Chesterton was then a village on the north bank of the River Cam, about two miles north of Cambridge's city centre, where Springfield Road ran parallel to Milton Road to the west.[2] William Stearn's early education was at the nearby Milton Road Junior Council School (see image).[lower-alpha 1] Despite not having any family background in science (though he recalled that his grandfather was the university rat-catcher)[5] he developed a keen interest in natural history and books at an early age.