The birthplace of John Howland, one of the first pilgrims on the Mayflower ...
... and the final resting place of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, artist and landscape gardener.
Fenstanton – in Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire), England – is a village near Hemingford Grey two miles south of St Ives lying on the south side of the River Ouse.
Known as Stantun in the 11th century, Staunton and Stanton Gisbrit de Gant in the 13th century, the name Fenstanton (and Fennystanton) appeared from the 14th century. The name "Fenstanton" means "fenland stone enclosure".
Lying on the Via Devana, the Roman road that linked the army camps at Godmanchester and Cambridge, Fenstanton was the site of a Roman villa, probably designed to keep the natives in order after their attack on the forces of the IX Legion Hispana as they retreated from an ambush at Cambridge by Boadicea's tribesmen.
The inhabitants of Fenstanton again saw action when they rose in support of Hereward the Wake. From his stronghold on the Isle of Ely Hereward led resistance against the Normans causing King William I to assemble a force in Cambridge to deal with the problem. Men were summoned from Huntingdon but they did not pass Fenstanton and escaped with their lives only by swimming across the river.
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If anybody would like to expand this series please do. I would just ask that you let SmokeyPugs know first so they can keep track of the Village Sign numbers and names to avoid duplication..
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