Northern bastion of Cambridge Castle

Image: © Tiger Taken: 1 Feb 2020

At the beginning of the English Civil War in 1642, Cambridge Castle was occupied by Parliamentary forces. The townsfolk mainly supported Oliver Cromwell, their local hero with his background in Huntingdon and Ely, but the University and Colleges were a hotbed of Royalism. Cromwell ordered the long-neglected fortifications to be beefed up as a defence against this threat, and so two earthen bastions of earth were hastily constructed. In the event no assaults took place and in 1647 the remains of the castle were slighted. The grassy mound seen here is the remains of the northern bastion, which stands on the eastern edge of the Shire Hall office site. Looming above it is the Octagon, part of the 1974 concrete extensions to the county offices, designed by John Pook of the County Architect's Department and dismissed by Simon Bradley in his 2014 revision of Pevsner's guide as "depressing". For a view from the opposite direction see Image

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