Coprolite mines) we can notice that the mines were relatively small and spread all over the county. There were a few large ones: these included Horningsea (the largest), Coldham’s Common, Cherry Hinton and Chesterton. The Coprolite industry produced explosives and fertilisers. There were mainly two methods of starting the production, changing in popularity according to the period. In the early 1860’s the most common arrangement seems to have been that a landowner who farmed land on the Greensand “ belt” would hear of the industry and realise that there might be potential profits in it for him. He would then let it out to a firm, and would consult a local land agent for exploitation or consult. The land agent would make the facts known and tender out the contract to the highest bidder (generally the firm that could complete the job in the shortest time with the least disturbance). An alternative procedure could be adopted and was standard practice after about 1870; in which a concern dealing with coprolites might approach a landowner to negotiate terms for renting the land and extracting the mineral. Normally a firm that had rented land to extract coprolites did do on the assumption that the land would be put back to its original agricultural use after extraction. The Coprolite industry didn’t last very long, it had a very short boom lasted around 30 years, from 1850 to 1880. When an Agricultural Depression happened in England, labourers native of other parts of the country also came into Cambridge. We can see from fig. 5 ( map of the coprolite mines in Cambridge), the main mines in Cambridge were in the Cherry Hinton area, in Coldham’s common, in Chesterton and the largest one in Horningsea. The workers in the mines were therefore, Irish immigrants displaced from their farms because of the Blight disease, and English farmers, which migrated to Cambridge because of the general depression throughout the country. From fig. 6 ( picture of Coprolite workers), we can observe some labourers in the mines. The income of labourers in Cambridge had produced a need for new housing contributing to the expansion of the town, and more specifically of Barnwell, where many workers had installed themselves.

Another pull factor, and perhaps the most important one, contributed to the growth in population in the Barnwell area: the Railway. During the eighteenth century the university had immense power, and strong influence on the decisions of the city council. The decision regarding the location of the railway in the city of Cambridge, was also deeply influenced by the University. The University regarded the Railway as a bad influence on the undergraduates, and this explains, at least in part, why Cambridge was one of the last towns to have a railway. Eventually though, the city council and the University reached a compromise. The Railway was to be built 1 mile outside the centre of town. The University was mainly worried about the noise produced by the trains, which would distract the students. The railway would have also offered an easy access to other towns such as London. London was considered the “city of sin”, bound to have a bad influence on the Cambridge undergraduates. The decision to build the Railway far from the centre of town represented an attempt to make it less accessible, and consequently less used. The arrival of the Railway in Cambridge also had a big impact on the local trade. Before the arrival of this revolutionary means of transport, the river Cam was the main trade route to export products to other towns. Travelling by the river was obviously very slow, and limited the range of goods that could be transported. Reaching London via river, for instance, took at least 3 days. Dairy products such as milk and cheese could not been transported via river, as they would have gone off by the time they reached their destination. In addition, the river tolls were rapidly increasing with the number of traders making use of this transport route. The arrival of the Railway offered a solution to the above problems. In fact, transport by train was cheaper and, most importantly, faster. This explains the rapid growth of the population of the parish of St. Andrew The Less in the period of interest. Such migration towards the Barnwell area is likely to be a cause of the reduction in population observed in other Parishes in the same period. Interestingly, despite the shift of trading business from the river to the railway, a small increase in population is observed in some riverside Parishes in the period of interest. This can be noticed again in Fig. 4 (graph of the parishes). For example, in the parish of St. Andrew The Great, there was a moderate increase in population. This is because some people preferred to continue their trading business next to the river. Along with the decreasing number of people using the river, the tolls fell as well, which made trading much cheaper, and attenuated the problem of overcrowding on the river. Again this can be noticed from fig. 4 . The railway was a major local employer, along with the University. This emerges from Fig..7 (graph of Spalding directories for Sturton Street). Many people living in Sturton Street, one of the (historically) most important streets of the Barnwell area, were employed as engineers or inspectors by the Railway. The Railway also contributed to the rise in population of the Barnwell area by facilitating the commuting of students of the Cambridge University who lived in other towns. The rise in population of the area, being a consequence of the arrival of the railway, contributed to the growth of local businesses and industries. Examples are: lemonade factories, sausages factories, flour millings and malting + brewing factories. By looking at figs. 7 and 8 we can get an idea of the type of industries that were installed in the Barnwell area. Fig. 7 represents a manufacturer of lemonade and fizzy drinks E.A WADSWORTH, and fig.8 represents steam works in Wellington street and st. Andrews Street. . Other type of industries had also installed near the railway. These were the building industries e.g. Bricks + tiles, or the cement works in Romsey town. In this way the Railway assisted the building of houses in the Barnwell area. This became very handy because there was an ingent need of building in this area, caused by the sudden rise in population, and now building materials could have been easily transported from or to other towns. The transportation of materials with the use of the railway also contributed to the physical expansion of the University ( building of new colleges) during the nineteenth century.

