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St Neots
StNeotsSquare.jpg
St Neots market square
St Neots is located in Cambridgeshire
St Neots
St Neots
Area 8.12 km2 (3.14 sq mi)
Population 30,811 (2011 Census)
• Density 3,794/km2 (9,830/sq mi)
OS grid reference TL185605
• London 49 miles (79 km) S
Civil parish
  • St Neots
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town St. Neots
Postcode district PE19
Dialling code 01480
Police Cambridgeshire
Fire Cambridgeshire
Ambulance East of England
EU Parliament East of England
UK Parliament
  • Huntingdon
List of places
UK
England
Cambridgeshire
52°13′41″N 0°16′12″W / 52.228°N 0.270°W / 52.228; -0.270

St Neots is a town in the Huntingdonshire District in Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about 50 miles (80 km) north of London and about 18 miles (29 km) west of Cambridge. The districts of Eynesbury, Eaton Ford and Eaton Socon were formerly independent but nowadays are considered merged into St Neots.

The town is close to the intersection of the A1 road (north-south) the A421 / A428 roads which link Cambridge to Bedford and Milton Keynes on an east to west axis. St Neots has a railway station on the East Coast Main Line with typically half-hourly services to Peterborough, Stevenage and London. The River Great Ouse runs through the town.

St Neots is estimated to have a population of 36,110 (forecast 2021 population) and is one of the largest towns in Cambridgeshire, after the cities of Peterborough and Cambridge.

The town is named after the ninth century monk Saint Neot, whose bones were brought to St Neots Priory from Cornwall in around 980 AD, resulting in pilgrims visiting in large numbers. Previously the whole town had been called Eynesbury, but the fame of Neot's relics led to that part of the town being called St Neots. In more recent times the town name St Neots is understood to encompass the whole community.

St neots central
Aerial view of St Neots bridge and market place; the view is WNW with the Town Bridge at bottom centre, and the Bridge Hotel and Waitrose car park at left; the Market Square is at the centre and St Mary's church is at upper right centre; the light coloured roofs in the distance are the industrial buildings along Cromwell Road

History

Early history

Eaton Socon Castle
Remains of the Norman castle at Eaton Socon

In 2012, archaeological excavations discovered prehistoric Mesolithic, Early Neolithic era, Iron Age, Roman and Early Middle Saxon items at the new town centre cinema development. Some five years earlier, Cambridge University Archaeologists uncovered significant remains of an Iron Age settlement of Round Houses during eastern town excavations. These findings confirm settlements having existed for over 3,000 years.

Roman, Saxon and Medieval finds have also been made in and around St Neots. Early Saxon developments were in Eynesbury, Eaton Socon and Eaton Ford, which still exist as part of the town today; and Maltman's Green and Crosshall Ford which are no longer recognised.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicles record that in 917 the Danish King of East Anglia left Huntingdon to attack Saxon settlements but was defeated and killed at the Battle of Tempsford near St Neots. The Normans rebuilt the Priory near the river and, in 1113, the Priory of St Neots was given its own manor, separate from Eyenesbury, which it had previously been part of. The town formed was named St Neots, and remained partially entwined with Eynesbury until approximately 1204, when the two parishes were formally separated. A castle was built in the 12th century on the riverbank at Eaton (modern Eaton Socon). The earth mound remnants of this still exist today.

The parish church was rebuilt in the 15th century, and is one of the few currently extant churches of this period in England. A large part of the original church remains, including stained glass windows depicting the life of Christ.

The Great Ouse was made navigable from St Ives to Bedford, via St Neots, in 1629, increasing river-borne trade in the town.

The separate village of Eynesbury became re-incorporated into St Neots in 1876.

St Neots Church in autumn
St.Neots Parish Church

20th century to present

Eaton Ford and Eaton Socon, two villages across the county boundary formed by the River Great Ouse in Bedfordshire, were merged into St Neots in 1965.

