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Huntingdonshire (Huntingdon, St Ives, St Neots, Ramsey, Yaxley)
 What
do Oliver Cromwell, the assassin John Bellingham and the humble
sandwich have in common'
They all came from the former county of
Huntingdonshire, England. This tiny area - only 365 square miles -
has had a tremendous impact on British and world history.
Before the Romans there is very little
historical evidence of any settlement around Huntingdon, occasional
hut circles, flint tools and other sporadic finds indicate that
Celtic peoples did inhabit or at least forayed into the area. What
evidence there is is documented in detail in the sections on
Prehistoric Huntingdonshire and Ancient Earthworks.
In those times Huntingdonshire was at
the boundary of the Catuvellauni based at St Albans in the south and
the Coritani, based around the Trent and Nene valleys, so people
venturing into Huntingdonshire from either direction would have been
really out in the wilds. The upland areas were still predominately
densely forested when the Romans arrived and the lowland areas, as
we know, were part of the Great Fen and generally underwater for
most of the year.
So the name Huntingdonshire appears to describe the county very
well, as the place to go hunting although this does not appear to be
the origin of the county's name |
