The Norris Museum: St Ives Timeline The first evidence for people living in Huntingdonshire dates to about 500,000 years ago...They were hunter-gatherers who moved from place to place. Populations were small and occupation did not last. Humans abandoned Britain for warmer parts of Europe during cold extremes when ice sheets returned. They came back as the climate got better. The warm period, in which we still live, began about 10,000 years ago... Around 4,000 BC farming develops in this area. There is evidence of people living in small communities for the first time. 2,300 BC people discover how to make metal objects and the new technology spreads. Lynch pin from an Iron Age chariot (Norris Museum) 800 BC In the Iron Age, the area around the Ouse Valley was part of the territory of the Catuvellauni tribe. The name means “men good in battle”. From around 25BC to 9AD.They were led by their chieftain Tasciovanus, ‘Slayer of badgers’. His son Cunobelinus ruled from 10AD to about 42AD. 43 AD The Romans begin to settle in Britain and stay for the next 400 years. A town and fort are established at Godmanchester. A number of villas, Roman farms, are built along the river, including at St Ives. Roman statuette (Norris Museum) 400 The Anglo Saxons begin to arrive from Europe. Europe Settlers to what we now call St Ives build a church by the river and a village round it that has the name ‘Slepe’,, possibly meaning ‘slippery place’ or ‘crossing place’. 860 Vikings arrive from Scandinavia. Scandinavia They kill the East Anglian King King, Edmund. Eventually, under Athelstan, the first king of all England, the country is united in 927. Anglo Saxon pot (Norris Museum) 986 A local landowner, Aethelstan Manessone, Manessone dies and d leaves the village of Slepe to Ramsey Abbey. 1001 The supposed bones of St Ivo, a Persian Bishop, are found near the village of Slepe and taken to Ramsey Abbey. A Priory is built at the find spot spot, where a miraculous spring is located. Pilgrims start to visit. v The area between the original village of Slepe and the new Priory starts to develop into the town of St Ives. (An An archaeological dig much later in 1981, confirms the presence of a Roman Villa near the site). 1066 The Normans invade and take over the country after victory at the battle of Hastings. King Harold is killed at The Battle of Hastings 1086 Slepe iss recorded in the Domesday Domesday Book. 52 men are recorded living there. No one bothers to count the women and children! The village is valued at £16. 1090 A monk called Goscelin elin writes a book called “The “ Life and Miracles of St Ivo”. ”. This is the first evidence Ramsey Abbey is promoting the cult of St Ivo. As a result St Ives gets more visitors, pilgrims who visit holy shrines. Image of St Ivo 1107 A Ramsey Abbey charter mentions a bridge at St Ives. This is the earliest evidence we have of a brid bridge ge crossing the Great Ouse here, here made from wood. 1110 King Henry I grants the right to hold a fair at St Ives, starting on the Wednesday after Easter and lasting a week. week Itt becomes one of the m most important fairs in the land, known for its woollen cloth, with traders and visitors from far and wide. St Ives Fair charter 1200 King John grants the right to hold a weekly market at St Ives. Weekly markets are still held in St Ives to this day. 1355 St Ives Bridge is repaired using ash trees from Houghton and timber from Warboys, showing the bridge was still built from wood at this point. 1426 The altarr in the bridge chapel is consecrated, probably marking the completion of the new stone bridge. bridge Bridge chapel, St Ives 1449 Local people attack St Ives Priory. They take fish from the fish ponds, hurl timber and lead from the roof into the river and fill the fountain with mud and rubbish. They were probably upset with Ramsey Abbey who owned and ran the town. Crest of Ramsey Abbey with three rams’ heads. 1518 The Bishop of Lincoln inspects St Ives Priory. He finds the buildings in a poor state of repair and the behaviour and conversation of some of the monks unacceptable. They were more interested in rearing animals than attending to their holy duties. 1539 With the dissolution of the monasteries, St Ives Priory is closed down. The Prior was given a £12 a year pension and allowed to live in the bridge chapel. 1544 Henry VIII gives the priory to one of his courtiers, Thomas Audley. It was probably pulled down soon afterwards and the stone and wood sold for use in other buildings. King Henry VIII 1570 Elizabeth I gives the bridge chapel to one of her courtiers. The chapel is used as private house (also at one time a pub and a doctor’s surgery) until the 1920s. 1631 Oliver Cromwell, future military and political leader of the English Civil War and Lord Protector of the Commonwealth (1653-58), moves to St Ives and farms here as a tenant farmer for 5 years. In 1636 he inherits his uncle’s estate at Ely and moves there. Oliver Cromwell 1645 During the Civil War, Parliament orders the breaking of the bridges across the Great Ouse, including at St Ives. A drawbridge is installed to cover the gap. New stone arches are eventually built in 1716. 