River Cam and Sewage

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 schoolchildren, 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

As the population of Cambridge surged with businesses and housing, plus the University growing, there was a problem with sewage and smells in the River Cam. Not only did this cause discomfort to breathing and health problems, it also spread diseases, such as typhoid and cholera. The terrible stench and state of the river was noticed alike by poor and rich, worker and monarch.

On a visit to Cambridge in 1843, Queen Victoria asked, “What are those pieces of paper floating in the river?” Rather than saying they were book and newspaper pages used as toilet paper, the tactful answer was, “Those Ma’am are notices for the students to say that bathing is forbidden!”. By the end of the Victorian era, the River Cam was finally cleaned when the pumping station was built on Riverside in 1894 through which the sewage from the city was pumped out to the village of Milton, powered by steam pressure. It was only then that leisure became the main activity on the River Cam instead of traders, with punts and rowing boats, replacing barges and sailing skips.

BOATING AND BATHING

But the Cambridge University Boat Club was founded in 1827 and the first competitions called ‘Bumping Races’ started in Cambridge in 1828, so these students were rowing in raw sewage during the early days. This form of racing developed of chasing crews along the Cam because the river was too narrow for the boats to race side by side. It must have been difficult for the students to be using the river when it was still the main place where the Colleges put their sewage, but the river experience was transformed with the building of pipes and the pumping station by the end of the Victorian era. This was when swimming in the River became possible with pleasure spots created at Coe Fen and Sheeps Green, where bathers preferred to bathe upstream where the River was cleanest.

Dave Cohen, the CBBC’s Horrible Histories songwriter has written some funny songs about the River Cam which you can listen to and sing along to using our website.