St IvesHISTORIC TOWN WALK

w w w . h u n t s l e i s u r e . o r g

Welcome to St IvesA brief history of St IvesPeople have lived in the place we now call St Ives forthousands of years, but the history of the present-day townbegins with the Saxons, who built a small village beside theGreat Ouse in about AD 500. “Slepe”, as it was called, laynear the present-day parish church.

In about AD 980 the village was bequeathed to nearbyRamsey Abbey, and soon afterwards came the event thatwas to transform its existence. On 24th April 1001 aploughman dug up a stone coffin in the fields east of Slepe.The monks of Ramsey Abbey identified the bones inside asthose of St Ivo, who they said was a Persian bishop. (Wenow know that the discovery was near the site of a Romanvilla – and the Romans often buried their dead in stonecoffins!)

The Ramsey monks built a small monastery, St Ivo’s Priory, onthe spot where the bones were found. Then they began todevelop the area. They built a bridge across the river, toreplace the earlier ford, and in 1110 they obtained a royalcharter to hold a fair between Slepe village and the Priory.The town of St Ives began to grow up around the fairground.

In the 12th century St Ives fair was one of the biggest inEngland, with merchants coming here from many parts ofEurope to buy the local woollen cloth. In the 13th centurythe Black Death and the Hundred Years War destroyed thattrade, but the annual fair was then replaced by the weeklymarket, held every Monday with very few breaks since theyear 1200.

The fairs, the markets and the river have moulded St Ives. Amajor expansion of the town took place between 1950 and1990, but the historic centre is still recognisably the markettown and river port that the Ramsey monks created 900years ago.

For details of accommodation vacancies, contact either Huntingdonor St Neots Tourist Information, or call the HuntingdonshireAssociation for Tourism’s Vacancy Line on Tel: 0870 2254858(national rate call).

Located 60 miles north of London, 15 miles north-west ofCambridge and 25 miles south of Peterborough, St Ives can bereached by road on the A1096 linked to the A14.

There are regular bus services from Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Ely.

The closest rail link is at Huntingdon (6 miles away), which is onthe main rail route from London to Edinburgh. First Capital Connectlinks Huntingdon with Kings Cross by a frequent 50 minute service.Huntingdon is well connected to Peterborough by First CapitalConnect and on to the North and Scotland by the Great NorthEastern Railway (GNER).

Traveline (bus/coach/rail enquiries) Tel: 0870 6082608Multimap (maps/driving directions) www.multimap.com

w w w . h u n t s l e i s u r e . o r g

Tourist In formationHUNTINGDONTel: 01480 388588Fax: 01480 388591Email: Hunts.TIC@huntsdc.gov.uk

HUNTINGDONElectronic Tourist Information KioskSt Benedict’s Court, Huntingdon

ST IVESElectronic Tourist Information KioskSheep Market, St Ives

ST NEOTSThe Old Court, 8 New StreetSt Neots PE19 1AETel: 01480 388788Fax: 01480 388791Email: StNeots.TIC@huntsdc.gov.uk

RAMSEYElectronic Tourist Information KioskGreat Whyte, Ramsey

WALK FACTS

Distance 1 mile approx

Time to complete 1 hour approx

A large print version is available.Please call the Tourist InformationCentre for details.

Getting Here…

Dri ft Through Time ...

Start at the CAR PARK AND BUS STATION (1).This area used tobe the Cattle Market, built in 1886 and used until the 1970s.Many of the cast iron railings from the cattle pens are stillstanding, some of them decorated with the town’s crest of fourbulls’ heads. At one end of the bus station you can see theeight-sided wooden building that housed the auction ring, andat the other end are the two lodges which formed theentrance to the market, also with the town crest carved on thefront. The motto below the crest, “Sudore non Sopore”, means“By work, not by sleep” – a pun on “Slepe”, the original namefor St Ives.

Leave the bus station and go to Priory Road, where there is anattractive group of Victorian buildings. On the west side is theHURDLE HOUSE(2),now a bookmakers. The markets used tobe run from this building – the “hurdles” were used to makepens for the animals before the metal pens were erected.

On the other side of Priory Road is the NATIONAL SCHOOL (3),now a café and pet shop, with its elaborate gables facingStation Road. It was built in 1844 by the Church of England, inreply to the Nonconformist “British School” built elsewhere inthe town five years earlier.

Continue down Priory Road. Next door to the School is the OLD POLICE STATION (4),built in 1845 and nowused as offices.Onone of the gables is the crest of the former County ofHuntingdon, with its green-garbed hunter. The Police Stationcontinued in use until 1973, when St Ives became the butt ofnationwide amusement after a new police station was built inPig Lane – the road was renamed Broad Leas.