Technology-based industries are located in some of the town's light industrial estates, and there is a gas turbine power station at Little Barford on the edge of the town. Recent development has added Eynesbury Manor, Love's Farm, and the Island, Little Paxton bringing the population above 40,000. It is projected that the population of the town will be 65,000 by the end of the Huntingdonshire Local Plan period (2036).

Geography

St Neots is situated approximately 49 miles north of London. It is close to the south-western boundary of Huntingdonshire District, and both the city of Cambridge and the county town of Bedford are nearby.

St Neots lies in the valley of the River Great Ouse, partly on the flood plain and partly on slightly higher ground a little further from the water. The Great Ouse is a mature river, once wide and shallow but now controlled by weirs and sluices and usually constrained in a well-defined channel.

River Ouse Riverside Park St Neots
River Great Ouse, St Neots

Tributaries entering the Great Ouse in the town are the River Kym, Hen Brook, Duloe Brook and Colmworth Brook. The area is generally low-lying. The Riverside Fields, an amenity area adjacent to St Neots Bridge, is designed as a flood buffer area, and is under water at times of flood, protecting dwelling and commercial property from flood.

St Neots developed at the site of a ford where overland routes converged. This was replaced by a medieval bridge, and today there are two further crossings just outside the town, one to the north and another to the south.

The soil is mainly light, overlying gravel beds, and gravel extraction is one of the local industries. Older disused gravel pits form useful nature reserves and amenity areas at nearby Paxton Pits and at the Wyboston Leisure Park. Away from the river, the higher land is mainly a heavy clay soil with few large settlements. Much of the land is used for arable farming.

Climate

The climate in the United Kingdom is defined as a temperate oceanic climate, or Cfb on the Köppen climate classification system, a classification it shares with most of northwest Europe. Eastern areas of the United Kingdom, such as East Anglia, are drier, cooler, less windy and also experience the greatest daily and seasonal temperature variations. Protected from the cool onshore coastal breezes further to the east of the region, Cambridgeshire is warm in summer, and cold and frosty in winter.

Climate data for St Neots, 2000–2012
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 8
(46)
8
(46)
11
(52)
12
(54)
17
(63)
19
(66)
22
(72)
22
(72)
18
(64)
14
(57)
10
(50)
7
(45)
14
(57)
Average low °C (°F) 3
(37)
2
(36)
4
(39)
4
(39)
8
(46)
10
(50)
13
(55)
13
(55)
10
(50)
7
(45)
5
(41)
3
(37)
6.83
(44.29)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 27.3
(1.07)
5.4
(0.21)
16
(0.6)
30.2
(1.19)
16.5
(0.65)
26.3
(1.04)
30.4
(1.20)
23.8
(0.94)
36.5
(1.44)
31.1
(1.22)
27.6
(1.09)
21.4
(0.84)
292.5
(11.52)
Average precipitation days 4 3 4 3 4 5 5 5 5 4 6 4 52
Source: World Weather Online

Demography

Population

In the period 1801 to 1901 the population of St Neots was recorded every ten years by the UK census. During this time the population was in the range of 1,752 (the lowest was in 1801) and 3,321 (the highest was in 1861).

From 1901, a census was taken every ten years with the exception of 1941 (due to the Second World War).

Parish
1911
1921
1931
1951
1961
1971
1981
1991
2001
2011
St Neots 4,171 4,110 4,314 4,700 5,554 15,204 21,290 24,529 26,356 31,165

Except for 2011, all population census figures from report Historic Census figures Cambridgeshire to 2011 by Cambridgeshire Insight. 2011 Census figure.

In 2011, the parish covered an area of 3,776 acres (1,528 hectares) and the population density of St Neots in 2011 was 5,232.2 persons per square mile (2,020.3 per square kilometre).

