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.

History

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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.

Area

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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.

Notoriety

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• 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

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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.

Leisure

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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 V

See also

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• Earl of Huntingdon

References

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• Population figures
• http://www.huntingdon-racecourse.co.uk/
• http://www.huntingdon-town.info/

Towns on the River Great Ouse | Towns in Cambridgeshire | Huntingdonshire | English county towns | King George's Field

Huntingdon | Huntingdon (Angleterre) | Huntingdon