Origin: Slepe and Ivo St Ives was founded on the north bank of the wide
River Great Ouse between
Huntingdon and
Ely, probably in the fifth or sixth century CE. There had been some Roman activity in the area, but the settlement that became St Ives originated in Anglo-Saxon times. It developed because it was possible to
ford the river there; any more easterly crossing point would not have been practicable. The settlement was originally known as "Slepe", implying a muddy area. At that time and later, the area was virtually one large forest. Whatever the exact location of the ford, Slepe became important as it was the lowest convenient crossing of the River Great Ouse; it was an important waypoint for traffic between the Eastern Counties and London. River traffic too developed, although navigation on the river was difficult until major improvements were made much later, in the 17th century. The legend of
St Ivo relates that Slepe received a surprising visitation about a century after it had been established. One morning a tall, dignified man carrying a bishop's crozier and accompanied by two companions, forded the river Great Ouse and announced to the villagers that his name was Ivo, and that he was a missionary. He added that he had been ordered by God to travel to Slepe where he was to make his home and preach the gospel in the surrounding area. In the tenth century,
Ramsey Abbey was founded and in 986, the Manor of Slepe, which by that time was an extensive property, was bequeathed to the Abbey. In the year 1001 CE, a peasant ploughing a field discovered a stone coffin containing a complete human skeleton. It was taken back to the church at Slepe, and declared by the Abbot
Eadnoth, to be the remains of Ivo. At the time it was a lucrative matter for an Abbey to possess the bones of a saint, as wealthy pilgrims were attracted to the location. The relics were claimed to have healing properties. The editors of the Dictionary of Christian Biography describe the legend of Ivo as utterly improbable, "and the monks of Ramsey must be held responsible for the legend. Their abbey had been newly built and needed relics; a consecrated spot was wanted for a daughter-house [at Slepe]". There is a seaside town in Cornwall named
St Ives. That name derives from a holy woman named
Ia of Cornwall and has no connection with the Cambridgeshire town's name. Nevertheless, Slepe became an important destination for pilgrims, and in time the name used for the settlement became "Saint Ives". The presence of the remains gave Slepe considerable prestige. Ramsey Abbey had been established in AD974 with a charter from
King Edgar, and the community at Slepe was made subordinate to Ramsey Abbey. The significance of Ivo's remains meant that the community at Slepe became referred to as St Ives. About 1001 CE Abbot Eadnoth had Ivo's remains moved to Ramsey, but by that time the name St Ives had become the usual name for the town that had originated as Slepe.
After the Norman Conquest Slepe was listed in the
Hundred of
Hurstingstone in Huntingdonshire in the
Domesday Book. It states that In St Ives, the Abbot of Ramsey had 20
hides to the geld [taxable]. [There is] land for 24 ploughs, and he had land for 2 ploughs in
demesne, apart from the aforementioned hides. There are now 3 ploughs in demesne and 39
villains and 12 smallholders who have 20 [or 6?] ploughs. There is a church and a priest, and 60 acres of meadow [and] woodland pasture 1
league and a half broad. Value before 1066 was £20 and now £16. Three of the Abbot's men, Everard, Ingelrann and Pleines, have 4 hides of this land, and 3½ ploughs. 5 villagers and 6 smallholders with 3 ploughs. [They have] the church and the priest. Value 45s. Eustace claims 2½ ploughs.
Note: merged from differing translations of the original text in Latin. Burn-Murdoch explains that "A hide was an area of land, probably about 120 acres. Land "in lordship" was cultivated by the lord of the manor as his own Home Farm. Villeins and borderers were different kinds of peasant. A league was probably about one and a half miles. The Eustace who claims some of the land was the sheriff of Huntingdonshire). As St Ives continued to be a focus for travel in the area, it developed in importance as a trading point and a staging point for travellers. In 1107 the ford crossing of the river was replaced by a wooden bridge, at the site of the present-day stone bridge. The wooden bridge further encouraged the importance of St Ives, but it incurred heavy maintenance costs and in the early 15th century it was decided to replace the wooden bridge with
a stone bridge; this was completed in 1426.
Post-medieval St Ives The key position of St Ives on a trunk route from
Huntingdon to
Ipswich may be seen in
John Ogilby's
Britannia (1675), a series of strip maps of roads. In 1689 there was a disastrous fire in the town which destroyed much of the built up infrastructure; Pettis was an eye-witness: Tuesday april 30 hear happened a sudden and dreadfull fire in a malt house at the end of Whithart lane next padlemore. The wind being very high it ran up to the Street flew cross the Sheep market, consuming all to the reverside with part of the Bridg Street and to the other side the bridg consum’d part of them two houses. The economy of the town was principally agricultural, more arable than livestock. Carter says that The major crops of the hinterland were wheat and barley, but the corn market of St Neots was more important than that of St Ives... However, there are references to fifteen granaries attached to inns in the eighteenth century which suggests that the crop was traded from them before transport to St Neots or elsewhere. There were large numbers of maltsters, some of whom became wealthy men. Carter continues: For all the benefits that the market and increased traffic on the river brought to the town it did not lead to the establishment of major new industries. Such information as we have shows that the cargoes earned by river were not produced in St Ives. From the 17th to the mid-19th century, St Ives remained a hub for trade and navigation in this part of East Anglia. There were inns to cater for the merchants, mariners and drovers who did business in the town. Goods were brought into the town on barges and livestock rested on the last fattening grounds before being sent to London's
Smithfield Market. However, with the opening of the
Cambridge and St Ives railway line in 1847, and improvements to the local road networks, commercial traffic on the River Great Ouse entered a steady decline. The commercial activity of St Ives was dominated by agriculture: its weekly cattle market was said to be second only to
Smithfield Market, in London. Situated on
the drove road from the north of England and southern Scotland, it was a convenient market to sell beasts to meat wholesalers of southern and eastern counties. Nevertheless the town did have some industries as well. The company
Tom M Scotney Limited established itself in St Ives in 1916, having operated on a small scale in
Sawtry. The business manufactured timber products for agricultural use: sheep and cattle troughs, and fencing. After
World War II the range was extended to include poultry houses, piggeries, farm carts and trailers, and motor lorry motor bodies. The original ownership was sold on in the 1960s and manufacturing ceased in the mid 1990s. After 1846
Potto Brown established a flour mill, that became known as Brown and Goodman's Steam Corn Mill. In 1902 the mill was sold to the
Chivers Company of
Histon. They converted the mill to a printing works for their jam jar labels. A subsidiary company named Enderby and Co. Ltd. was set up. Later the company supplied any business requiring its services. The works closed down in 1965. In 1968 the mill building was taken over by Advanced Instrumentation Modules, an electronics manufacturer.
Clive Sinclair was the next occupier of the mill, in 1971, manufacturing pioneering microprocessor devices. The factors that held the town back from further urban growth were that it lacked an industrial base, and had no monopoly to exploit except the sale of livestock, a trade whose major profits went to outsiders, like the Duke of Manchester. River traffic, largely controlled by outsiders, had to compete with traffic by road, and the more important centre for transport and many other aspects of life was the nearby county town of Huntingdon. The River Great Ouse at St Ives flooded in 1947, and some parts suffered seriously again at Easter 1998 and in January 2003. Extensive
flood protection works were carried out on both sides of the river in 2006-07 at a cost of nearly £9 million. of brick-clad steel-piling was installed to protect the town, most noticeably at the Waits, where a plaza has also been created. A further on the other side of the river protects
Hemingford Grey, reducing the yearly risk of flooding from 10% to 1%. Building on the flood plain at St Ives is now discouraged. ==Governance==