Godmanchester Godmanchester Gamlingay Category="Huntingdonshire"Category="Towns in Cambridgeshire"Category="Towns on the River Great Ouse"[image] 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 TL245704. 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 crossing point across the River Great Ouse.

The Town was first chartered by King John in 1212 (though it had been a Market town and royal manor for some years) and in 2003 had a population of about 5500 in 3500 homes. Prior to the establishment of a key Roman town here, and a Mansio (Inn), there is archaelogical evidence of Celtic and earlier habitation, and thus 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, a conservation area with a large number of timber framed Tudor houses, the largest being Tudor Farm, dating to 1600 and restored 1995.

One of the town's best-known feature is its Chinese Bridge. There are several bridges over the Great Ouse to Huntingdon, but for centuries, until 1975, a medieval bridge was the only one. It is now only used 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 more modern bridge.

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River Great Ouse
Administrative areas: Northamptonshire | Buckinghamshire | Bedfordshire | Cambridgeshire | Norfolk
Flows into: The Wash
Towns (upstream to downstream): Brackley | Buckingham | Stony Stratford | Newport Pagnell | Olney | Bedford | St Neots
Godmanchester | Huntingdon | St Ives | Ely | Littleport | Downham Market | King's Lynn
Major tributaries (upstream to downstream by Confluence): River Lovat (or Ouzel) | River Ivel
River Kym | Old Bedford River | New Bedford River | River Cam | River Lark | River Little Ouse | River Wissey
Major bridges (upstream to downstream): Great Barford Bridge | A428 Bridge St Neots
St Neots Town Bridge | Godmanchester Chinese Bridge
A14 bridge, River Great Ouse | Huntingdon Old Bridge | St Ives Bridge
Longest UK rivers: 1. Severn 2. Thames 3. Trent 4. Aire 5. Great Ouse 6. Wye 7. Tay 8. Spey 9. Nene 10. Clyde 11. Tweed 12. Eden