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NORTHSTOWE HISTORY
Iron Age to 1939
Set between the world-renowned university city of Cambridge and the market town of St Ives, Northstowe is the UK's most significant new town project since the founding of Milton Keynes in 1967.
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Built on the parish lands of Longstanton, Oakington and Westwick, Nor thstowe has become par t of a rich histor y that goes back thousands of years Over the last 20 years, archaeological excavations have shown that the land has been inhabited since the Iron Age and possibly earlier
The new town's name is taken from the 'Hundred of Nor thstow', mentioned in William the Conqueror's Doomsday Book of 1086, which existed for many centuries The Doomsday Book shows that 'Stantune' was one of the most populated villages in the local area, with sheep as the predominant livestock The free draining gravel ridge which runs through these earlier settlements would have made the area an attractive place to live, with the community able to obtain fish, fowl and reeds from the nearby fen Arable farming would have been at the forefront of villagers' lives, evidenced by medieval cultivation in the paddocks near the churches.
Following the Norman conquest of 1066, Long Stanton was divided into three principal Manors After becoming Lords of the Manor in the early 17th centur y, the Hatton family was Longstanton's largest landowner for the next 250 years.
The Hatton family crest, featuring a Golden Hind, can be seen in Longstanton's All Saints' Church Sir Christopher Hatton, Chancellor to Elizabeth І and cousin of John Hatton, Lord of the Manor of All Saints, provided financial suppor t to Sir Francis Drake when he was preparing to make his voyage around the world In recognition of that suppor t, Sir Francis Drake renamed one of his ships' The Golden Hind'
After the death of the last Lord of the Manor, Sir Thomas Dingley Hatton, in 1812, the Hatton Estate was broken into smaller farms and sold in 1874 This sale laid the foundations for rural life in the villages, which continued until the outbreak of World War Two
