• Stourbridge Common, Mercers Row, Cambridge CB5 8HY

Stourbridge Common is a large open space in northeast Cambridge. It has a play area for children of all ages.

Part of the common has been classified as a local nature reserve. We manage it to encourage diversity of animal and plant species. Cattle grazing forms part of this effort.

The Friends of Stourbridge Common help to protect and enhance the area and its plants and animals.

History

King John granted a charter in 1211 formalising an annual fair held by the leper hospital at Steresbrigge, which takes its name from the Stour, a tributary of the River Cam.

The fair grew to become one of the most important in Europe by the 1390s, and the town received a charter to administer it in 1589. The fair declined at the end of the eighteenth century and the town formally abolished it in 1934.