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Cambridge Cambridgeshire

Approximate Population:  280,305

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England.   It lies about 50 miles (80 km) north of London.   It is also at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen.

Cambridge is best known as the home of the University of Cambridge, one of the world’s premier universities.   The university includes the renowned Cavendish Laboratory, King’s College Chapel, and the Cambridge University Library.   The Cambridge skyline is dominated by the last two buildings, along with the chimney of Addenbrooke’s Hospital in the far south of the city and St John’s College Chapel tower in the north.   The pronunciation of the city’s name is distinct from that of Cambridge in Gloucestershire, England, which is /ˈkæmbrɪdʒ/.

According to the 2001 United Kingdom census, the City’s population was 108,863 (including 22,153 students), and the population of the urban area (which includes parts of South Cambridgeshire district) is estimated to be 130,000. Cambridge is surrounded by many smaller towns and villages.

Houses for Sale Cambridge Cambridgeshire

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Glasgow Scotland

Approximate Population: 580,690

Glasgow has long been famed for shipbuilding and trade due to the city being positioned on the River Clyde.   Much of the trade took place in the nearby towns of Greenock and Port Glasgow as the River Clyde is too shallow at Glasgow for larger ships to reach.   The present site of Glasgow has been used since prehistoric times for settlement due to it being the forded point of the River Clyde furthest downstream, which also provided a natural area for salmon fishing.

The origins of Glasgow as an established city derive ultimately from its medieval position as Scotland’s second largest bishopric. Glasgow increased in importance during the 10th and 11th centuries as the site of this bishopric, reorganised by King David I of Scotland and John, Bishop of Glasgow.   There had been an earlier religious site established by Saint Mungo in the 6th century.

The bishopric became one of the largest and wealthiest in the Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth and status to the town. Between 1175 and 1178 this position was strengthened even further when Bishop Jocelin obtained for the episcopal settlement the status of burgh from King William I of Scotland, allowing the settlement to expand with the benefits of trading monopolies and other legal guarantees.   Sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives to this day as the Glasgow Fair.

Houses for Sale Glasgow Scotland

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Wandsworth Greater London

Approximate Population: 259,881

Wandsworth is a town on the south bank of the River Thames in south-west London.   Wandsworth takes its name from the River Wandle, which enters the Thames at Wandsworth.

Wandsworth appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Wandesorde and Wendelesorde.   It was held partly by William, son of Ansculf and partly by St Wandrille’s Abbey.   Its domesday assets were: 12 hides. It had 5½ ploughs, 22 acres of meadow.   It rendered £9. Since at least the early 16th century, Wandsworth has offered accommodation to consecutive waves of immigration; from Protestant Dutch metalworkers fleeing persecution in the 1590s, to recent Eastern European members of the European Union.

An influx of French Huguenot refugees in the early 17th century is remembered in many local street names.   There is a band of small and expensive terraced housing (known as The Tonsleys) behind Old York Road — the former centre of old Wandsworth — rising to an area of grander, terraced, semi-detached and detached housing along the roads bounded by West Side Wandsworth Common, Earlsfield Road and East Hill.   In contrast, at the base of East Hill is a collection of high-rise council blocks.

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Wandsworth Greater London

Houses for Sale Dover Kent

Approximate Population: 28,156

Dover’s main communications artery, the A2 road replicates two former routes, connecting the town with Canterbury.   The Roman road was followed for centuries until, in the late 18th century, it became a turnpike. Stagecoaches were operating: one description stated that the journey took all day to reach London, from 4am to being “in time for supper”.

The other main roads, travelling west and east, are the A20 to Folkestone and thence to London and the A258 through Deal to Sandwich.

The railway reached Dover from two directions: the South Eastern Railway’s main line connected with Folkestone in 1844, and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway opened its line from Canterbury in 1861. A tram system operated in the town from 1897 to 1936.

Dover has two long distance footpaths: the Saxon Shore Way and the North Downs Way. Two National Cycle Network routes begin their journey at the town.

There are nine secondary level schools, 16 primary schools and two schools for special education.

Several of the state secondary schools now specialise: Astor College for the Arts; Dover Grammar School for Girls is a specialist Humanities College; Dover Grammar School for Boys, a Business and Enterprise College; St Edmund’s Catholic College for the Performing Arts; and Archers Court, Maths and Computing College.

The Duke of Yorks Royal Military School, England’s only military boarding school for children of service personnel (co-ed ages 11-18), is also located in Dover, next to the military base.  Dover College, a public school was founded in 1871 by a group of local business men.

Houses for Sale Dover Kent