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History of Huntingdon
Evidence for Huntingdon's origins is sparse. An Iron Age settlement
has been found by archaeologists at Hinchingbrooke, but other than
that there is little evidence of people living in the Huntingdon
area. The main Roman town was Godmanchester, so it is unlikely that
Huntingdon would have grown to any significant size during this
period. The first mention of the town in a historical document is
in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, which refers to it as a ‘porte’
or market town. According to the Chronicle, Huntingdon was the main
centre of Viking activity in the area. King Edward the Elder, son
of Alfred the Great, successfully attacked the town in 921 and drove
out the Vikings. He made Huntingdon the centre of its own administrative
county. At this time Huntingdon was issuing its own money from the
town mint. There is also archaeological evidence that the Saxons
may have built a Minster at Huntingdon as well.
By the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, Huntingdon had 256 Burgesses
and a population of around 2,000 people. William the Conqueror had
ordered a castle to be built in Huntingdon – a typical wooden
motte and bailey structure built in a commanding position overlooking
the river. However, when William the Lion, King of Scotland and
Earl of Huntingdon, rebelled against the Crown in 1174, Henry II
himself came to Huntingdon, besieged the castle and ordered it to
be destroyed. It was never rebuilt.
Huntingdon was granted its first charter by King John in 1205, which
confirmed its borough status and allowed a weekly market. Nevertheless
Huntingdon fell into economic decline during the Middle Ages, caused
by the strength of competition from neighbouring towns like St Ives
and Godmanchester. The coming of the Black Death to Huntingdon in
1348 almost finished off the town. Most of Huntingdon's sixteen
mediaeval churches fell into disrepair or disappeared completely.
When the English antiquarian and topographer John Leland visited
Huntingdon during the 1530s he noted just four churches left in
the borough.
Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s threatened
the economy of many towns, but the wealth of institutions like Ramsey
Abbey passed into private hands and created a new secular aristocracy.
The Cromwell family were the main beneficiaries in Huntingdonshire,
and they made their home at Hinchingbrooke, on the site of the former
nunnery. The Cromwells were high in the favour of the crown, particularly
after the lavish entertainment offered to King James I at Hinchingbrooke
on his royal progress south in 1603.
It was a minor member of the Cromwell family, Oliver, born in Huntingdon
in 1599, who was to become the town’s most famous son. He
took part in the town's political life, and was elected MP for Huntingdon
in 1626, but he became embroiled in a bitter political dispute over
the proposal for a new royal charter which would have ended the
need for elections in the town. King Charles I went ahead and granted
Huntingdon its anti-democratic new charter in 1630. Cromwell sold
much of his property in Huntingdon and moved to St Ives in the following
year. When he returned to his birthplace in 1643 it was as a colonel
in the Parliamentary army.
Huntingdon saw some military activity during the Civil War. On 24th
August 1645 a Royalist force took the town after a short skirmish.
King Charles I himself entered Huntingdon, but he and his army left
on 26th August as a Parliamentary force approached, before any serious
fighting could begin. A few years later the King was dead and Oliver
Cromwell was ruling the country in his place.
The town we see today is largely a Georgian creation. Huntingdon
prospered in the eighteenth century due to its advantageous position
as a coaching stop on the turnpike road north from London. Huntingdon’s
inns flourished and the town became fashionable, with coffee shops
and book clubs. Balls and assemblies were held in the new Town Hall,
rebuilt in 1745. The coming of the railway in 1850 brought the end
of the coaching trade, but it did little to halt Huntingdon’s
expansion. The Victorian era saw the building of schools and houses
as well as the workhouse and the towering Trinity Church.
Huntingdon played its part during the First World War. Soldiers
were billeted in the town throughout the war. Shops and businesses
closed as local men went off to war and food shortages were common.
Walden House became a Red Cross hospital and treated almost 4,000
patients before it closed in 1919. In 1923 the Thinking Soldier
war memorial was unveiled in Market Hill, to remember the men of
Huntingdon who gave their lives. The story was the same during the
Second World War - rationing and fund-raising began again, and Hinchingbrooke
House became a hospital. Evacuees from London and refugees from
Europe arrived in Huntingdon, as did the American forces, who have
maintained their presence in bases around Huntingdon ever since.
The Town Development Act of 1952 provided the impetus for the next
phase in Huntingdon’s growth. Ambitious plans to attract new
residents from London were made, and building on the new Oxmoor
estate began in 1960. The Chequers Court shopping centre was built
to modernise the town centre. An increase in population from 6,500
in 1961 to 15,000 in 1974 put huge pressures on local roads, and
a bypass was finally opened in 1975.
During the 1980s Huntingdon was the fastest growing town in the
fastest growing county in the whole country. This prosperity was
further enhanced when Huntingdon’s MP, John Major, became
Prime Minister in 1990. Local industry flourished, and the building
of the Towerfields Leisure Park has made Huntingdon a commercial
focus for the district.
The town celebrates its rich and varied history with events such
as The Cromwell quatercentenary in 1999, the Pepys weekend in 2003
and the celebration of Huntingdon 800 in 2005.
Caroline Clifford and Alan Akeroyd, authors of Huntingdon: Eight
Centuries of History (Breedon Books, 2004)
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