Ultimately I will describe the pull-factor of the expansion of the University.

The University increased its size and importance, expanding both its numbers and the range of subjects taught, particularly in the sciences. This was occasioned by the general national expansion in education and the increasing demand for highly qualified men in all walks of professional life to lead the economic expansion of the country at home and overseas. The expansion in numbers is accurately recorded by matriculation figures and the national census of 1801. (Unfortunately I could not get hold of). Annual matriculations were running at about one hundred and fifty per year at the start of the century, and the 1801 census records a total of eight hundred and eleven resident members of the University. By the 1900s matriculations were about nine hundred and fifty per year and the University had about three thousand resident undergraduate members. In order to provide satisfactory accommodation for these increased numbers, individual colleges remodelled many of their existing buildings and some added entirely new courts. This increased number of students is also a direct consequence of the arrival of the railway, which facilitated the income of individuals from other towns. All these developments created a big opportunity for employment, attracting a large number of workers to the city both to build and staff the new departments, and the University became the town’s largest employer at the period. The undergraduates at Cambridge University were treated like princes; they had their personal servants that would tidy up their room, polish their shoes, bring food up to their room when requested . . . etc. This all happened because of the great opportunity for employment, which attracted workers willing to take up similar jobs. We can notice this again by looking at fig.6 (graph ing directories for sturton street). We notice that during the end of the nineteenth century, the directories tell us that a large percent of the residents of Sturton street were employed by the University. The remaining percent was employed by the Railway, which as I said before, was another major employer.

Generalizing, the University had contributed to the expansion of the town, and more specifically of Barnwell, by attracting workers, and therefore producing a need for additional housing.

I have now explored in detail every factor that affected the population growth in the Barnwell area. In the following section of my report I will summarize each factor, and study the connections between each factor, in order to decide which one could be defined as the most significant.

I consider the most important push/pull factor that determined the growth in population in the Barnwell area, and in particular of the parish of St. Andrew The Less, the construction of the railway. The reason why the railway was built in this area, is due to the University’s reluctance to the construction of this new method of transport. The University considered the noise produced by the trains as a major distraction for the undergraduates studying at the Cambridge University; The University was also afraid that with the arrival of the railway the undergraduates would have been increasingly more attracted into going to London, which was considered as a city of sin, totally malevolent in the respects of the students. Barnwell, being far off the centre of town (also where the University was situated) was considered the perfect area where to allocate the railway. In this way the noise wouldn’t have reached the centre of town. Barnwell was also far to reach and therefore less accessible for the undergraduates. When the railway was constructed in 1845, we notice a sudden increase in the population of the parish of St. Andrew The Less ( Barnwell area). The reason for this was that although Barnwell might have not been accessible to undergraduates, it certainly was for the local tradesmen and commerciants. For them it was now possible to transport their goods to London and other cities much more rapidly. In addition, the range of goods that could have been transported was much larger, because now reaching cities such as London would have only took a couple of hours. Dairy products such as milk could be transported, whereas before, by the time they had reached London they would have gone out of date.

The railway favoured the income of people from other towns that wanted to come to live in Cambridge and study at its University. This also increased the growth in population of the area (Everyone wanted to be living near the railway). This is shown by the statistics, which state that the population of the parish of St. Andrew The Less in 1901 on its own, was 3 times the population of the whole city of Cambridge in 1801. Students weren’t the only people that migrated to Cambridge. There were also labour-seeking individuals native of other towns that moved to Cambridge. The latter statement can be proved by looking at the 1901 national census ( which again I couldn’t get hold of), which records the native towns of the residents of specific areas. Most of the working class labourers are not native of Cambridge, and had moved there at some point in their lives. This migration was due to the Agricultural Depression of 1870s and 1880’s which brought in individuals from other towns in the country. Previously in 1846, there already had been an income of Irish immigrants that had displaced their farms, as a consequence of the Blight disease, which destroyed their crops. There was a last category of individuals, which came into Cambridge, because of the great opportunity for employment generated from the expansion of the University. Ultimately the Railway had facilitated the income of building materials ( bricks, timbers and tiles) which were necessary to fulfil the need of housing, which the expansion of Barnwell, the University and the town in general brought about.

I consider the Irish immigration in into Cambridge the least important push factor that determined the growth of the parish of St Andrew The Less, due to the Agricultural Depression that had happened in Ireland in 1846. Although the number of Irish immigrants was high (1 million people), there were many other places from which people could have came from. The number of labour-seeking individuals migrating into Cambridge during the course of the nineteenth century wasn’t certainly high just because of the Irish immigrants. The number of people attracted by the Coprolite mining and the ones attracted by the employment opportunity in the University (both in the University and building the University) was much superior to the number to the one of foreign immigrants. There were also students that wished to study at the Cambridge University, which again adds to the sum. This was because Cambridge was a very famous city, mainly due to the prestige of its University. Eventually no more people could have come into Cambridge, because there were no available places to live. The employment opportunity at the Railway and at the University wasn’t everlasting, as well as the mining boom ended after 30 years leaving many people unemployed. The available space for expansion also ended. If there had been any more space for arrivals, or anymore job opportunity the population would have probably kept on growing. If there wouldn’t have been a sudden rise like it occurred because of the Irish immigration, I think the population would have eventually reached the same values, although it might have took a longer time.

