St Neots is a town of about 25 000 people on the River Great Ouse, the third largest community in Cambridgeshire, England. It is named after the Saxon monk St Neot whose bones were housed in a nearby priory. The pilgrim trade brought prosperity for the town, and it was granted a market charter in 1130. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the town enjoyed further prosperity through corn milling, brewing, stagecoaching, and railways.
Today, St Neots is a thriving market town. The modern town incorporates Eynesbury (originally the main settlement and the oldest part of the town) and two areas across the river, Eaton Ford and Eaton Socon (originally separate villages).
Local geography
St Neots is situated 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 restrained in a well-defined channel. St Neots developed at the site of a ford where overland roads converged.
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, for example at nearby Paxton Pits. 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.
St Neots is close to Cambridge, Bedford and Peterborough. The A1 links the town by road with London to the south and Peterborough to the north while the nearby A14 provides access to the Midlands and East Anglia. There is also a good rail service from Peterborough via St Neots to London.
St Neots lies close to the south-western edge of Huntingdonshire. Despite its name, this is not a county but a district council forming part of Cambridgeshire.
History
St Neots is a mediaeval town. It originally developed next to the priory, in the form of market stalls which were replaced over the years by permanent structures, eventually developing into today's Market Square. There is some evidence of pre-Roman and Roman activity in the area, but the main story of St Neots begins with the founding of the priory in mediaeval times.
Pre-Roman
There is evidence for Iron Age and earlier settlement in the vicinity of St Neots, mainly in the valley of the Great Ouse where soils are easily cultivated.
The first settlements in the valley were in Neolithic times. A hearth from this period was uncovered in Eaton Socon, and there have been isolated flint tools and hand axes. There is rather more evidence from the Bronze Age (pottery, polished stone axes, burial mounds), and from the Iron Age a timber structure (possibly a temple) and several small, Iron Age settlements.
This pre-Roman activity would have altered the natural landscape quite markedly, mostly through the felling of timber to clear fields and construct buildings.
Roman
During the Roman period from the mid 1st century CE to the mid 5th century, the nearest large settlement was at Godmanchester with another at Sandy. A Roman road joined the two and passed close to present-day St Neots, and there are traces of other roads as well. Apart from two villas and some earthworks, only scattered Roman remains exist from St Neots itself, mostly coins and pottery in Eynesbury.
There is no evidence of large scale settlement in Roman times, the area around St Neots was certainly used for farming and was crossed by roads and tracks. Romans and Britons lived and worked here, but not in a town.
Anglo-Saxon and Viking Period
There is some documentary evidence from this period, and also ample archaeological remains, mostly in and around Eynesbury (Ernulf's Burgh), Eaton Socon (Eatun) and the western part of Eaton Ford (Sudbury). The Anglo-Saxon names are in brackets.
Everyday objects have been found such as the clay weights used in weaving, broken pieces of pottery, a stone quern, a plough share, and an iron axe. Burials from the period contained other objects such as a sword, spears, pagan brooches, and a knife.
A number of buildings have been discovered, some of them substantial; one or two had wooden floors, a sign of some wealth at a time when most people made do with beaten earth. There were a number of settlements in the area that is now St Neots. One of these would have been the early Priory which may not have been on the riverside site of the later, Norman, Priory.
The Angles and Saxons divided the country into administrative areas called hundreds. St Neots and Eynesbury were in the Toseland Hundred while Eaton was in the Barford Hundred.
Following St Augustine's mission to Britain in 597 CE, a mother church was built in Eaton to serve as a focus for a large area on the west bank of the Great Ouse, while at Great Paxton on the east bank, another church served an area including St Neots and Eynesbury. Later in Saxon times Eynesbury built its own church. A little later, the first St Neots priory was dedicated in 974 CE, and the bones of St Neot brought from Cornwall as holy relics for the new foundation.
The Vikings first brought their longships up the River Great Ouse as far as St Neots in the late 10th Century and St Neot's bones were sent to Lincolnshire for safe-keeping, being restored again by 1020 CE. The Danes seem not to have settled in large numbers in or near St Neots, certainly not displacing the Anglo-Saxons completely.
Norman
Initial control of the area by the Normans was from Bedford and Huntingdon with the river forming the boundary between the two. There were two manors in Eynesbury in the Barony of Huntingdon, and another in Eaton in the Barony of Bedford.
Around the year 1080 major changes were initiated in the affairs of the Priory which had been completely rebuilt near the river by 1110. The priory remains are very incomplete, but attempts have been made to draw a plan based on what has been found. Apart from foundations and column bases, other finds include glazed floor tiles, painted wall plaster, fragments of stained glass, and pieces of carved masonry. The gatehouse survived until 1814.
A castle was built on the riverbank at Eaton (modern Eaton Socon) around 1140 CE. It may never have been completed, but the earth mound still exists and can be seen from the path along the opposite bank. The castle was demolished about 15 years later by order of Henry II.
St Neots Priory was now holding a weekly market, a right given by charter around 1130 CE. The market stalls were set out next to the Priory, in the area where today's Market Square still stands. A wooden bridge was built to replace the old ford, and a system of tolls was set up. By the end of the 12th Century the infant town of St Neots was a busy, prosperous place; almost a twin of the older settlement at Eynesbury.
Around 1200 CE a new parish church was built in St Neots, while Eynesbury and Eaton Socon parish churches were rebuilt around the same time. The Priory became highly respected and extremely wealthy during this period, and the settlements of Eynesbury, St Neots, and Eaton Socon were prosperous too. This was partly due to the presence of the Priory and partly due to river and road traffic, especially along the Great North Road between London and central England.
Nearby settlements
- Cities - Cambridge, Peterborough
- Towns - Bedford, Biggleswade, Godmanchester, Higham Ferrers, Huntingdon, Raunds, Royston, Rushden, Sandy, St Ives, Thrapston
- Villages - Abbotsley, Bolnhurst, Buckden, Caxton Gibbet, Chawston, Colesden, Colmworth, Croxton, Diddington, Duloe, Eltisley, Gamlingay, Graveley, Great Paxton, Great Staughton, Hail Weston, Keysoe, Keysoe Row, Kimbolton, Little Barford, Little Paxton, Little Staughton, Offord Cluny, Offord D'Arcy, Perry, Pertenhall, Roxton, Staughton Green, Staughton Highway, Southoe, Staploe, Stonely, Tempsford, Toseland, Wyboston, Yelling
Reference
Young, Rosa (1996). St Neots Past, Phillimore and Co Ltd. ISBN 1-86-077025-8