Place:Huntingdon, Huntingdonshire, England

Watchers
NameHuntingdon
Alt namesHuntingdonsource: from redirect
Huntedonesource: Domesday Book (1985) p 141
Huntedunsource: Domesday Book (1985) p 141
TypeBorough, Borough (municipal)
Coordinates52.331°N 0.183°W
Located inHuntingdonshire, England     ( - 1961)
Also located inHuntingdon and Peterborough, England     (1965 - 1974)
Cambridgeshire, England     (1974 - )
See alsoHurstingstone Hundred, Huntingdonshire, Englandhundred in which it was located
Huntingdon and Godmanchester, Huntingdon, Englandboroughs were merged 1961-1965
Huntingdonshire District, Cambridgeshire, Englanddistrict municipality of which it has been part since 1974


the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Huntingdon is a market town and an ancient borough located since 1974 in Cambridgeshire, England. It was the traditional county town of the former county of Huntingdonshire and is now the seat of the Huntingdonshire District Council.

The town was chartered by King John in 1205. It is well known as the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell, who was born in 1599 and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the town in the 17th century. The former Conservative Prime Minister (1990–1997) John Major served as the MP for Huntingdon from 1979 until his retirement in 2001.

History

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Huntingdon was founded by the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. It is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 921, where it appears as "Huntandun". It appears as "Huntedun" in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name means "The huntsman's hill" or possibly "Hunta's hill".

It seems that Huntingdon was a staging post for Danish raids outside of East Anglia until 917, when the Danes moved to Tempsford in Bedfordshire, before they were crushed by Edward the Elder (c. 874–924). 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, most notably with the George Hotel. 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.

Image:Huntingdon.png

The town's valuable trading position was secured by Huntingdon Castle, of which only the earthworks of its motte survive.

Original documents on Huntingdon's history, including the borough charter of 1205, are held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at the County Record Office, Huntingdon.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Huntingdon.

Ecclesiastical Parishes

Huntingdon included a great many churches each with its own parish in mediavel times, but Bishops Transcripts are only available for four of them (Huntingdon St. John, Huntingdon St. Mary, Huntingdon All Saints and Huntingdon St. Benedict). It must be assumed that the remainder of the churches were small or fell down and their parishoners moved to surviving churches. The four churches with Bishops Transcripts remained into the 19th century. Each became a civil parish from 1866 until 1921 when the county borough administration took over this part of their authority.

Huntingdon in the late 19th century

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Huntingdon from John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles of 1887:

"HUNTINGDON.-- [municipal borough] and [county] town of Huntingdonshire, on left bank of river Ouse (which connects it with the port of Lynn), 19 miles S. of Peterborough and 59 N. of London, 1116 acres, population 4228; 2 Banks. Market-day, Saturday; is the Huntantun of the Saxons. The Roman road, Ermine Street, passes through the town, which is connected with Godmanchester by a bridge. Huntingdon has large breweries, carriage works, and mfrs. of patent perforated bricks; while there is also a considerable trade in agricultural produce, seeds, wool, and timber. Famous nurseries for trees, shrubs, flowers, and plants of every description are in the neighbourhood. Huntingdon was the birth-place of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658). Huntingon returned 1 member to Parliament until 1885."

Research Tips

  • Original historical documents relating to Huntingdonshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS
  • The Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Family History Society has transcribed the parish registers for all the ancient parishes of Huntingdonshire and these can be purchased from the Society as pdfs.
  • A History of the County of Huntingdon in 3 volumes from British History Online (Victoria County Histories). This is by far the most complete history of the parishes of the county to be found online. The chapters are ordered by the divisions of the county called hundreds, but each chapter is linked to the volume's content page. Volume 2 (published 1932) covers Hurstingstone and Toseland hundreds (index of parishes); Leightonstone and Norman Cross Hundreds (index of parishes) are found in Volume 3 (published 1936). Volume 1 is a part-volume describing the religious houses of the county.
  • GENUKI has a page on Huntingdonshire and pages for each of the ecclesiastical or ancient parishes in the county. These give references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area.
  • The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions.
  • Map of Huntingdonshire divisions in 1888 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
  • Map of Huntingdonshire divisions in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Huntingdon. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.