St. Ives, Cambridgeshire Hotels and Guest Houses

Let's get one thing out of the way first: St. Ives in the county of Cambridgeshire is not the same St. Ives that is located in Cornwall. With that little discrepancy aside, we'll delve into this particular Cambridgeshire and see what it has to offer. For one, St. Ives in fact used to be known as Slepe. While the name St. Ives certainly seems to roll off the tongue better than Slepe, one wonders if there would have been less confusion between the two towns had St. Ives simply kept the name Slepe. Either way, there was a real Saint Ives and he lived in England years ago and both towns loved him so much that they saw fit to immortalize his name. Funnily enough, though, his name was actually Saint Ivo! He was a Persian saint who would now be considered Iranian. What is even funnier is the fact that there is another famous Ivo in history and the two Ivos get confused and mixed up just like the two towns that bear their names!



One really can't say that this St. Ives is better than that or vice versa. One thing that can't be denied, however, is the fact that St. Ives has had a thriving and lively market square for over a thousand years. Many people cite St. Ives as having the most and largest markets out of any town in the United Kingdom and it truly is hard to find any competition in this arena. Naturally, the concept of the "market square" began to wane after the end of the Middle Ages. It was during this time that St. Ives began to reinvent itself as something of a port town. During the 1700s and 1800s people traded wares and shipped them in and out of St. Ives at a remarkable pace. Barges were used to bring in most of these goods and barges were also used to export them when the time was right. Livestock was a huge commodity in St. Ives as well for several centuries and people would come from all around to get a hold of the healthy and delicious beasts grown in St. Ives.



Sadly, St. Ives isn't impervious to peril. Floods have been a thorn in the side of this city's paw for quite some time and, in 1947, one of the most dreadful and destructive floods in the century fell upon the town. The River Ouse has always been a bothersome river when it comes to flooding and St. Ives, along with most other towns on the Ouse, fell prey in a big way on that fateful day. This wouldn't be the last time either; in 1998 another flood hit St. Ives and brought with it plenty of damage. Thankfully, the town now has a fine wall in use that has nearly rendered floods impossible. Thus, it is safe to go to St. Ives even during rainy seasons and, on top of that, it is downright recommended!

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The St. Ives, Cambridgeshire Tourist Board gives comparable information to this page. If you require more information about St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, you may be able to obtain it from the St. Ives, Cambridgeshire Tourist Board.

We hope you find suitable St. Ives accommodation. You can book cheap hotels, guest houses or St. Ives bed and breakfasts from the list above. Enjoy your stay in St. Ives hotels.