Nature in Cambridgeshire
Published in association with the Cambridge Natural History Society

The Beginning

According to the First Annual Report of Cambridgeshire & Isle of Ely Naturalists' Trust (14 June 1957):

'Plans have been made for a publication by the Trust supported by Cambridge Natural History Society to contain, in addition to the annual reports and other material of the Trust and the Natural History Society, a number of notes and articles on natural history in Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely' (1: 9)

Nature in Cambridgeshire is the result of those plans (see History)

A motto for the journal was suggested by the first Editor, Philip Hall, in his first editorial:

Inveniet quod quisque velit; non omnibus unum est, quod placet; hic spinas colligit, ille rosas. (Petronius)

(Each shall find what he desires; no one thing pleases all; one gathers thorns, another roses.)

The idea is that natural history encompasses so many areas of interest, from botany through zoology, geology, archaeology and more, that the journal needs to appeal to all.

Where is Cambridgeshire?

On the face of it this might seem a rather silly question but there is a reason for it. In the context of Nature in Cambridgeshire the area covered by the name is not the modern administrative county of Cambridgeshire.

The title of the journal actually refers to the Watsonian vice county of Cambridgeshire (vice county 29). The vice-counties were introduced by Hewett Cottrell Watson in 1852 and are used largely for the purposes of biological recording and other scientific data-gathering. The vice-counties remain unchanged by subsequent administrative reorganisations, allowing historical and modern data to be more accurately compared.

The modern administrative county of Cambridgeshire includes the old county of Huntingdonshire (vice county 31) and has lost a part of vice county 29 to the Unitary Authority of Peterborough.

Modern County of Cambridgeshire (Blue)


Cambridgeshire: Vice-County 29 (Yellow) &
Huntingdonshire: Vice-County 31 (Red)

Maps Crown Copyright from National Biodiversity Network website