About this site

Pipes & Heat in Old Cambridge is a publication about water, pipes and heating in older homes in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire: terraces and Victorian houses, very hard water, boilers and heat pumps, listed buildings and conservation areas, flood risk, lead pipes, and duties in student and shared lets.

It is not a plumber or heating engineer. It takes no calls and books no work, and has no connection with any local plumbing or heating firm with a similar name. The front page is laid out in columns because that suits a lot of short headlines; this is a website, not a newspaper, and it has no reporters.

How pages are put together

Each page is compiled mainly from the official sources listed at its end: the Drinking Water Inspectorate, the Health and Safety Executive, GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk, Ofgem, Greater Cambridge planning, the two Cambridge councils, Cambridgeshire County Council, WaterSafe and CCW. Sources were read on 4 November 2026, the date shown on each page. No page reports tests, site visits or interviews, because none were done.

What it could not read

Several organisations' websites could not be opened when these pages were compiled: Cambridge Water, Anglian Water, Gas Safe Register, National Gas, Historic England, Ofwat and the Energy Saving Trust. Pages tell you when to ask them directly, and nothing here is taken from those sites, apart from films some of them publish on YouTube. So there is no company hardness figure on this site, and no performance figure for heat pumps in solid-wall houses.

Before you act

Gas work is for a Gas Safe registered engineer. In a listed building or conservation area, the council decides. Rules change, so check the source link. Rented homes, flood and health questions depend on your own situation, and these pages are general information, not legal or medical advice.

Links to four US businesses appear on some pages; who runs this site explains why.