Transport

Rail

Stneotsbuilding
St Neots Railway Station

St Neots railway station is served by generally half-hourly trains north to Peterborough and south to Horsham via London St Pancras and Gatwick Airport, with additional peak time commuter services in the mornings and evenings to and from London King's Cross. Journeys are typically around 45 minutes to London King's Cross, 55 minutes to St Pancras, and a little under two hours to Gatwick Airport.

At Peterborough station there are good connections to the north-east of England, the West Midlands and north-west, and to Ipswich and Norwich.

St Neots was the 423rd busiest station in the UK in 2018-19 (out of 2560) with 1.3 million journeys beginning or ending there.

St Neots station footbridge has access to the car park and taxi rank on the west side, and the district of Love's Farm on the east side. There are lifts to the platforms.

There is a proposal to open a west to east rail link between Bedford and Cambridge. This is expected to have a station immediately south of St Neots where the new line and the existing main line will intersect. The proposal is under consultation at present (2021).

Road

Neots sun
St Neots market square on a sunny Sunday

St Neots lies adjacent to the A1 trunk road which links the town by road with London and the northeast of England and Scotland. The town is also linked with Cambridge to the east by the A428 road and Bedford and Milton Keynes by the A421 road at Black Cat Roundabout on the A1 just south of the town.

Six miles to the north the A14 trunk road provides westward and eastward access to the Midlands and East Anglia respectively.

Historically the Great North road which forms the A1 passed through Eaton Socon until new alignment of the A1 road, forming a bypass, opened in 1971.

The A45 road between Bedford and Cambridge passed through the town centre until the three-mile St Neots Bypass opened in December 1985 (subsequently re-designated as the A428 road). There is major scheme for a new road connecting the Black Cat Roundabout and the A428 at Caxton Gibbet, avoiding St Neots completely. A £507 million contract has been awarded to Skanska for the construction.

Bus

St Neots is served by the Stagecoach 905 service which operates between Bedford Bus Station and Cambridge Parkside on a typically half-hourly basis. In addition Stagecoach operate a route 66 between St Neots and Huntingdon via Hinchingbrooke Hospital, on a typically hourly frequency six days a week.

Whippet Bus Company operates a 61/63 circular service between the town centre, Eaton Ford, Eaton Socon, Eynesbury, and the railway station, on a typically hourly frequency with some additional journeys, six days a week.

Air

St Neots is within an hour's drive from London Luton Airport and London Stansted Airport, and has a direct train service to London Gatwick Airport.

Cycling

St Neots is on Route 12 of the Sustrans national cycle route that connects Colchester and Oxford via Harwich, Felixstowe, Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Sandy, Bedford and Milton Keynes.

Bridge Riverside Park St Neots
Detail of tree-lined lake with swans in the Riverside Park

A foot and cycle bridge across the River Great Ouse was opened in 2011, linking Eaton Socon and Eynesbury, enabling pupils attending Ernulf Academy to avoid cycling through the town centre and improving connections to existing cycle paths. The scheme was a Sustrans Connect2 project, and supported by Cambridgeshire County Council and Huntingdonshire District Council.

Sport and leisure

St Neots has a semi-professional non-League football team, St Neots Town F.C., who play at Rowley Park Stadium. The club are currently members of the Southern Football League Division 1 Central.

The town also has a rugby club St Neots RUFC, a rowing club St Neots Rowing Club, two Dragon Boat teams and a table tennis club, the St Neots Table Tennis club, which plays in both the Bedford and District Table Tennis League and the Cambridgeshire Table Tennis League.

Huntingdonshire District Council operates a leisure centre complex in Eynesbury with an indoor swimming pool, gym, squash courts, sports hall, tennis courts, all weather pitches, creche, and cafe. The site is part of the council’s 'One Leisure' brand, which has other sites in Huntingdon and St Ives.

St Neots Riverside Park looking north
Aerial view of the Riverside Park, St Neots, looking north

The Great Ouse river passes through the centre of the town, through Regatta Meadows and Riverside Park and linking to Eaton Socon providing opportunities for riverside leisure walks, and forms part of the Ouse Valley Way walking route.

