Inside, the Church is filled with history. The timber roof is said to have been built with the donation of one hundred oak trees by King Henry VII. The quarter-hour Cambridge Chimes, composed in 1793, are particularly famous, having been copied for London’s very own Big Ben. It’s a long-standing tradition that all students should live within three miles of Great St Mary’s and within the sound of those bells. In the past, the church was used not only for worship but also graduations, exams and meetings.

If you pay the small fee to climb the 123 steps to the top of the bell tower you will get a magnificent view of Cambridge city centre and beyond, and it is a great way of getting a feel for the layout of the place and to spot a College or twenty.

A buzzing, cosmopolitan city, Cambridge celebrates a great diversity of faiths, cultures and religions. Whether your faith represents a small or large part of your life, you can be reassured that all mainstream religions and cultures have a student society or group here. Colleges make sure religious needs are catered for within their dining halls, as well as providing facilities for prayer. As well as this, there is a multi-faith chaplaincy centre and an active Faiths Forum, accommodating the needs of all religions and beliefs, and maintaining strong inter-faith relations.