Cambridge University Botanic Garden

This history trail audio is narrated by the poet Michael Rosen, with script researched by Helen Weinstein and the team at Historyworks. This recording is part of a series of Cambridge history trails which have lyrics inspired by 'history beneath our feat' performed by local school children, with poems by the top poet Michael Rosen and songs by the funny team at CBBC's songwriters commissioned by Historyworks. To find more trails and further information, go to http://www.creatingmycambridge.com/trails

The original Cambridge University Botanic Garden was started in 1760 on the site of a former Augustinian Friary near the centre of town. This small 5 acre site was then sold to build the Cavendish laboratories when in 1831, Professor Henslow, who importantly was Charles Darwin’s teacher, decided that a larger garden was needed. So it was that in the Victorian era, with the research focused on understanding species (especially studied by Darwin and his colleagues in botanical science) the plants were moved to a new 40 acre site on Trumpington Road. The first tree was planted in 1846 and further trees and shrubs were planted in their botanical sequence, which by the end of the 1800s meant that the Botanic Garden contained the rarest tree collection in the country.

The Botanic Garden continues the tradition from the Victorian era of carrying out important research on the subject of plant genetics: that is the understanding of how plants pass on the information about their structure and growth. This is now called Plant Science rather than the term the Victorians used which was Botany as in: Botanical Garden. One of the most interesting features for historians to see today, is the series of Chronological Beds which show how plants have been introduced into cultivation in Britain from the earliest times to the present day, and also tells the story of global travellers who brought back new specimens and species to the UK. For example, it is thought that the Holly Hock (which is an Anglo-Saxon word) was brought from Palestine at the time of the Crusades, when the Knights returning from those Wars brought back the seeds.

The early potato came to England in Tudor times, possibly with the Elizabethan travellers Drake or Raleigh, who brought back varieties from Spain, which had in turn come from Peru. But the potato from South America that we eat today, is linked to the potato brought back from the islands off Argentina by Charles Darwin himself! The tomato also came from South America, and was again brought to Europe from Peru in Tudor times. The first written evidence of a tomato eaten in Italy dates from 1550 and in England seeds were grown from the late 1590s but lots of people were worried about eating them because there were rumours that they were poisonous! Hum, that would have made a Tudor Pizza night a bit of a challenge!