Huntingdon
:
This article is about the English town of Huntingdon. For other uses, see Huntingdon (disambiguation).
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.
Very early man may have roamed the area, but does not 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
Castle Hills on its site are now a
Scheduled Ancient Monument, and are home to a
beacon 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.
The town lies on the
River Great Ouse, not far from the market towns of
St Neots and
St Ives. The
village of
Hartford lies just to the east.
It has the largest
meadow in England, Portholme Meadow. 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.
There is a local Horseracing Course,
Huntingdon Racecourse.
RAF Molesworth is a
Royal Air Force military base with a history dating back to 1917. It is one of three bases in Cambridgeshire currently occupied by the
United States Air Force; the others are
RAF Alconbury and
RAF Upwood.
* 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.
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 the
Great North Eastern Railway.
Air
The airports of
Luton,
Stansted,
Heathrow and
Gatwick are all within a convenient drive.
Bus
National Express runs a fast, efficient service.
The Borough of Huntingdonshire has 5 leisure centres, all of which boast impressive facilities. Huntindon has two
King George's Fields in memorial to
King George VOnce a convent Hinchingbroke 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 is now Hinchingbroke house. Its said she is 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.
*
Earl of Huntingdon*
Population figures* http://www.huntingdon-racecourse.co.uk/
* http://www.huntingdon-town.info/
