At each stop on the walk there will be a story and an activity. Worksheets for children to use during the walk need to be downloaded and printed off at school and brought with you.
Stop 1 | Stop 2 |Stop 3 | Stop 4 |Stop 5 | Stop 6
Story Six: Thomas Hobson (1544–1630)
St Bene’t’s
This stop takes place at St Ben’t’s and explains the life of Thomas Hobson who was buried at St Bene’t’s nearly 400 years ago. Thomas could see some of the problems of town life, one of these being water. The local water was so dirty that people drank a kind of weak beer and disease was a problem because of the King’s Ditch, used to dispose of rubbish. He got together with some other people and they paid for Hobson’s Conduit to be built, which was a series of channels that brought clean running water into Cambridge from the Ninewells spring near Great Shelford. It was used to flush out the King’s Ditch and there was a pump in the market square, where people could fill up bottles and jugs.
Children will see a money belt and can take part in an activity to look at the things we use water for and think about those that are essential to life and the things we don’t really need.
Background information for teachers