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Fenstanton – in Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), England – is a village near Hemingford Grey south of St Ives.
Lying on the Via Devana, the Roman road linking army camps at Godmanchester and Cambridge, Fenstanton was a Romano/British villa, probably established to keep the natives in order after their attack on the forces of the IX Legion Hispana retreating from an ambush at Cambridge by Boadicea's tribesmen.
The next military action by men of Fenstanton came in support of Hereward the Wake. From his stronghold on the Isle of Ely Hereward was annoying the Normans so King William I assembled a force in Cambridge to deal with the problem. He summoned men from Huntingdon but they did not pass Fenstanton and escaped with their lives by swimming across the river.
The village is the ancestral home of John Howland, one of the Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Historical documents relating to Fenstanton, including Church of England parish registers, records of the Manor of Fenstanton, maps and photographs, are held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at the County Record Office, Huntingdon.
Fenstanton is the current base of Cambridgeshire bus operator Go Whippet.
(Source: Wikipedia) |