All around St Ives there are historic villages in quiet countryside, some of them situated on the banks of the Great Ouse. Many are connected to St Ives by footpaths and cycleways.

Houghton and Wyton

These two riverside villages have many half-timbered cottages of the 16th and 17th centuries. Houghton is famous for its watermill, owned by the National Trust. It is open to the public from April to October and visitors can see the restored mill machinery, which is used to grind corn on special milling days.

Royal Air Force Wyton has played an important part in our history. On 3rd September 1939 a reconnaissance aircraft from Wyton flew the RAF’s first sortie of the war over Germany and Wyton was later the headquarters of Bomber Command’s elite Pathfinder Force.

Watch out how you pronounce these two village names. The first syllables of Houghton and Wyton are spoken as “hoe” and “wit” not “how” and “why”!

The Hemingfords

Across the Ouse from Houghton and Wyton is another pair of historic villages, Hemingford Abbots and Hemingford Grey. Both villages have many old houses but Hemingford Grey can boast one of the oldest continuously inhabited houses in England: the Manor, built about 1150. It was lovingly restored by the children’s writer Lucy Boston, who used it as the setting for her “Green Knowe” books.

In the l730s the Manor was the birthplace of the “Beautiful Miss Gunnings”. Reputed the loveliest women in England, the sisters Maria and Elizabeth Gunning both married lords.

Fenstanton and Hilton

To the south of St Ives, Fenstanton has an 18th-century lock-up on its village green and is the last resting place of Capability Brown the famous landscape gardener. He was lord of the manor of Fenstanton and Hilton and was buried at Fenstanton church when he died in 1783. An earlier resident of Fenstanton was John Howland, one of the Pilgrim Fathers who sailed to Massachusetts in the Mayflower in 1620. His descendants include Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

Hilton has a beautiful village green with a mysterious maze cut in the turf. Edward Wilson, who died with Captain Scott on his ill-fated expedition to the South Pole, was married in Hilton church.

HolyweIl and Needingworth

Downstream along the Ouse are two more villages. Holywell is right beside the river and takes its name from an ancient well in the corner of the churchyard. The old village inn, the Ferry Boat, has a resident ghost said to appear every St Patrick’s Day. Needingworth was devastated by fire in 1847 and two old fire hooks are still displayed on a wall in the main street.