Franciscan Conduit, Public Water Supply, Trinity Street

History of the public water supply, Trinity Street

At the foot of the south tower of Trinity Gate there was a public water supply whose source was in a field near Madingley Rise and it was brought via the conduit pipe that crossed the river opposite the north end of Trinity Library.

The conduit pipe ran further east and Sidney Street was known as Conduit Street before the foundation of the college from which it took its present name.

F A Reeve, ‘The Cambridge Nobody Knows’ (1977), writes about the water supply set up by Franciscan Friars in 1325. Their house was on the site of Sidney Sussex College. They acquired a piece of land about a mile long and two feet wide from Bradrusshe, in what is now Conduit Head Road, which led to their Friary. Along this strip they lay lead pipes which cross streets, brooks and the river, passing through what is now Trinity College.

A well house and pump was set up on the outer wall of the Friary and Sidney Street was for a long time called Conduit Street.

In 1439, the college of King’s Hall (later part of Trinity) obtained the right to tap the conduit as it pass through their site. After the Franciscan Friary was dissolved in 1538, Henry VIII granted full rights to the conduit to Trinity College. Later, the portion between the college and the Friary was discontinued.

Water from the conduit still feeds the fountain in Trinity Great Court though it is supplemented by an artesian well. Trinity College has rights to prevent any interference with acess to the conduit along its route. The actual Conduit head lies 300 yards west of the Observatory. At various points en route to the city small stones indicate its presence below.