1679 Puritan clergyman Dr Robert Wilde dies. His will establishes an annual Bible Dicing ceremony at St Ives All Saints Parish Church, its aim to show that the Word is in the Bible and not over-elaborate ceremony. Children compete to win a bible by dicing for it on the Communion table. The event still takes place. 1689 During The Great Fire of St Ives, 122 houses, a third of the town, are destroyed. Damage is put at some £13,000. 1719 The St Ives Mercury is founded, one of the earliest newspapers in the country. In 1722 it is forced to close after printing something that offends Sir Edward Lawrence the town’s biggest landowner. 1728 Edmund Pettis, a St Ives shopkeeper, produces several maps of the town and a detailed description. Pettis Map (Norris Museum) 1741 The spire of All Saints is blown down in a storm. It is rebuilt in 1748. 1774 Methodist preacher John Wesley visits St Ives and writes that he preached to “a very well dressed and yet well behaved congregation.” John Wesley 1801 The first census reveals that St Ives has a population of 2,099, living in 478 houses. That does not sound like a lot, but St Ives was cramped and overcrowded, as it did not extend much beyond East Street and West Street at this time. 1808 The open fields around St Ives are enclosed. The strips of land dating back to Anglo Saxon times are consolidated into more compact units and hedged or fenced in. 1822 The New Bridges are built across the flood plain to the south of the town. The following year sees the highest floods of the 19th century. The 1.2 million bricks for the bridge are made locally. New Bridges, St Ives 1847 St Ives railway station is built and the lines to Cambridge and Huntingdon open. The line to Wisbech is opened the following year. A line to Ely is built in 1878, but closes in 1931. 1851 The census gives the population of St Ives as 3,522, an increase of 1500 in the last 50 years. 1874 St Ives receives a royal charter to elect its own mayor and corporation or governing body. Logo of today’s St Ives Town Council 1886 A new cattle market is opened in an effort to improve flagging trade. Today it is a car park and bus station. 1901 The statue of Oliver Cromwell is unveiled on the Market Hill. It was paid for by public subscription. Cromwell Statue, St Ives 1902 The Roman Catholic Church at Cambridge, designed by Pugin, is dismantled and re-erected in Needingworth Road, St Ives. The Victoria memorial is unveiled on the Broadway. 1918 The spire of All Saints parish church is knocked down by an aircraft from the Royal Flying Corps station at Wyton. It is rebuilt in 1924. 1930 The bridge chapel is restored. restored Two stories added in the 1740s are removed to help relieve pressure on the foundations. 1931 Herbert Norris bequeaths his antiquarian collections to St Ives together with money to build the Norris Museum. It opens to in 1933. Herbert Norris 1934 Mr George Wright Ingle gives the Holt Island, just across from the museum, to St Ives. It is now a nature reserve. 1947 March brings the highest floods of the 20th century. St Ives and much of the surrounding farmland is under water. 1951 The census gives the population of St Ives as 3,078, 3 078, hardly altered since 1881. 1959 The railway line to Huntingdon is closed, followed by the lines to Wisbech in 1967 and Cambridge in 1970. The station is demolished in 1977. Eventually the old railway line will become part of the guided bus way to Cambridge. 1971 Following the building of new housing estates, the the census shows the town has grown to a population of 7,148. 7 1972 The world’s first pocket calculator is designed and made made in St Ives by inventor Clive Sinclair in his works at the old steam mill near the bridge. Sinclair ir Executive calculator 1974 Local government reorganis eorganisation ation sees St Ives Borough Council become a town council, while Huntingdonshire becomes a district within an expanded Cambridgeshire. The arms of Huntingdonshire County Council 1980 St Ives bypass opened, relieving pressure on the old bridge. 1981 Town population now 12,331. 1988 St Ives twinned with Stadtallendorf in Germany. The arms of Stadtallendorf 1991 15,314 people now live in St Ives 1998 Easter brings the highest floods for 50 years and again in 2003. 2001 16,001 people now live in St Ives. 2006 The Environment Agency spends £8 million building flood defences to protect local homes. 2010 More than £100 million is spent on the world’s longest guided bus way between St Ives and Cambridge. St Ives also celebrates the 900th anniversary of the granting of a Royal Charter by Henry I to hold the annual fair in the town. Cambridge guided busway 2012 St Ives celebrates the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic Flame passes through the town. 2013 The Norris Museum celebrates its 80th birthday with a special exhibition called “Herbert’s Huntingdonshire.” The Norris Museum
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