travel & tourism

The Hemingfords Circular Walk /  by Emily Randall

It’s very cold today in Chicago but I am reminiscing about a lovely outing my husband and I had in early September, 2022 in Huntingdonshire. (Technically, this is Cambridgeshire, but until 1974 it was a separate county called Huntingdonshire.) We explored the town of St Ives and the nearby villages of Houghton, Hemingford Abbots, and Hemingford Grey all on foot. The walk is an easy and flat 5 miles. We really lucked out with the weather.

Bucolic scene along the River Great Ouse

The route is described on this page from The National Trust, but we did it in reverse and started in St Ives. We took the bus from Huntingdon to St Ives then walked to Houghton through The Thicket. In Houghton we admired many thatched cottages and Houghton Mill (still in operation) then trekked across the meadow to the Hemingfords. We ate lunch at the Axe and Compass pub followed by a brief stop at The Manor (“one of the oldest continuously inhabited houses in Britain”). The Manor house was closed to tours but we were able to see the garden. Then we headed back to St Ives via a field of grazing sheep.

Back in St Ives we visited The Norris Museum and had cream tea at Tom’s Cakes. St Ives has a great atmosphere. We saw some very promising pubs, but as our bellies were full of scones, we decided to wait until we were back in Huntingdon to get a pint.

If you are visiting London as a tourist and want to get out into the countryside for a day or two I highly recommend this region. St Ives does not have a train station but you can get there by bus from Huntingdon or Cambridge.

I may end up back here at some point as it’s close to one of my ancestral villages that I haven’t had a chance to visit yet: Fenstanton.

Circular Walk to Godmanchester /  by Emily Randall

On our September 2022 visit to Huntingdon, England, we did a short circular walk to the town of Godmanchester, just over the River Great Ouse. We did the walk in the late afternoon/early evening, midweek. The weather was perfect.

We started by walking across the Old Bridge, which is a medieval stone bridge along the Roman Road known as Ermine Street. A Roman settlement called Durovigutum existed here at Godmanchester from around 43 AD to the 400s AD.

On the banks of the River Great Ouse at Huntingdon, with the Old Bridge and Riverside Mill (now residential units) in the background

We walked down the Godmanchester high street for a bit then veered west on Mill Yard towards the famous Chinese Bridge (a wooden pedestrian bridge). This area was so peaceful! We also found it to be a lot more picturesque and safer for pedestrians than Huntingdon, which has a busy ring road ‘round the town center.

The Post House caught my eye - interesting shape

Thatched roofs and swans - what more can you ask for?

My husband resting at Godmanchester Chinese Bridge

We then headed back to Huntingdon via Portholme meadow, the largest floodplain meadow in England! It is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Conservation Area, and it has a footpath which everyone can use. Public footpaths are a foreign concept in the United States, but one of my favorite parts of traveling in England. Instead of having to go all the way around a field, you can just cut through!

Portholme Meadow was so large and so flat that its expansiveness felt a little frightening at first. We were also nervous to walk among the cows, as this is just not something we do on a regular basis, but we made sure not to get too close to them. We arrived on the other side of the meadow unscathed and treated ourselves to dinner and a pint.

Crossing Portholme Meadow, looking back towards Godmanchester

My Huntingdon ancestors probably did this walk many times. It was neat to follow in their footsteps!

Back in Huntingdon, which is probably (hopefully) the only town with an Oliver Cromwell rubbish bin.