Tourists and students often travel from Cambridge by punt to eat a picnic in the meadows or at a Tea Garden called The Orchard. In 1897 a group of Cambridge students persuaded the owner of Orchard House to serve them tea, and this became a regular practice. Lodgers at Orchard House included the poet Rupert Brooke, who later moved next door to the Old Vicarage. In 1912, while in Berlin, he would write his well-known poem The Old Vicarage, Grantchester. The Old Vicarage is presently the home of Lord Archer of Weston-Super-Mare.
The footpath from Cambridge to Grantchester that runs beside Grantchester Meadows is nicknamed the Grantchester Grind.
Further upstream is Byron's Pool, named after Lord Byron who is said (by Brooke, at least) to have swum there. The pool is now below a modern weir at the junction of the Bourn Brook and the River Cam.