During the academic year of 2007-08 the young people attending Red2Green's Aspirations programme (for those with autistic spectrum conditions) investigated the influence that "Town" and "Gown" had on each other in the city of Cambridge. This was made possible thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

We started by focusing on the origin of the university, the riots and influential people who attended the university. We made a timeline of the growth of the university from the times of Peterhouse in 1284 to New Hall's change of name to Murray Edwards following a three million pound donation in 2008. We also looked at who could attend the university, when women were able to gain formal qualifications, and when colleges became mixed sex.

We looked at the cause of ill feeling between the city and the university, but also over the years how one has supported the other in terms of work opportunities and culture.

For example, we discovered that:

• the original site of Addenbrooke's hospital was paid by a bequest of £4,500 to the city by John Addenbrooke who attended St Catharine's college;
• the Fitzwilliam Museum was born out of a bequest by Viscount Fitzwilliam of Dublin, who attended Trinity Hall, of his library and art collection;
• the origin of the term "Hobson's Choice" relates to Thomas Hobson, and how he benefited from the university students and what he gave to the city - Hobson's Conduit to bring fresh water to the city.

During the time spent investigating Town and Gown we made diversions when we discovered different interests. We spent some time looking at the diversity of the residents in the city, many over the years having either attended, or worked at the university and then settled here. This has influenced the many varied types of eating houses found in and around the city and has given rise to the diverse and colourful culture experienced by city dwellers, university students and visitors to our beautiful city of Cambridge.

By choosing a project of local heritage it has given the staff and volunteers the opportunity to support the Aspirations learners to work together (a task which many find very difficult). It has given learners the chance to learn about their local community and how it has developed into the exciting place that they now live in. They have visited places of interest which they did not know existed, and have also gained the confidence to use public transport to do this. Interestingly, it has also given us the chance to explore around the topic, and learners took part in a dig near Great Shelford, where they found pieces of pottery dating from 150 years to over 600 years ago.

Overall, the project has been so successful that some learners have said they would like to continue their studies to discover their family trees to see if their lives cross over with each other, or if their ancestors came to Cambridge from elsewhere.