Everything about Huntingdon totally explained
Huntingdon is a town in the county of
Cambridgeshire in
East Anglia,
England. The town was
chartered in
1205, and celebrated its
800th anniversary in 2005
. It was formerly the
county town of
Huntingdonshire, and is currently the seat of the Huntingdonshire
district council. It is known as the birthplace of
Oliver Cromwell.
History
Very early man may have roamed the area, but doesn't appear to have settled for long nor in great numbers. Signs of early hunter-gatherers have been found nearby.
Huntingdon was founded by the
Anglo-Saxons and
Danes. It prospered successively as a bridging point of the
River Great Ouse, as a market town, and in the 18th and 19th centuries as a
coaching centre. The town has
a well-preserved medieval bridge that used to serve as the main route of
Ermine Street over the river. The bridge only ceased to be the sole crossing point to
Godmanchester in
1975, with the advent of what is now the
A14 bypass.
Its valuable trading position was secured by the now-vanished
Huntingdon Castle. The site is now a
Scheduled Ancient Monument, and is home to a
beacon used to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the
Spanish Armada.
The
Huntingdon constituency has been represented by two exceptionally famous members of parliament:
Oliver Cromwell in the
17th century and
John Major in the
20th. It is currently represented by
Conservative MP Jonathan Djanogly.
Original historical documents relating to Huntingdon, including the original borough
charter of
1205, are held by
Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at the County Record Office Huntingdon.
Area
The town lies on the north bank of the
River Great Ouse, opposite
Godmanchester and adjacent to the market town of
St Ives in the east and the village of
Brampton in the west. Huntingdon now incorporates the
village of
Hartford to the east, and the developing areas of Oxmoor, Stukeley Meadows and Hinchingbrooke to the north and west.
Between Godmanchester, Huntingdon and
Brampton lies England's largest
meadow, Portholme Meadow
(External Link). Around 257 acres (1 km²) in size and contains many rare species of grass, flowers and
dragonfly. It is the only known habitat of the Marsh Dandelion in Britain. It also acts as a huge natural reservoir for holding excess water in times of flood enabling the river to be run off more slowly, thereby helping to prevent flooding of nearby towns. It has also served as a horse race course and centre for early aviation.
There is a local Horseracing Course,
Huntingdon Racecourse.
There are 3
RAF bases within 4 miles of the town:
RAF Brampton, once home to Headquarters
RAF Support Command and now part of the
Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO);
RAF Wyton, once a major flying station but now also part of the DLO; and
RAF Alconbury currently occupied by the
United States Air Force.
There are four
Church of England churches in Huntingdon, which together with the churches in the adjacent villages Great and Little Stukeley are members of the
Huntingdon Team Ministry in the
Diocese of Ely. The four churches are All Saints' (next to the Market Square), St Mary, St Barnabas (on the Oxmoor estate) and All Saints',
Hartford.
Local Primary schools include
Thongsley Fields Primary School,
St John's Primary School,
Stukeley Meadows Primary School and
Hartford Junior School. Special needs schools include
Spring Common School. Secondary schools include
St Peters and
Hinchingbrooke School.
Notoriety
- Regular animal rights protests take place outside the local Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratory. Huntingdon Life Sciences is one of the world's largest Contract Research Organisations. Founded in 1952 in the UK, the company is now an international business with resources on three continents. Originally the company concentrated upon nutrition, veterinary and biochemical research.
A photograph of the Cash Converters store in Huntingdon features on the front cover of the book Crap Towns 2.
Transport
Rail
Huntingdon and St Neots stations are connected with London Kings Cross station by a frequent service operated by First Capital Connect.
Huntingdon is connected to Peterborough station by First Capital Connect, and then on to the North and Scotland by National Express East Coast.
Air
Luton and Stansted airports are both within an hour's drive.
Leisure
The District of Huntingdonshire has 5 leisure centres, all of which boast impressive facilities. Huntingdon has two King George's Fields in memorial to King George V.
Legends
Once a convent, Hinchingbrooke House is said to be haunted. The bridge over the Alconbury Brook named Nun's bridge is said to be haunted also by one of the nuns which once lived at the old convent that's now Hinchingbrooke House. It's said she's often accompanied by another ghost which resembles the appearance of a nurse. The myth goes that the nun had a lover, a monk that caused them to be murdered. In 1965 a married couple reported seeing the ghosts on the bridge, and again when they returned home the same night.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Huntingdon'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://huntingdon.totallyexplained.com">Huntingdon Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
