County Dossier
Huntingdonshire
A compact county of rivers, fen and market towns.
Huntingdonshire is an inland county lying between the Midlands and East Anglia, characterised by rural landscapes, charming villages, and a handful of small towns.
At a glance
Huntingdonshire at a glance
A compact county of rivers, fen and market towns.
- Birthplace of Oliver Cromwell
- Huntingdon made royal borough (c.974)
- Fenland county
- Area: 366 sq miles / 948 sq km
- Population: 211,776
- County Top: Bush Ground (263ft / 80m)
County Geography
Huntingdonshire sits between Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Cambridgeshire.
The Great Ouse and its tributaries shape much of the county, while the western higher ground and the eastern fen-edge country give it clear physical contrasts. Its compact size is part of its coherence rather than a weakness.
The Ouse corridor and the close spacing of its towns give Huntingdonshire its small-scale county structure. Routes along the river and across the slight rise between fen-edge and western upland made that frame practical.
Later administrative changes did not alter that geography. The Ouse, the fen margin, and the cluster of Huntingdon, St Neots, St Ives, Ramsey, and Kimbolton still describe the same county.
Map Reference
View Huntingdonshire on the map
Huntingdonshire is the county. The map also shows lieutenancies and council areas that use the county name.
The county.
The lieutenancy.
Council areas.
Places and routes
Huntingdon, St Neots, St Ives, Ramsey, and Kimbolton belong to the county’s story, alongside the middle Ouse, the fen-edge, the western clay uplands, and the meadow and arable country between them.
Connections
Movement through Huntingdonshire followed the Great Ouse, its bridges and crossing points, and the road lines linking the market towns across the county’s compact interior. Those routes made the county function as a single river-centred unit.
Names
- Huntingdonshire
- County of Huntingdon
County of Huntingdon is the formal historical style used alongside Huntingdonshire. Hunts is a later abbreviation, not a separate county name.
Established as a shire in the early medieval period, Huntingdonshire retained its identity as a small but distinct geographic county, with its river corridor and fen-edge setting still clearly legible.