First, as to the site of the University. About the end of the eleventh century, Cambridge was little more than a village concentrated round St Peter's church, having separate hamlets in its vicinity, one near St Benet's church and the other at Newnham: at that time there was nothing to suggest the likelihood of its being chosen by students as a place where they might live and work in security. During the next century, however, it became of considerable importance. This was due to several causes. The chief of these were the castle erected in it by William the Conqueror to overawe the fen-men; its geographical location which gave it command of the river passage by which most of the traffic between the midlands and the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk went; its position as a port of entry for small sea-going vessels coming from Lynn, of which a relic still survives in a bonded warehouse on the banks of the Cam; its vicinity to Sturbridge common on which came to be held one of the chief annual fairs in the kingdom; and lastly the establishment here of the large monastic Houses of the Augustin Canons, of the Brethren of St John's Hospital, and of the Nuns of St Rhadegund: it would seem also that it became[32], maybe under the authority of the secular canons of St Giles, the seat of a grammar-school or schools. By 1200 the town had spread from castle-end to where Christ's, Peterhouse, and Queens' now stand, and along the east side of the river there were numerous small wharves, locally known as hythes. The writs of Henry I and Henry II and the charter of John bear witness to its importance in their reigns, but later this tended to diminish relatively to other towns. The Universities of Cambridge and Oxford were initiated near the end of the twelfth century, both arising in towns free from disorder and where accommodation for students was obtainable. It was a time when men of scholarly tastes, especially those resident in religious houses, were conscious of their ignorance of recent developments in theology as set out by Peter Lombard and in canon law, and were keen to study these subjects and scholastic logic. Schools to meet these needs arose in Cambridge and Oxford and became permanent. Like centres of instruction were established in other places, but for one reason or another did not survive long as degree-granting corporations.