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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.
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