Tag Archives: Trinity College Cambridge

Trinity College Cambridge

Working on the last few posts documenting our travels in Cambridge, England. Thursday the 12th of March we walked our feet off in between stops along the way. I booked a last minute morning tour of Trinity College for 10am to start off the sight seeing part of our day.

Our guide was a retired Porter of the college and he entertained us well.

King Henry VIII founded the College in 1546 as one of the very last acts of his life.

The open window is that of Isaac Newton’s Room while he attended Trinity.

The story of Isaac Newton and the falling apple is the famous legend behind his 1687 discovery of universal gravitation. While he wasn’t hit on the head as popular culture suggests, watching an apple fall prompted him to wonder why objects always fall straight to the ground, leading to his breakthrough. Above you’ll see the apple tree planted outside his room. Our guide said that this tree was grafted from the actual tree that led Newton to ponder the theory of gravity.

The Great Court features the iconic Clock Tower, where students attempt to run around the perimeter before the clock finishes striking 12 in the famous “Trinity Clock Challenge.”
If any of you have watched the movie, “Chariots of Fire”, you’ll remember the great court run, although a central theme it was not actually filmed at Trinity.

The College’s Great Court is famously the largest enclosed courtyard in Europe.

The Renaissance-style fountain in the center of Trinity College’s Great Court was first erected in 1602 and rebuilt in its original design in 1715. Historically supplied by a Franciscan monk conduit built in 1325, the landmark is famous for acting as a washing area for early students.

Overall, this chapel seemed to me, more a tribute to man than God.

The famous oil painting located behind the altar in the Trinity College Chapel at the University of Cambridge is St Michael binding Satan, painted in 1768 by the prominent Anglo-American artist Benjamin West.

King Charles III studied at Trinity from 1967-1970 and became the first heir apparent to earn a university degree when he graduated in 1970. Trinity College, Cambridge, has produced about 34  Nobel laureates, the highest number of any Oxford or Cambridge college.

 Trinity was the academic home to Sir Isaac Newton, who lived and worked there for decades, as well as legendary figures like Francis Bacon, Bertrand Russell, and Tennyson.

One of my favorites from Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, King Arthur, on his deathbed voices to his friend some profound thoughts on prayer;

” Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.”

I’ve come to learn that Trinity had a scholar that I would most be honored to know, Thomas Bilney.

Thomas Bilney first found forgiveness through a translation of the Bible done by Erasmus. As Thomas grew in faith, he studied the writings of William Tyndale, and Thomas spoke out every chance he got—He preached that every man had a right to read the Scriptures in his own language. In 1531, Thomas was burned at the stake.

Thomas Bilney: the forgotten hero of the English Reformation.  

Thomas Bilney: The Flame Shall Not Kindle Upon Thee

Bilney Day in Norfolk

I learn as much as I can before we travel to a new part of the world. It is more of a general overview with thoughts about what we should see and do. Once we visit the sights and we come home, I learn even more while working on our Travel Journal.

There is always more to learn about any given college or historical site but this is all I’m sharing today. I was happy to have had this tour to start out our day of this and that in Cambridge.

Thank you for traveling along with us as I journal our traveling days.

Cambridge – Tuesday March 10th

Our travel journal of our time in Cambridge continues here from March 2026.

It was nice to enjoy our French press coffee on this morning before we headed out for breakfast at The Copper Kettle on King’s Parade in Cambridge.

It was a lovely morning and I took some photos along the way to breakfast.

We would sign up for a tour of Trinity College later in the week.

Looking out the window of the Copper Kettle.

I’ve never met a scone I didn’t like.

Greg went for the full English.

The Views from breakfast were lovely. This is the college and especially the chapel that would be part of our tour on this day.

This cafe was used in some of the filming for Grantchester. (Possibly as a tea-room?)

After breakfast we met up with our alumni tour guide and group for a 2 hour tour that would include King’s Chapel.

St Bene’t’s church on Bene’t’s street was one of our stops.

St Bene’t’s has been a place of Christian prayer and worship for nearly a thousand years. The exact date is in dispute; estimates vary between the tenth century and the reign of Edward the Confessor, but there are good grounds for placing it in the reign of King Canute about the year 1020. More history at this link.

St. Catharine’s College.

We continued on Silver Street to Queen’s college where the famous Mathematical Bridge spans the River Cam. I was chuckling here as I remembered the new quirky Ludwig murder series filmed in Cambridge. One of the episodes featured the bridge, the building on the left which is part of Queen’s college and a chapel. Have you watched the series. I highly recommend it.

The bridge was designed in 1748 by William Etheridge (1709–76), and was built in 1749 by James Essex the Younger (1722–84). It has subsequently been repaired in 1866 and rebuilt to the same design in 1905. More info here.

We continued on Silver Street to Queen Street on ‘the backs’ with some nice views of King’s College Chapel.

This is Trinity College Bridge.

St. John’s with the clock tower without an actual clock.

This bridge might be the Kitchen Bridge.

Working our way back to the King’s Parade to King’s College where our tour began and would end except for those of us who paid extra to go into King’s College to be able to visit King’s College Chapel.

The Chapel deserves a post of it’s own and that will come on another day.

The Wren Library

Cambridge is a town that affords you many great architectural treats. On our way to the Wren Library which is part of Trinity College we enjoyed many. This day was still Monday March 9th and our first full day in Cambridge.

There is a lot of history in this library and many important documents. If you are interested you can read more here.

A detailed description of the window can be found here.

A.A. Milne attended Trinity college and some original manuscripts from Winnie the Pooh are featured in the Wren Library. Some interesting reading here.

This was a beautiful day in Cambridge and we enjoyed some views at the back of Trinity and other colleges, too.

A view of the Wren from the Backs.

A view of St. John’s college.

They have a claim to fame of C.S. Lewis visiting here during his time in Cambridge.

They also claim to be the oldest pub.

We had our last meal of the day at the Mitre.

Love the signs of spring we are seeing…

So this was Monday and we had 4 more full days in Cambridge. It will take lots of posts to cover everything we have seen and experienced. Today, Thursday the 12th of March, was a very blustery day. The kind of wind that moved you along. We still had sunshine break through. Our weather here has been fabulous with no rain so far. Time will tell if we get rained upon. Thank you, friends, for following along with us.