Riverside Park is close to the town centre and covers 72 acres) with a beautiful mile-long waterside frontage. The park has a cafe, parking for 250 cars, a large children’s activity area, the largest skate park in the area, and a miniature railway, Riverside Miniature Railway. During the summer concerts are occasionally held on Sunday afternoons in the park.

The town's Pocket Park hosts weekly parkrun and junior parkrun events.

To the north of the town is Paxton Pits Nature Reserve providing walks through its 77 hectares of lakes, meadow, grassland, scrub and woodland. The reserve is famous for its nightingales and cormorants and is home to a wide variety of other birds, insects, mammals and flora.

The Rowley Arts Centre was opened in May 2014 and includes a six-screen cinema operated by Cineworld and a complex with three restaurants and a gym. It was named after Peter Rowley, an American playwright, author and critic who was Lord of the Manor of St Neots and who donated £1 million towards the development from the profit he made from selling the land on which the Love's Farm development was built. The complex was subsequently purchased as an investment by Huntingdonshire District Council for £7.6 million in 2019.

St Neots has a ten pin bowling centre with 16 lanes, which was built on part of the site of the outdoor swimming pool that closed in 2003. Originally the intention for the remainder of the site was to build a new outdoor pool but these plans were not realised. Discussions are ongoing about the creation of a splash park on the remaining part of the site

There are two golf courses in St Neots, a golf club which welcomes visitors, and a commercial course at Wyboston Lakes.

Culture

St Neots Museum, housed in the town's Victorian Police Station and Magistrates Court, has local history collections covering the towns rich past including a display about James Toller, the Eynesbury Giant, a resident from the 18th century who measured over 8 ft in height. There is also a gallery with temporary exhibitions by local creatives including fine art, ceramics, sculpture and illustration.

Local notable music venues include the Priory Centre, and has been host to many great entertainers as well as holding productions by local amateur dramatic groups and the Pig and Falcon, which has live music every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and regular open mic nights.

There is a thriving theatre community with four active groups – Riverside Theatre Company who stage productions, run workshops and have groups for all ages; VAMPS formed in 1961 as the St Neots and District Operatic Society and stage popular musicals and variety shows; award-winning, St Neots Players, formed in the late 1920s as a play-reading group with past members who used to perform the annual Shakespeare, Pantomime and other mid-season productions at the Kings Head Hotel in the Stables Theatre; and Stageworks, a performing arts group offering classes, holiday programmes, workshops and a college offering full-time training to students aged 16 years and over that prepares students for musical theatre and acting.

The local creative community is served by art youth club, Vir2oso, which runs regular workshops and clubs for 8 and 17 year-olds at the Bargoves Centre and aims to encourage and support children who feel despondent and dejected in their school life and those with learning difficulties. There is also Neotists, a group for creative professionals with members covering design, illustration, art, photography and IT, which commissions local creatives to collaborate on projects, run workshops and events for the community and provide opportunities and connections for professionals working in the creative industry.

Notable residents

The only person to assassinate a British Prime Minister, John Bellingham, was born in St Neots - Bellingham killed Spencer Perceval at the House of Commons on 11 May 1812. The St Neots Quads are nicknamed for their place of birth; they were the first British quadruplets to survive more than a few days and as of 2021 were the oldest quadruplets in the world.

The-Four-Quads-in-a-cot-1936-1030x764
The St Neots Quads
Bellingham
John Bellingham

Footballers Lee Philpott and Tim Breacker are from the town, as well as Olympic High Jump Bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz and Olympic fencer Graham Paul. Multiple World short course swimming champion Mark Foster also lives in St Neots. Rob Harris, the guitarist of the popular musical group Jamiroquai, is also from the town.

Images for kids

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Saint Neots para niños

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