West Cambridge is a university

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 site to the west of Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

 city centre in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. As part of the West Cambridge Master Plan, several of the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

's departments have relocated to the West Cambridge site from the centre of town due to overcrowding. A number of other research institutions also have buildings on the site.

Layout

The West Cambridge site covers the area between the M11 motorway

M11 motorway

The M11 motorway in England is a major road running approximately north from the North Circular Road in South Woodford in north-east London to the A14, north-west of Cambridge.-Route:...

, Madingley Road

Madingley Road

Madingley Road is a major arterial road linking central Cambridge, England with Junction 13 of the M11 motorway. It passes by West Cambridge, a major new site where some University of Cambridge departments are being relocated....

, Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...

 Road and the Coton

Coton, Cambridgeshire

Coton is a small village and civil parish about two miles west of Cambridge in Cambridgeshire, England and about the same distance east of the Prime Meridian. It belongs to the administrative district of South Cambridgeshire. The parish covers an area of 392 hectares...

 Footpath. The area currently contains some open fields and a small lake. As well as number of university departments and private research institutions, the site also has residential areas and a restaurant. The roads on the site are named after famous Cambridge scientists. The Institute of Astronomy

Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge

The Institute of Astronomy is the largest of the three astronomy departments in the University of Cambridge, and one of the largest astronomy sites in the UK...

 is located just to the north of the site.

Buildings

Name	Built/Completed	Faculty/Organisation
Department of Veterinary Medicine	1955	Department of Veterinary Medicine
Whittle Laboratory	1973	Engineering Cambridge University Engineering Department The Cambridge University Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest departments in the university. The main site is situated at Trumpington Street, to the south of Cambridge city centre. The department is the primary centre for engineering teaching and research...
Cavendish Laboratory Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the university's School of Physical Sciences. It was opened in 1874 as a teaching laboratory....  (incl. Hitachi Hitachi Hitachi is a multinational corporation specializing in high-technology.Hitachi may also refer to:*Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan*Hitachi province, former province of Japan*Prince Hitachi and Princess Hitachi, members of the Japanese imperial family...  Cambridge, Magnetic Resonance and Microelectronics Research Centres)	1974	Physics
British Antarctic Survey	1976	British Antarctic Survey British Antarctic Survey The British Antarctic Survey is the United Kingdom's national Antarctic operation and has an active role in Antarctic affairs. BAS is part of the Natural Environment Research Council and has over 400 staff. It operates five research stations, two ships and five aircraft in and around Antarctica....
Computer-Aided Design Centre	1978	Aveva Solutions Ltd.
Schlumberger Cambridge Research	1984	Schlumberger Limited
William Gates Building	2001	Computer Laboratory University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory The Computer Laboratory is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. As of 2007, it employs 35 academic staff, 25 support staff, 35 affiliated research staff, and about 155 research students...
Roger Needham Building	2001	Microsoft Research Microsoft Research Microsoft Research is the research division of Microsoft created in 1991 for developing various computer science ideas and integrating them into Microsoft products. It currently employs Turing Award winners C.A.R. Hoare, Butler Lampson, and Charles P...  Cambridge
Schofield Centre	1986/2001	Engineering Cambridge University Engineering Department The Cambridge University Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest departments in the university. The main site is situated at Trumpington Street, to the south of Cambridge city centre. The department is the primary centre for engineering teaching and research...  - Geotechnical Geotechnical engineering Geotechnical engineering is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. Geotechnical engineering is important in civil engineering, but is also used by military, mining, petroleum, or any other engineering concerned with construction on or in the ground...  Research Group
Nanoscale Science Laboratory	2003	Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration Nanoscience Centre
Electrical Engineering Division Building (incl. Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE))	2006	Engineering Cambridge University Engineering Department The Cambridge University Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest departments in the university. The main site is situated at Trumpington Street, to the south of Cambridge city centre. The department is the primary centre for engineering teaching and research...  - Electrical Engineering Division
Centre for the Physics of Medicine	2008	Physics
Alan Reece Building	2009	Engineering Cambridge University Engineering Department The Cambridge University Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest departments in the university. The main site is situated at Trumpington Street, to the south of Cambridge city centre. The department is the primary centre for engineering teaching and research...  - Institute for Manufacturing Institute for Manufacturing The Institute for Manufacturing was founded in 1998 and is part of the Cambridge University Engineering Department. Originally Division E: Manufacture and Management, the IfM was formed under the leadership of Prof...
Hauser Forum	2010	Entrepreneurship [Cambridge Enterprise and Idea Space]

