Huntingdonshire

The area corresponding to modern Huntingdonshire was first delimited in Anglo-Saxon times, and the modern boundaries have remained largely unchanged since the 10th century, although it lost its county status in 1974. On his accession in 1154 Henry II declared all Huntingdonshire a forest.[2] In the late 1780s a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the condition of forests and to identify those surviving; it did not find Huntingdonshire among the few survivors.

Status

Map of Huntingdonshire, 1824

In 1889, under the Local Government Act 1888 Huntingdonshire became an administrative county, with the new County Council taking over administrative functions from the Quarter Sessions. The area in the north of the county forming part of the municipal borough of Peterborough became instead part of the Soke of Peterborough, an administrative county in Northamptonshire.

In 1965, under a recommendation of the Local Government Commission for England, Huntingdonshire was merged with the Soke of Peterborough to form Huntingdon and Peterborough. The Lieutenancy county was also merged. At the same time, St Neots was expanded westwards over the river into Eaton Ford and Eaton Socon in Bedfordshire.

In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Huntingdon and Peterborough merged with Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely to form the new non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire. A Huntingdon district was created based closely on the former administrative county borders, with the exclusion of the Old Fletton urban district, which became part of the Peterborough district, as did the part of Norman Cross Rural District in Peterborough New Town.

The district was renamed Huntingdonshire on 1 October 1984, by a resolution of the district council.[3]

Original historical documents relating to Huntingdonshire are held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at the County Record Office in Huntingdon.

Until 2018, district-council elections were held in three out of every four years, with a third of the 52 council seats coming up at each election. Elections since have been held for all seats every four years.[10] The Conservative party has had a majority on the council since 1976. Current (August 2019) political affiliations of councillors are as follows:[11]

Huntingdonshire is the birthplace of bandy, now an IOC accepted sport.[12] According to documents from 1813, Bury Fen Bandy Club was undefeated for 100 years. A club member, Charles Tebbutt, wrote the first official rules in 1882 and helped to spread the sport to other countries.[13]

Huntingdonshire County Cricket Club is considered one of the 20 minor counties of English and Welsh cricket, even though it has never played in the Minor Counties Championship. It has its own Cricket Board and played in the English domestic one-day competition from 1999 to 2003.

• Lucy M. Boston (1892–1990), children's writer, lived in Huntingdonshire from 1937 until her death, and set the Green Knowe series there.
• Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk and his brother Charles Brandon, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, nephews of Henry VIII, died of sweating sickness at Buckden Towers within an hour of each other on 14 July 1551.
• John Butcher (1946–2006), Conservative MP and junior minister, was raised in Huntingdonshire and attended Huntingdon Grammar School.
• Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536), previously Queen of England, died in confinement at Kimbolton Castle.
• Charles Bowen Cooke (1859–1920), locomotive engineer, was born at Orton Longueville.
• Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658), Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland 1653–58, was educated at Huntingdon Grammar School.
• Alice and Thomas Curwen were active in the county as Quaker preachers in 1677–78.[14]
• William Henry Fellowes (1769–1837) of Ramsey Abbey, was a longstanding MP for Huntingdon and then Huntingdonshire.
• Nicholas Ferrar (1592–1637), scholar, courtier and cleric, spent the last eleven years of his life at Little Gidding. His Anglican community there inspired the fourth poem in T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets.
• Robert Fox (1798–1843), antiquary and local historian, was born and died at Godmanchester.
• Olinthus Gregory (1774–1841), mathematician and editor, was born at Yaxley.
• Henry of Saltrey, a Huntingdonshire Cistercian monk, wrote Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii (Treatise on the Purgatory of St Patrick) in about 1180–1184.
• Ann Jebb (1735–1812), political reformer and radical writer, was born at Kings Ripton.
• Michael Lawrence (born 1943), children's writer, is best known for the Jiggy McCue series.
• John Major (born 1943), politician and Prime Minister (1990–97), was MP for Huntingdonshire.
• Chris Morris (born 1962), satirist known for the television series Brass Eye and The Day Today
• Philip Nye (1595–1672), Independent theologian, became the incumbent of Kimbolton and an adviser to Oliver Cromwell.
• Sir William Papworth (1331–1414) of Grafham and Papworth St. Agnes was a member of five 14th-century parliaments.
• Samuel Pepys (1633–1703), MP and diarist, attended Huntingdon Grammar School.
• Terry Reid (born 1949), rock musician, grew up in Holywell.
• Henry Royce (1863–1933), pioneering car manufacturer and founder of Rolls-Royce Limited
• William Sparrow (1641–1729), cut the famous turf maze at Hilton in 1660.
• Josef Jakobs (1898–1941), German spy captured in Ramsey Hollow, Huntingdonshire in 1941

• Flag of Huntingdonshire
• List of Lord Lieutenants of Huntingdonshire
• List of High Sheriffs of Huntingdonshire
• Custos Rotulorum of Huntingdonshire - Keepers of the Rolls
• Huntingdonshire (UK Parliament constituency) -Historical list of MPs for Huntingdonshire constituency

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Huntingdonshire.

• Huntingdonshire District Council - local government information
• Map of Huntingdonshire on Wikishire
• Huntingdonshire - general informative
• The Huntingdonshire Society - dedicated to the traditional county and campaigning for its reinstatement as an administrative entity
• The Huntingdonshire Flag
• The Lost Pubs Project: Lost and closed pubs of Huntingdonshire.
• Cambridge Military History Blog: A dialogue focused on the history of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire from a military perspective