There have been discussions evaluating the importance of two single factors, comparing the significance of these two, to decide which one was more important. The two factors I am referring two are:

The arrival of the Railway in Cambridge in 1845
The coprolite mining boom between the 1850’s and the 1880’s

Personally I consider the arrival of the Railway in 1845 is much more significant. The main reason is that this event is connected to many other factors, directly or indirectly. I will explore in detail this latter statement in the final section of my report. There is to notice an essential difference between these two factors. The Railway was made to last, and as a matter of fact it is still functioning now, and facilitates life even nowadays. The Coprolite mining industry only went on for 30 years. Not that large number of people came into Cambridge, alone attracted from the mining boom. The mining boom was fortunate to happen at the right time, when many individuals were left without an occupation ( the people working in the agricultural sector). If the Agricultural Depression wouldn’t had happened, a smaller number of people would have been attracted by the coprolite mining. There is another factor that intervenes in this situation: the Industrial Revolution. People without an occupation would have rather moved to the north of the country where the revolution was happening, and the opportunity for employment was bigger and certainly the jobs would have been more fruitful. Obviously a reasonable amount of skill was required to work in the industrial sector, therefore working in the mines would have been an easier job for the displaced farmers. In addition, the nature of work in the mines was itinerant. The mining was due to end eventually, therefore the importance of this factor is diminished. The labourers knew from the start that mining wasn’t going to be their permanent job. Generally mining could have only increased the values of the population of Barnwell and of the town, for a restricted period of time. Ultimately the mining boom is a factor directly dependant from the arrival of the railway. This is because the same number of labourers couldn’t have migrated to Cambridge with the use of the River cam. I have proved that the arrival of the Railway was a much more important factor, than the discovery of the coprolite mines in Cambridge.

In this last part of my report I will decide and reason my decision, for which was the factor that had more connections with the other factors. The factor I considered the most important is also the one that has more links with every other factor. The construction of the railway was the factor that determined the growth in population of the Barnwell area to the largest extent. The construction of the railway had attracted many tradesmen that decided to abandon the area where they lived to move near the railway. Before the crucial allocation of a tradesmen business would have been near the river that had always been the main way of transport. This technological revolution (construction of the railway) facilitated the transport of good to other cities. As the population in this area increased, many people thought it would have been very fruitful to open small businesses in the same area. This attracted more people, which installed their small businesses (e.g. lemonade factories, flour millings, breweries). Public houses and pubs were opened, to provide entertainment for the inhabitants of the area, this was an indirect consequence of the arrival of the railway: the railway had brought in many people that had inhabited the area, entertainment places are built for the benefit of the locals. Building companies were installed near the railway. Building materials such as bricks and tiles and timbers could be easily and cheaply transported with the use of the railway. This is another factor indirectly linked with the arrival of the Railway, the expansion of Barnwell and of the town brought about the need for housing, building industries were installed near the railway so materials could be easily imported from big urban settlements like London. The Coprolite mining boom is a direct consequence of the arrival of the railway. The labourers couldn’t have reached the town without the railway, and the river was a way too slow way of transport, and also didn’t reach every town in the country. Also with the use of the Railway the products of the mining ( fertilisers, explosives) could be exported to other towns. Ultimately I will discuss how the arrival of the Railway deeply influenced the expansion of the University. Many scholars native of other towns, could have easily reached Cambridge now that the railway had been built. The Cambridge University was very prestigious, therefore everyone who had the chance to study there, took it. The income of scholars from other towns contributed to the rise in the population. This was another factor strictly related with the construction of the railway. When the expansion of the University generated a large opportunity for employment, the Railway permitted the job-seeking individuals to reach Cambridge and subsequently be employed by the University. This category of individuals includes the craftsmen employed in building the additional sections of the University, and the individuals were employed to work in the University. The railway relates again two factors; the craftsmen employed to build the University came because the Railway had provided materials for building the University, therefore creating the opportunity for expansion. Generally the railway:

Facilitated the income of labourers and scholars from other towns
Made possible the installement of businesses for the benefit of the locals, and for the expansion of the town.
Facilitated the trade of goods from Cambridge to other towns.
Contributed to the expansion of the University.

All of these three factors contributed to the general rise of the population in Cambridge, and more specifically in the Barnwell (parish of St. Andrew The Less area), which was the heart of this small industrial growth.

What factors contributed to the expansion of the Barnwell area from a small village in 1801 to a busy suburb of Cambridge by 1901?

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