Turn left along New Road to see the old FOWELL’S WORKS (5),the tall brick building on the right, now a tyre depot. Fowelland Co. built traction engines here from 1877 until 1923. Theentrance archway is high enough for the engines to drive outthrough it.

Retrace your steps to Priory Road. Facing you is the grandVictorian house called THE PRIORY (6),built in 1870 and nowused as offices. To one side of the Priory is a wall which waspart of the oldest building in St Ives. This is the 14th centuryPRIORY BARN (7),the only remaining part of St Ives Priory,founded on the spot where St Ivo's bones were discovered in1001. The Priory church and cloister must have been

somewhere nearby, but despite several archaeological digs inthe vicinity they have never been found.

At the end of Priory Road is the bridge over the OLD RIVER (8),where you can look out over St Ives Meadow, or upstream tothe Old Bridge. The Old River was probably dug in the MiddleAges to power the Priory's water mill.

Walk back and turn left along Wellington Lane and WellingtonStreet. These pretty riverside houses were once the homes ofbargees and watermen. No. 22 Wellington Lane was the “JollyWaterman” pub and No. 14 was the “Hole in the Wall” – thereis still a hole in the wall now, giving you a glimpse of thegarden. In Wellington Street THE OLIVER CROMWELL (9),with itselaborate wrought-iron signboard bracket, has been a pub sincethe 1840s.

At the end of Wellington Street is the Quay, a vital part ofSt Ivessince the Middle Ages, when merchant ships moored here tounload their cargoes for the fairs and markets. On your left isTHE MASONIC LODGE (10),built in the 17th century as agranary and then used as a Baptist chapel. In front of you onthe other side of the river you can see the seven-storey OLDMILL (11),built in 1854 as a steam-powered corn mill, later afactory and now converted into flats. It was here in 1972 thatClive Sinclair invented the world’s first pocket calculator. Next tothe bridge on the far bank is the red-brick former WHITE HORSEINN (12),built in the 18th century.

THE BRIDGE AND CHAPEL (13)is the town’s most unusualbuilding. It was built in the 1420s, replacing the wooden bridgeof 300 years earlier, and is one of only a handful of survivingchapel bridges in the whole country. Notice that the fournorthern arches have pointed tops – this is how the wholebridge looked originally – but the two southern arches areround-topped. This is because they are later replacements: in1645, during the Civil War, the Roundhead army pulled downthe original arches and put a drawbridge there instead. Anotice on the door of the chapel gives details of where you canborrow the key if you’d like to look inside.

Beside the end of the bridge THE MANOR HOUSE (14)istheoldest house in St Ives, dating from about 1600 but muchaltered. Go back onto the Quay and turn left up Free ChurchPassage. On the left, after you’ve crossed Bull Lane, is the oldINDEPENDENT MEETING HOUSE (15),now a bed shop. It wasbuilt as a chapel in 1811 and converted into a Sunday Schoolwhen it was replaced by the Free Church in 1864. Look closelyat the brickwork! Carved into some of the bricks are the initialsof the church elders who gave money towards the schoolconversion.

Dominating the end of the passage is THE FREE CHURCH (16).It was built in 1863-64 in an elaborate Gothic style – but noticethat most of it was built in brick. The carved stonework isconfined to the front of the church and the steeple. In 1979-80the church was imaginatively converted, when a new groundfloor was inserted, with meeting rooms, a shop and a café. It isnow put to a variety of community uses, so you may find itopen and be able to go in and see the magnificent upstairsarea, still used for church services and still with its elaborateVictorian ornamentation.

ST IVES BRIDGE AND CHAPEL

THE OLD MILL

Notes on theWalk

Produced and published by Huntingdonshire District Council in 2006. Everyeffort has been made to ensure accuracy in this publication, but no liabilitycan be accepted by the District Council for any omissions or inaccuracies.As changes can occur after publication date, it is advisable to check theinformation with the establishments concerned.

Huntingdonshire District Council 2006 ©

OLIVER CROMWELL STATUE

Bridge & Chapel

The Quay

Enderbys Wharf

Chapel Lane

Birt

Lane

Brid

geSt

reet

Crown Street

The Broadway

North Street

PrioryRoad

Cromwell Mews

Bus Station

Whi

teHa

rtLa

ne

Oliver Road

The Holt

TheRiver Great Ouse

West Street

The Waits

Merryland

The PavementMarket Hill

Wellington Street New Road

Prio

ryRo

ad

In front of the Free Church is THE OLIVER CROMWELL STATUE (17). The statue was originally intended for Cromwell’snative town of Huntingdon, to mark his 300th birthday in 1899.But attempts to raise funds there failed and the idea was takenup by St Ives, which had a strong Nonconformist traditiondating back to when Cromwell lived here in the 1630s, beforehe became famous. The statue, by Frederick Pomeroy, wasunveiled in October 1901.

