Administrative Boundary of Cambridgeshire

About Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in the East of England. Covering approximately 3,389 square kilometres of lowland East Anglia and the Fenlands, Cambridgeshire had a population of approximately 875,000 at the 2021 Census. The county encompasses the city of Cambridge — home to one of the world's greatest universities and an extraordinary concentration of Gothic and later architecture — the drained fenlands of the Isle of Ely and the Fens, the Norman cathedral of Ely rising above the flat landscape, and one of the most dynamic technology and life sciences clusters in Europe, known as Silicon Fen. The University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge, founded in 1209 and consistently ranked among the leading universities in the world, is the defining institution of the county town. The university's 31 autonomous colleges — most founded between the 13th and 17th centuries — are distributed across the city, their medieval and later buildings, chapels, halls, and gardens constituting one of the most outstanding concentrations of historic architecture in England. King's College Chapel (1446–1515), commissioned by Henry VI and completed by Henry VIII, is the supreme example of Perpendicular Gothic architecture in England: its celebrated fan-vaulted ceiling, soaring windows, and extraordinary length create one of the most breathtaking interior spaces in British architecture. The Backs — the stretch of lawns, gardens, and river bank between the backs of the older colleges and the River Cam — is one of the most beautiful urban landscapes in England. Punting on the Cam between the college bridges is the quintessential Cambridge experience. The university has produced more Nobel laureates than any institution outside the United States: alumni and faculty include Newton, Darwin, Rutherford, Crick and Watson (who announced the double-helix structure of DNA at the Eagle pub on Bene't Street in 1953), Hawking, Keynes, and many others. Ely Cathedral and the Fens Ely Cathedral, rising above the flat Fen landscape on the low hill that was once the island of Ely, is one of the most magnificent Norman and Gothic cathedrals in England. The cathedral was begun in 1083 on the site of a Saxon monastery founded by St Etheldreda in 672; the Norman nave (completed c.1189) is one of the finest in England. The Lantern Tower — a unique octagonal timber and stone tower (1322–1342) designed by master carpenter William Hurley after the collapse of the original central tower — is the most extraordinary medieval timber structure in England and one of the most remarkable achievements of medieval engineering. The Fens — the low-lying agricultural land extending from south Lincolnshire through Cambridgeshire to Norfolk — were largely drained in the 17th century under the direction of Cornelius Vermuyden and the patronage of the Duke of Bedford. The draining transformed one of the most extensive wetland ecosystems in Britain into some of the most fertile arable farmland in the world. Silicon Fen The Cambridge cluster of high-technology and life sciences companies — known as Silicon Fen — is one of the most significant technology concentrations in Europe. ARM Holdings (semiconductor design), Autonomy, Frontier Developments, Cambridge Audio, AstraZeneca's global R&D headquarters, and hundreds of other companies have been founded or located in and around Cambridge. GIS and Boundary Data The administrative boundary of Cambridgeshire County Council is available for free download in GeoJSON and KML formats, sourced from the ONS Open Geography Portal (Crown copyright 2024). Compatible with QGIS, ArcGIS, Mapbox, and Google Earth, the dataset supports university geography, fenland hydrology, technology cluster mapping, agricultural land classification, and heritage conservation analysis across the Cambridgeshire local authority area.

📍 Administrative boundary of Cambridgeshire county