Hobson's Conduit, also called Hobson's Brook, is a watercourse that was built from 1610 to 1614 by Thomas Hobson and others to bring fresh water into the city of Cambridge, England from springs at Nine Wells, a Local Nature Reserve, near the village of Great Shelford. It is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument and historical relic. The watercourse currently runs overground until Cambridge University Botanic Garden and Brookside, where it is at its widest. At the corner of Lensfield Road stands a hexagonal monument to Hobson, which once formed part of the market square fountain, and was moved to this location in 1856, after a fire in the Market. The flow of water runs under Lensfield Road, and subsequently runs along both sides of Trumpington Street in broad gutters towards Peterhouse and St Catharine's College, and also St Andrew's Street. The conduit currently ends at Silver Street.
Hobson's Conduit as it runs alongside Cambridge University Botanic Garden on Trumpington Road.
1841 engraving showing the original Market fountain
Monument to the conduit at Nine Wells
Spring at Nine Wells that feeds the conduit
Thomas Hobson (postal carrier)
Thomas Hobson was an English carrier, best known as the origin of the expression Hobson's choice.
1629 portrait of Thomas Hobson, from the National Portrait Gallery
The reerected Hobson's Conduit fountain head beside Lensfield Road