OK, Huntingdon isn't a village, but it still has a cool sign, and to be fair it's a pretty pants town. I can say that; I've lived here for 42 years!!!
Huntingdon is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was chartered by King John in 1205. It is the traditional county town of Huntingdonshire, and is currently the seat of the Huntingdonshire district council. It is known as the birthplace in 1599 of Oliver Cromwell.
Huntingdon was founded by the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. Mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it seems that it was a staging post for Danish raids outside of east Anglia until 917, when the Danes relocated to Tempsford, before being crushed by Edward the Elder. It prospered successively as a bridging point of the River Great Ouse, as a market town, and in the 18th and 19th centuries as a coaching centre, most notably The ****** Hotel. The town has a well-preserved medieval bridge that used to serve as the main route of Ermine Street over the river. The bridge only ceased to be the sole crossing point to Godmanchester in 1975, with the advent of what is now the A14 bypass.
Its valuable trading position was secured by the now vanished Huntingdon Castle. The site is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and is home to a beacon used to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Spanish Armada.
The town has been represented in parliament by two prominent MPs: Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century, and a former Conservative Prime Minister from 1979 to 2001.
Between the railway station and the old hospital building, stands a replica cannon. In the 1990s the replica was installed to replace an original Crimean War one, that stood there until the Second World War, being scrapped for the war effort. When the replica was installed it was placed in the opposite direction from the original.
Check out the year on the plaque on the back of the sign, this is ABCD
The cache is at N 52° AB.7A(B-A) W 000° A(C-B).CDD
The cache is only a short walk away from the "village" sign. Please do not go climbing all over the sign!
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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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