Psychometric Society Meeting, Cambridge, England, July 2009
The City of Cambridge is situated in the fens, flat waterlands about 50 miles north of London (a short 45 minite train journey away). Cambridge is very much a university town, but also a centre for scientific research and tourism.
Cambridge was a flourishing town long before the students arrived over 800 years ago. The Romans built a fort by the river on what is today 'Castle Hill' to defend the point where the road crosses to the north from their large settlement in Colchester. After the Romans left, the Saxon invaders (settlers from mainland Europe) built up the town to the south of the river. From 875 AD there was a bridge over the river, formerly the River Granta but now the Rive Cam. The town grew in importance and in the 10th century it had a mill.
After the Norman conquest in 1066 AD, King William 1st (also know as 'William the Conqueror', leader of the invaders from France) built a Motte and Bailey Castle on Castle Hill as a base for military operations agains Saxon rebels under Hereward the Wake who were still holding out in secret bases in the Fens, the nearby inhospitable waterlands. The Domesday book of 1086 AD shows that Cambridge, now a market town, had 400 houses.
A group of students fleeing the riots in Oxford in 1209 AD came to Cambridge, and in 1318 AD it received formal recognition from the Pope. The first college for scholars at the University was Peterhouse, founded by the Bishop of Ely in 1284. The University then began to grow with the founding of new colleges. Today there are 31 colleges and the University of Cambridge today is recognised as a world leader.
The University of Cambridge was also the site of an important landmark in the history of psychometrics. The world's first Psychometrics Laboratory was established here in 1887 by James McKeen Cattell who, following the award of his PhD with Wundt in Leipzig, became a Fellow of St John's College. Much of his 3 years in Cambridge were spent in establishing the laboratory, which was housed in what is now the Old Cavendish Physics Laboratory in Free School Lane that today houses the Psychometrics Centre.
Look here for great maps of Cambridge.