Discover Huntingdon: Town History and Nature

The Cromwell Museum and the Historic Town Trail explore specific historical themes, while green spaces and riverbanks offer a different focus.

Town History in the Centre

The Cromwell Museum is in the heart of Huntingdon town centre, just off the historic market square and opposite the Town Hall and All Saints’ Church. It displays original weapons and armour from the Civil War period, including several of Cromwell’s swords. The collection gives the town’s history a tangible connection to this era.

The guided Historic Town Trail runs from the Town Hall past the “Thinking Soldier” war memorial, the 16th-century Falcon Inn and All Saints’ Church. Old prisons are also part of the trail. Its stops range from a war memorial and an inn with a historic date to a church and prisons.

Other traces of Huntingdon’s history include the remains of a Norman motte-and-bailey castle beside the river. A well-preserved 14th-century bridge is still in use today. The castle remains and the bridge represent different aspects of the town’s history: the remains of a castle complex on the one hand, and a historic structure that is still in use on the other.

Green Spaces, Paths and Wildlife Watching

Hinchingbrooke Country Park covers 150 acres and includes open grassland, ancient woodland and lakes. Its network of surfaced paths is suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs, and for walking in any season. The landscape and paths are therefore as much a part of a visit to the park as the opportunities to watch wildlife.

Mountain bikers can use a purpose-built course with jumps and earth mounds of varying sizes. The entire Main Lake can be accessed around its perimeter. Several benches provide opportunities to watch waterfowl and reed buntings. All three British woodpecker species, nuthatches and willow tits can also be spotted in the park. With luck, you may also see an otter or a kingfisher.

Spring Common offers a different landscape: this 13-acre public space includes a natural spring, a quiet pond and open grassland, and is open to the public at all times. Riverside Park Huntingdon covers 34 acres and stretches for two kilometres along the riverbank. By area, Hinchingbrooke Country Park is the largest of these three green spaces, at 150 acres; the others differ in their respective landscape features and in the riverside location of Riverside Park.

A Winter Racing Fixture

The Peterborough Chase is the highlight of the racing events at Huntingdon Racecourse and takes place fourteen days before Christmas. If the race is a reason for your trip, check the latest race dates in advance, as fixture details may change.

The Discover Huntingdon Visitor Centre is located in the Commemoration Hall.

Discover more destinations: Ramsey, Cambourne, St Neots, Eaton Socon, Hinxton, Little Wilbraham, St Ives, Sawtry.

For the broader travel overview: Cambridgeshire.