Godmanchester
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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 Grid reference . 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 across the River Great Ouse. In 2003 it had a population of about 5500 in 3500 homes, with the largest [increase in population] occurring between 1981 and 1991 (81%) with more modest growth since.
The town was first chartered by King John in 1212, though it had been a market town and royal manor for some years. There is archaelogical evidence of Celtic and earlier habitation prior to the establishment of a key Roman town and a Mansio (inn), so 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, which has two [conservation areas] with a large number of timber-framed Tudor houses, the largest being Tudor Farm, dating from 1600 and restored in 1995.
One of the town's best-known features is its Chinese Bridge. There are several bridges across the Great Ouse to Huntingdon, but until 1975 Old Bridge, Huntingdon, a medieval bridge, was the only one. It is now used only 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 modern bridge.
Local legend has it that when the Chinese Bridge was built without the use of nails or any other fixings. A number of years later, an architect applied to the council for permission to deconstruct the bridge to discover how exactly this had been accomplished. This being done, they tried to reconstruct the bridge again, but found that they could not get it to support itself under its own weight! Today the Chinese Bridge is held together by nails.
Between Godmanchester, Huntingdon and Brampton lies England's largest meadow, [Portholme], which remains an important flood plain but which has served as a horse race course and centre for early aviation.
External links
- [Community Web site with some 370 pages on Godmanchester]
- [Godmanchester News Web site]
- [Huntingdonshire District Council website for the town]
- [The Roman Mansio in Godmanchester]
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