St Ives, Huntingdonshire
Historical Description
Ives, St, a parish, head of a union, and a municipal borough in Huntingdonshire. The town stands on the river Ouse, 5 miles E from Huntingdon; took its name from Ivo, a Persian bishop who made a missionary tour through England, and died here about the end of the 6th century; was known at Domesday as Slope; suffered devastation by fire in 1689 to the value of upwards of £13,700; consists now for the most part of modern buildings; is subject in its lower parts to floodings by the Ouse. It has a head post office, a railway station used by the G.E.R., G.N.R., and M.R., four banks, several good hotels, a police station, with a large room used for the purposes of petty sessions, a corn exchange, a public hall, and a six-arched bridge of stone over the Ouse. The bridge is said to have been erected by the abbots of Ramsey, and it has over one of its piers an ancient building supposed to have been originally a chapel, and now used as a dwelling-house. The building used by the Liberal club was formerly the public institution, was erected in 1848 at a cost of £1000, and has an apartment 60 feet long, 30 wide, and 18 high. The church is a building of stone in the Norman and Perpendicular styles of the 15th century, with a W tower and spire 170 feet in height; and stands close to the river. Another church, on the same site, was erected in 970 by Ednoth, abbot of Ramsey; a Benedictine priory, a cell to Ramsey Abbey, was founded here in 1017 by Earl Adelmar; and both the church and the priory offices were burned in 1207, and afterwards rebuilt. The Free Church, on Market Hill, was built in 1864-65 at a cost, including site, of £6000; is in the Decorated style, and has a tower and spire 156 feet in height. There are also Baptist, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels, and a Friends' meeting-house. The workhouse is on the London Road, about half a mile from the town, within the parish of Hemingford Grey; was built in 1838 at a cost of about £4000, and has capacity for about 400 inmates. A weekly market is held on Monday, and well-frequented fairs are held on Whit-Monday and 11 Oct. Brewing and malting are carried on, and there are extensive flour mills. Petty sessions are held every Monday. The Earl of Holland, fighting in the cause of Charles I., was taken at Huntingdon in 1648; and Oliver Cromwell had a residence here, called Slepe Hall, now displaced by a number of new houses. Roger de St Ives, an Augustinian monk, and Pratt, the author of " Gleanings," were natives.
The parish comprises 2321 acres; population, 3005; of the municipal borough, 3037. The manor belongs to the Duke of Manchester. The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelries of Old Hurst and Wood Hurst, in the diocese of Ely; net value, £153 with residence.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Huntingdonshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | St. Ives St. Ivo | |
Hundred | Hurstingstone | |
Poor Law union | St. Ives |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for St Ives from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Ives, St. (St. Ivo))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Huntindonshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of St Ives are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)