During the Roman Empire, in 274, a massive coin hoard dating to the reign of Tetricus I and Roman Emperor Aurelian was hidden in the grounds of the town. Consisting of 9,724 Roman coins, and discovered in 2018, the Muddy Hoard is considered to date the largest treasure trove of Cambridgeshire.[3][4]
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".[5]
Huntingdon seems to have been a staging post for Danish raids outside East Anglia until 917, when the Danes moved to Tempsford, now in Bedfordshire, before they were crushed by Edward the Elder. It prospered successively as a bridging point of the River Great Ouse, a market town, and in the 18th and 19th centuries a coaching centre, notably at 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 building of what is now the A1307 (formerly A14) bypass.
In 1746, the nurserymen Wood and Ingram of nearby Brampton developed an elm-tree cultivar, Ulmus × hollandica 'Vegeta', which they named the Huntingdon Elm after the town.[6]
Parts of Huntingdon, including the centre, were struck by an F1/T3 tornado on 23 November 1981, during a record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.[8] The centre suffered moderate damage.
Between the railway station and the old hospital building, stands a replica cannon installed in the 1990s to replace one from the Crimean War, scrapped for the war effort in the Second World War. However, it faces in the opposite direction from the original. St Mary's Street drill hall was built in the late 19th century.[9]
George Hotel
The George Hotel on the corner of High Street and George Street was once a posting house. It was named after Saint George of England in 1574 and bought some 25 years later by Henry Cromwell, grandfather of Oliver Cromwell.[2]Charles I made the George his headquarters in 1645. Later the highwayman Dick Turpin is said to have been a customer when it was a coaching inn on the Great North Road. A theatre was built to the rear of the George in about 1799. The Lincoln company of actors managed by Thomas Shaftoe Robertson and later Fanny Robertson performed here in race weeks.[10] Two wings of the inn burnt down in the mid-19th century, but two were saved, including one with a balcony overlooking the yard. Since 1959, the courtyard and balcony have been used for Shakespeare performances by a company run by the Shakespeare at the George Trust. Until 2024 when the Green King company who run the George Hotel decided it was not in their best interest to continue Shakespeare at the George, ending its 65-year run.[11]
Government
Huntingdon welcome sign
Huntingdon has a town council with 19 councillors elected every four years.[12] Two of them serve also as mayor and deputy mayor.[13] Meetings are normally held once a month at Huntingdon Town Hall.[14]
Huntingdonshire District Council has three wards: Huntingdon North, Huntingdon East and Huntingdon West.[15] The three wards each have two councillors.[16] The main offices of Huntingdonshire District Council are in Huntingdon itself.
The third tier of local government is Cambridgeshire County Council providing county-wide services such as roads, education, social services, libraries and heritage protection.[17] Huntingdon is one of 60 electoral divisions,[15] represented by two county councillors.[18]
The town lies on the north bank of the River Great Ouse opposite Godmanchester and close to the market town of St Ives to the east and the village of Brampton to the west. Huntingdon 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 Portholme Meadow, England's largest.[20] Its 257 acres (104 hectares) contain many rare species of grass, flowers and dragonfly. It is the only known British habitat of the marsh dandelion. It acts as a natural reservoir for water in times of flood, enabling the river to run off slowly, so helping to preclude flooding in nearby towns. It has also served as a horse racecourse and once was a centre for aviation.
Business
Huntingdon is home to many local businesses, including Huntingdon Racecourse. Hinchingbrooke Business Park also contains offices and warehouses.
Climate
The nearest weather station for long-term data is at RAF Wyton, 3 mi (5 km) north-east of the town centre. More recently Monks Wood, 5 mi (8 km) to the north-west, has also provided data.
Like most of Britain, Huntingdon has a temperate, maritime climate free of temperature extremes, with rainfall spread fairly evenly over the year. The absolute maximum recorded at Wyton was 35.4 °C (95.7 °F)[21] in August 1990; the temperature at Monks Wood rose in July 2006 to 35.1 °C (95.2 °F).[22] The mean annual warmest day is 29.7 °C (85.5 °F),[23] and on 16 days a year will rise to 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above.[24]
Typically 43.2 nights of the year report an air frost.[25] The absolute minimum at Wyton was −16.1 °C (3.0 °F)[26] in January 1982. The mean for the annual coldest night of the year is −7.7 °C (18.1 °F).[27]
With annual rainfall at under 550 millimetres (21+1⁄2 inches) a year,[28] the Huntingdon area is among the driest in the UK—103.4 days on average record at least 1 mm of rain.[29] All averages mentioned refer to the period 1971–2000.
Between 1801 and 1901, the current area of Huntingdon consisted of four parishes: Huntingdon All Saints, Huntingdon St Benedict, Huntingdon St John and Huntingdon St Mary. The populations of these were counted in the ten-year UK census and ranged in the period between 2,368 in 1801 and 4,735 in 1891.[31] (The census was omitted in 1941.)
Parish
1911
1921
1931
1951
1961
1971
1981
1991
2001
2011
Huntingdon
4,464
4,644
4,570
5,282
14,648
15,451
20,099
23,732
All population census figures are taken from the report Historic Census figures Cambridgeshire to 2011 by Cambridgeshire Insight.[31] For the censuses of 1961 and 1971, Huntingdon was combined with Godmanchester.
In 2011, the parish covered an area of 2,765 acres (1,119 hectares).[31] The population density in that year was 5,493.1 inhabitants per square mile (2,120.9 inhabitants per square kilometre).
Hinchingbrooke House, once a convent, is said to be haunted. The bridge over the Alconbury Brook named Nun's Bridge is said also to be haunted, by one of the nuns who once lived at the convent.[32] She is said often to be accompanied by another ghost that resembles a nurse. The myth goes that the nun had a monk lover who caused them to be murdered.
Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia. Television signals are received from the Sandy Heath TV transmitter.[33]
The Hunts Post is the town's local weekly newspaper.[35]
Education
The local primary schools are Hartford Junior School, Huntingdon Primary School, Thongsley Fields Primary School, St John's Primary School, Stukeley Meadows Primary School and Cromwell Academy Primary School. Spring Common School is a special-needs school. Secondary schools include St Peter's School and Hinchingbrooke School. Further education colleges include Huntingdonshire Regional College, Hinchingbrooke School sixth-form college and St Peter's sixth form.
Bus services are operated primarily by Stagecoach East and Whippet. Routes serve the town, including Hinchingbrooke Hospital, and connect Huntingdon with Peterborough, St Neots, Ramsey, St Ives and Cambridge.[37]
Air
Luton and Stansted airports are located within 40 miles (64 km) of the town.
Religious sites
All Saints' Church, from Market Square
There are four Church of England churches in Huntingdon; once there were more, which together with those in the adjacent villages Great and Little Stukeley are members of the Huntingdon Team Ministry[38] in the Diocese of Ely. The four are All Saints' (next to the Market Square), St Mary's (opposite Pathfinder House), St Barnabas (on the Oxmoor estate) and All Saints', Hartford.
Huntingdon Methodist Church is in the High Street.[39] Medway Christian Fellowship is based on Medway Road.[40]
^Museum, The British; Street, Great Russell; T: +4420 73238618, London WC1B 3DG. "Record ID: CAM-A0ECFB - ROMAN hoard". The Portable Antiquities Scheme. Retrieved 22 September 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p. 258.
^Louis John Drake. Wood and Ingram: A Huntingdonshire Nursery 1742-1950.
^"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 23 December 2008. Retrieved 30 March 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)cambridgeshire.gov.uk
