Skip to content
16651665–1687 · Woolsthorpe Manor and Cambridge

Isaac Newton and the Principia

Woolsthorpe Manor, the limestone farmhouse in Lincolnshire where Isaac Newton was born
Photo: DeFacto. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

When plague closed Cambridge in 1665, the young Isaac Newton went home to Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire, where he worked on calculus, light and gravity; the apple tree in its orchard is said to have set him thinking. Back at Trinity College he wrote the Principia, published in 1687, which set out the laws of motion and universal gravitation. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Woolsthorpe Manor, near GranthamNewton's birthplace farmhouse, his study and the apple tree in the orchard.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Trinity College, CambridgeGreat Court, where he lived and worked, and his statue in the chapel.Map ↗
  3. Site 3: Westminster AbbeyNewton's monument and grave at the entrance to the choir.Map ↗

Guides who take you there

History-only · order never for sale
We haven't found an independent history guide for this yet. Guide here? Tell us about your tours.

Also in London

More from the Renaissance & Early Modern

Read more: reference. Summary written by History-Tours.com.