The Market Hill has many other notable buildings. THE GOLDEN LION (18) is an early 19th century coaching inn, still with some original features. THE TOWN HALL (19) wasbuilt as a private house in 1850 in a grand Italianate style. THE RED HOUSE (20), now offices, is a fine 18th-century house. A plaque on the building recalls that it was the home of Theodore Watts Dunton (1832-1914), a writerremembered nowadays for his friendship with the poet Algernon Swinburne.

On the other side of the Market Hill, the early 18th centuryWHITE HART (21) is still in business, while the former BELL (22) is now a clothes shop. It was built in 1719 and you can still see a bell carved in the brickwork on the topstorey. Its ground floor shop front is modern but above the door is a 16th-century oak beam carved with the arms of Ramsey Abbey.

Leave the Market Hill and go into Crown Street. Woolworth’s, onthe right, was built on the site of the 18th-century Crown Inn,demolished in 1975. The Crown had a black-painted cross onthe front – no-one knows why, or how old it was – and thisfeature was copied on the new building. Turn left down BridgeStreet to see THE OLD CHEMIST’S SHOP (23), now used byOxfam. It was built in 1728 and still has its Victorian shop front.Eaden Lilley next door is equally old, in a range of early 18th-century buildings of mellow red brick.

Go through Merryland into the Broadway. Together with theMarket Hill, this wide street was also part of the fairground andmarket of the Middle Ages. THE VICTORIA MEMORIAL (24)marked the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, but it wasn’tactually put up until 1902. The inscription on the side says it was unveiled on 26th June that year, Edward VII’scoronation day – but it wasn’t! The coronation was postponedbecause the King was ill, and the Memorial was unveiled a fewdays later, but no-one got round to changing the inscription.

The Broadway is lined with grand houses and what were oncelarge inns. THE BROADWAY DENTAL SURGERY (25) was built inthe early 19th century for the Osborns, a rich brewing family. Afew doors along is WITTON HOUSE (26), now a nightclub butonce the home of the Goodmans, prosperous millers. Behind its19th-century façade, most of the house dates from about 1700.It was also the childhood home of Mavis Wright (1908-70), afamous beauty who became the mistress of the artist Augustus John.

Where the Broadway meets the Waits is THE NORRIS MUSEUM (27) in its picturesque riverside garden. The Museum’scontents were collected by Herbert Norris (1859-1931) who leftthem to the town when he died, with the money to buy thesite and build the Museum. The displays include material fromall over Huntingdonshire, with archaeology and history, fossilsfrom the dinosaur period and an art gallery.

Opposite is BURLEIGH HOUSE (28), a fine 18th-century buildingwith a pretty garden, and THE METHODIST CHURCH (29), builtin 1904-5. The decorated tiles fronting THE OLD BUTCHER’SSHOP (30) date from the early 20th century. On the corner ofthe Waits and Ramsey Road stands MANCHESTER HOUSE (31),

Notes continued… built in the 18th century and used as a boys’ school from 1856until 1939. It is now offices and dental surgeries.

Beyond it is the PARISH CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS (32).There has probably been a church on this site since the Saxoninhabitants of Slepe first embraced Christianity. Most of thepresent building dates from the late 1400s, but the eastwindow of the south aisle is early 14th century – its carvedstone tracery is a different design from all the other windows.Notice that the 15th century builders went to some trouble tokeep this old window in their new church, as they had to put a kink in the parapet above it in order to fit it in.

Take a close look at the west doors at the base of the tower. Its carved woodwork matches the 15th century tracery of thewindows, but can you spot the rabbits? At the top of the doorpanels, a rabbit’s head can be seen on the left door emergingfrom its hole, while on the right door its cotton-tailed rumpdisappears down the hole again. No-one knows why they are there.

The spire was blown down in a violent storm in 1741 and had to be rebuilt and strengthened several times between thenand the early 20th century. Then in 1918 an aircraft crashedinto it, killing the pilot and destroying the spire again –restoration wasn’t completed until 1930. If you’re able to goinside the church, its interior is well worth seeing, with anorgan, statues and a stained glass window by the famousrestorer Sir Ninian Comper.

St IvesHistoric Town Walk

Places of Interest

THE NORRIS MUSEUM

THE PRIORY

THE VICTORIA MEMORIAL