Huntingdon

Huntingdon stands on the Great Ouse, where a medieval stone bridge links the town to Godmanchester. Its market and position on the road north made it a familiar stopping place for travellers. The old inns around its streets recall a town that served both the surrounding countryside and those passing through it on the long road north.

Oliver Cromwell was born here in 1599 and attended the grammar school in the former hospital of St John. During the Civil War he returned to raise a cavalry regiment, using the Falcon as his headquarters in 1643. The town's association with Cromwell was not its only connection to the conflict: King Charles I also stayed at the George before the battle of Naseby in 1645.