St Ives is an attractive market town near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.  2025 marks the 600^th Anniversary of the building of their iconic bridge and the English Civil War Society is part of a year-long series of events to celebrate St Ives Bridge and its famous St Ledger Chapel.

The English Civil War Society and the town of St Ives will commemorate the blowing up of their famous bridge during the Civil War. The bridge was partly demolished to prevent Royalists using the river crossing to advance on London. The two arches on the south side were blown up and replaced with a drawbridge which wasn’t removed until 1716. 

St Ives has strong connections to Oliver Cromwell and there is a statue of him in the centre of town. Nearby in Huntingdon is the Cromwell Museum and a few miles away at Earith there are Civil War fortifications still remaining.

Over the weekend of July 26-27 we will be marching into St Ives, ‘blowing up’ the bridge and performing full scale battle reenactments at Hill Rise Park.

Events will begin on Saturday 26^th between 11.00 – 1.00 with a march into St Ives and a short skirmish between Parliamentary forces and local Royalists. The Royalists will be driven off and the bridge will be blown. As well as seventeenth soldiers there will be period civilians to be seen. 

The action then moves to Hill Rise Park from 2.00pm where there will be a full-scale battle in the afternoon. Also on the Park will be a Living History encampment with displays of seventeen century life.

On Sunday 27^th from 11.00 am there will be a full programme of events in the Park within the Living History encampment plus drill displays from infantry, cavalry and artillery before the main battle in the afternoon.

All the events are free. There is plentiful parking within St Ives. Parking is very limited at Hill Rise Park itself but there is parking on the roads around the site. Hill Rise is on a bus route [Stagecoach Busway Service B] between Huntingdon and St Ives and there are bus stops close to the Park. 

Further details about all the events celebrating St Ives Bridge 600 anniversary and the weekend of 26-27 July can be found at www.stivescambridgeshire.co.uk

This page will be updated as more details become available.