As I was going to St Ives (St Ives in general)

Name: mumsymary

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Product:	St Ives in general
Date:	21/05/05 (165 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: nice small market town

Disadvantages: ?

As I was going to St Ives
I met a man with seven wives.
Every wife had seven sacks,
Every sack had seven cats,
Every cat had seven kits;
Kits, cats, sacks and wives -
How many were going to St Ives?

So goes the old rhyme written about this St Ives answers in my comment book and I will tell you if you are right, prize, eeeeerrrr I will read and write a comment on one of your reviews

I went to secondary school there yes I went to the Ivo 40 years ago, failed my 11 plus so had to go to the secondary school in the town of St Ives 4 miles away from my home village. This school is now a comprehensive.
This town called St I ves is not in Cornwall but in Cambridgeshire in the area of Huntingdonshire. St Ives is about 14 miles from Cambridge about 6 miles from Huntingdon. Access by the A14 M11, which is about 2 miles away. When I was a child we used to enter St Ives over a lovely stone bridge with a chapel in the centre this was built in 1420. This bridge spans the river great Ouse. This bridge is now not used by traffic there is a new road / by pass and Bridge street is pedestrianised.
St Ives was originally called Slepe but was later named after St Ivo a Persian bishop whose bones were found at St Ives in 1001
St Ives town has several shops some of these are a woolworths, a Boots, Super drug, Eaden lilley department store now replaces the old department store Bryants, dewhursts the butchers, a couple of newsagents (I used to work in a small newsagent to earn my pocket money when I was 15) A waitrose, Lloyds chemist, a jewellers, a shoe shop or two and several hairdressers. St Ives is a small town but people from the neighbouring villages shop here.

One of the attractions is the street market held on a Monday and Friday. There is also a bigger bank holiday market and a farmers market is held some weeks. The market sells fruit vegetables as well as clothes and other market sundries. In the market place stands a statue of Oliver Cromwell who farmed here in 163-16361. I can remember a animal, market with sheep pens here in my youth, not sure if this event still goes on
There is a summer carnival every year, and an annual fair that I remember going to doing the cake walk and riding on the dodgems.

Brownies, guide and scout groups are held here I was in the 1st St Ives girl guides 1968 –71 or there about. I can remember deliberately taking my tracking group past the scout hut just so I could catch a glimpse of a certain scout.
There is a marina on the edge of St Ives to moor and store your boats. More love interest here for me at 16 I met and fell in puppy love with a venture scout who had with his friends sailed down the Great Ouse and stopped here Ahh I wonder where he is now.
There are buses to St Ives from surrounding villages and the train Station has reopened now with a route to London via Cambridge. The town is a pleasant small town. The river lovely as it meanders through the town centre. I have fond memories of fishing with my dad from a position on The Waits, a green area where boats can moor, and people sit watching the world go by. It is possible to walk from here back to the county town of Huntingdon along by the river. Some of this was our cross-country run route when I was at school. (Yes we did often take the shortcut and hoped no teachers would see us, I can admit to this now as I guess most of my teachers then are dead or so old they do not care anymore ;-)).
Did you know Clive Sinclair made the first pocket calculator at the old mill in 1982!

There are a couple of tearooms if you are thirsty now (hubby just mad me a cup) also several places pubs / hotels to eat. I have eaten at the Dolphin a pub by the river and found it pleasant food fairly standard, buttery self-service fair and a lovely situation. It gets quite busy so you may need to book.
There is an Italian and a Chinese restaurant also an Indian restaurant; my dad did some electrical work at the Indian trouble is dad does not really like Indian food so unable to sample their meals (he was an electrician now retired).
I have some good memories of St Ives working in the newsagents being a girl guide Oh those scouts and our campfires. Doing the cakewalk at the fair. Horse rising with my best friend.
Thank you for reading my ramblings about the local market town of my childhood. It is quite a pleasant place to visit.

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