Godmanchester
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Godmanchester_Post_Street.jpg
Godmanchester is a small town in England, immediately south of the larger town of Huntingdon on the southern bank of the River Great Ouse, at Template:Gbmapping. It lies on the A14 road, on what used to be the historic Ermine Street between London, Lincoln and York. While now in the county of Cambridgeshire, the town was historically part of Huntingdonshire. The location is likely to have been originally settled due to the gravel beds providing a ford crossing point across the River Great Ouse.
The Town was first chartered by King John in 1212 (though it had been a market town and royal manor for some years) and in 2003 had a population of about 5500 in 3500 homes. Prior to the establishment of a key Roman town here, and a Mansio (inn), there is archaelogical evidence of Celtic and earlier habitation, and thus the area has probably been continuously occupied for more than 2000 years. The settlement was at a crossroads of Roman roads, with Ermine Street, the Via Devana (from Cambridge, between Colchester and Chester) and a military road from Sandy, Bedfordshire, all passing through. The Roman settlement was sacked by Anglo-Saxons in the third century. In contrast to Huntingdon, there have been vast amounts of archaeological finds in the centre of Godmanchester, a conservation area with a large number of timber framed Tudor houses, the largest being Tudor Farm, dating to 1600 and restored 1995.
One of the town's best-known feature is its Chinese Bridge. There are several bridges over the Great Ouse to Huntingdon, but for centuries, until 1975, a medieval bridge was the only one. It is now only used for light traffic, and a parallel footbridge has been built for pedestrians. Construction of the A14 bypass means that heavy traffic now flows over a more modern bridge.
Godmanchester_Chinese_Bridge.jpg
External links
- Community Web site (http://www.godmanchester.net/)
- Huntingdonshire District Council website for the town (http://www.huntsdc.gov.uk/Community+and+People/Neighbourhood-village/Towns+and+Villages/Godmanchester.htm)