Future development

There are currently plans to build a sports centre on the site, as well as ongoing construction of university department buildings.

Conservation

The West Cambridge site is also of conservation importance. The area is host to a number of native species, including barn owl

Barn Owl

The Barn Owl is the most widely distributed species of owl, and one of the most widespread of all birds. It is also referred to as Common Barn Owl, to distinguish it from other species in the barn-owl family Tytonidae. These form one of two main lineages of living owls, the other being the typical...

s, the grey partridge

Grey Partridge

The Grey Partridge, Perdix perdix, also known as the English Partridge, Hungarian Partridge, or Hun, is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae of the order Galliformes, gallinaceous birds...

, badger

Badger

Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the weasel family, Mustelidae. There are nine species of badger, in three subfamilies : Melinae , Mellivorinae , and Taxideinae...

s, grass snake

Grass Snake

The grass snake , sometimes called the ringed snake or water snake is a European non-venomous snake. It is often found near water and feeds almost exclusively on amphibians.-Etymology:...

s and various amphibians. RPS

RPS Group

RPS Group plc is a major UK-based environmental and planning consultancy. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...

 have been conducting surveys on the site since 2003. In order to preserve and develop habitats on the site, a number of ponds are maintained and the roofs of some buildings are covered with plants such as sedum

Sedum

Sedum is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Crassulaceae, members of which are commonly known as stonecrops. It contains around 400 species of leaf succulents that are found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, varying from annual and creeping herbs to shrubs. The plants have...

. Landscape management is also employed to create and maintain hedgerows and ditches.

Archaeology

An ancient Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 settlement dominates the archaeology of the site, but smaller, prehistoric and medieval use has also been documented. Investigations and excavations were conducted between 1999 and 2000, and the site was opened to the public as part of National Science Week

National Science Week

National Science Week refers to series of science-related events for the general public which are held in a specific countries during a designated week of the year...

 and followed by a Schools' Week. During the investigations over 3000 excavations were made and around 50,000 finds retrieved. Some of these are on display in the William Gates Building.

Prehistoric activity

A number of Stone Age

Stone Age

The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...

 flints and Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

 pottery pits were discovered. Analysis is continuing into other possible prehistoric features.

Roman settlement

A series of regular enclosures and semi-open Roman fields dominate the site. Also present were two timber buildings, some quarry pits and two cemeteries, featuring forty burials, plus five isolated burials. This settlement seems to be part of a much larger system that probably formed a ring around the Roman town. Current understanding suggests that the site was in use, in various stages, from the late 1st to early 5th centuries.

Some unusual features have also been documented, including a cache of 3rd century coins and an enclosure containing butchered animal carcasses apparently for some ritualistic purpose. Deposits of horse and cattle remains mark the entrance of one of the cemeteries. Finds from this period include spearheads, brooches, coins, pottery and a copper bust of possibly Minerva

Minerva

Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...

 or Pallas Athena.

Later use

The site was abandoned in the 5th century AD, with no further activity until the late medieval period

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 when ploughing began. A dyke was constructed known as Willowes Ditch, which is marked on 14th century maps. No other development is apparent until the construction of Vicars Farm in the 19th century.

External links

• Interactive map of West Cambridge site with links to the departments