Why not take a stroll around the town and enjoy the history before your eyes. Situated on the banks of the River Great Ouse, the town is flat and easy to get around. Map here.

In Godmanchester you can feast your eyes on over 400 hundred years worth of architectural history. After all - history is always said to repeat itself and it certainly succeeds if you look at the buildings of Godmanchester. The styles have come full circle from the original timber framed buildings of The Causeway, through the elegant red brick of Island Hall, onto the rows of 1920's "homes for heros" and back round to the modern houses on The Crofts aping the timber frames and leaded light windows of the Tudor period.

The past prosperity of our town is beautifully preserved in timber and brick. The outstanding quality of our built heritage is acknowledged by the designation of two Conservation Areas and well over 100 buildings listed as being of architectural or historic interest. (As you can see - Even Clifford's Chemist Shop is a Timber Framed Building. - Note in 2002 the building will revert to private accommodation)

In the medieval town the church was of paramount importance; hence the largest building in Godmanchester is the Church of St Mary the Virgin whose tower was built in 1623-25 out of materials from its 13th century predecessor. If you thought the poll tax was bad every one of the inhabitants of Godmanchester was taxed to pay for the tower's erection - and those who didn't pay up were sent to prison - not a pleasant prospect in those days! For those intrigued by unusual details the Church has a rare Saxon mass dial set into a buttress on the south chancel wall - just don't try telling the time by it as it is marked to show times of services not hours.

Mostly though, Godmanchester's architecture is of a more domestic scale; and we have one of the best collections of timber framed buildings around. The larger ones are commonly known as hall and chamber houses as they had a main hall serving as living room and kitchen, a chamber for sleeping and storage and a large central chimney. By the early 17th century, when many of Godmanchester's remaining examples were built, an additional storage room was common, and for those that could afford it the addition of a second storey resulting in the typical overhanging or "jettied" appearance associated with timber framed houses. (Note the "Replacement Windows & Doors" - Georgian originals that would be rejected by the Planners today!)

For the best concentration of timber framed buildings, a quick stroll down Earning Street is recommended. Tudor Farm must be the best known of the timber framed houses in Godmanchester and now that the wraps have finally come off it presents a glorious picture of how a large Tudor Farmhouse must have looked, with the added bonus of clean streets around it and no fear of being assailed by a bucket of slops being emptied out of the window onto your head. Almost opposite is Plantagenet House a small timber framed cottage with an attractive gabled oriel window, the whole restored with an admirable regard to authenticity in the Queen's Silver Jubilee year saving it from semi-dereliction. It is named after Edmund Plantagenet, son of Edward III, and the lord of the manor which once stood there. Just over the road a few houses along from Tudor Farm stands The Gables a larger timber framed house typical of the 1620's with exposed beams on the first floor, the whole of which is jettied out to the street. (17th Century Godmanchester)

To reach the 18th century look at the original part of The Holme, the south wing built in yellow gault brick with red decoration is from the late 18th century, with the north wing a 19th century addition carefully designed to match the original. Island Hall has to be one of the most impressive buildings in Godmanchester set back behind high iron railings. Built of red brick with stone dressings the symmetrical design of the front is repeated on the rear elevation. It originates from the mid 18th century, but as was their tendency the Victorians had a good go at modernising the property, particularly the exterior. However, one of its great advantages is that it's one of the few historic houses in Godmanchester officially open to the public occasionally so that you can enjoy the interior beauty of our architectural heritage as well as the exterior.

When Farm Hall was built in 1746 for Charles Clarke, Recorder of Huntingdon, the French were our perpetual enemy not the Germans. So he could never have imagined that one day it would be used to detain 10 leading German scientists. The project was classified as Top Secret - the details were only released to the public in February 1992. "Operation Epsilon - the Farm Hall Transcripts" of 1993 gives a detailed account of the way British Intelligence secretly recorded the conversations of these top physicists and chemists at the end of the war in Europe discussing atomic bomb technology. They cannot have been too unhappy here though as the Christmas album they put together for their hosts is now held at the Imperial War Museum in London.

Godmanchester missed out (fortunately!) on the great Victorian expansion that hit many towns with the coming of the railway. 20th century development though has more than doubled the size of the town and this is where history really starts to repeat itself - how many people living happily in Betts Close know that Roman burials were excavated from underneath their houses! The site lies just outside the town walls of Roman Godmanchester and close by the Roman road called Ermine Street. According to the archaeologists the burials were from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, were strikingly regular, and the bones indicated the local residents had suffered leprosy, arthritis and child-birth trauma. As for people like me who live in those neat Tudor and Georgian style houses on the new estates off London Road - just don't think about digging your vegetable patch too deep!

Clare Bond

© 1999 Godmanchester Community Association