Summary

Newton is famous for his discovery of gravity following a visit to his mother's garden during his Cambridge days in the late 1660s. He observed an apple fall from a tree and then began to consider the mechanism that drove the apple towards the earth, that is now named gravity. The apple tree outside Trinity College is of the “Flower of Kent” variety and a grafted descendant of the original tree where the discovery was made, at the home of Sir Isaac Newton's mother in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. It was planted at Trinity College, the college he attended, to commemorate his famous discovery. We’ve a funny song to commemorate Isaac Newton’s discovery of gravity!

Story

This history trail is narrated by the poet Michael Rosen, with script researched by Helen Weinstein and the team at Historyworks. This recording is part of a series of Cambridge history trails which have lyrics inspired by 'history beneath our feat' performed by local schoolchildren, with poems by the top poet Michael Rosen and songs by the funny team at CBBC's songwriters commissioned by Historyworks. 

On a warm evening in 1666, just after dinner, the soon to be famous Issaac Newton sat down beneath this tree outside of Trinity to mull over his thoughts, when all of a sudden he was struck on the top of his head by a large, red apple. ‘Eureka’, he cried, and gravity was discovered. As entertaining as this tale is, Newton was not struck on the head by an apple and he was not underneath this tree. In fact, no such tree existed in Cambridge at the time. But in just half a century, this grand myth was woven by his admirers from its original simple story. This tree is a grafted descendant of the original one at the home of Sir Isaac Newton's mother in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. On a visit to his mother's garden during his Cambridge days in the late 1660s, he observed a red apple fall from a tree and only then began to consider the mechanism that drove what is now termed gravity. However a tree can be found at Trinity College, the college he attended, to commemorate Newton’s famous discovery.

I’ve written a poem about Newton going to Cambridge Fair to buy books and prisms to help him with his experiments (which  poem you can watch me perform on film on the website). My poem is called ‘As I Was Going to Stourbridge Fair - Newton, Apple Pie, Prisms or Prisons…’. 

Dave Cohen, the CBBC’s Horrible Histories songwriter composed a round called ‘One Red Apple’ to remember Newton’s gravity discovery!

ONE RED APPLE (To the tune of 10 Green Bottles)

One red apple falling to the ground
This was something Isaac Newton found
And he said if apples, fall straight down to the ground
Then it must be gravity pulling them southbound.