Huntingdon and Godmanchester

Coordinates: 52°19′08″N 0°10′30″W / 52.319°N 0.175°W

Huntingdon and Godmanchester
Area
 - 1961 7,057 acres (28.56 km2)
Population
 - 1961 8,821
History
 - Created 1961
 - Abolished 1974
 - Succeeded by Huntingdon District
Status Municipal borough
 - HQ Huntingdon

Huntingdon and Godmanchester was a municipal borough in Huntingdonshire (and then Huntingdon and Peterborough) from 1961 to 1974. [1]

It was formed in 1961 by the merger of the boroughs of Huntingdon and Godmanchester. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972 the borough was abolished, and a successor parish formed within Huntingdon District, in the non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire. The parish had the status of a town, by resolution of the parish council.

The borough was granted a coat of arms in 1963, which illustrated the union of the two towns. The shield was divided horizontally in a dovetail pattern to show the joining of two municipalities. At the top of the shield were two hunting horns for Huntingdon, and at the base a fleur-de-lis from the common seal of Godmanchester. The supporters on either side of the shield were described as a "medieval huntsman" and a "medieval oxherd", and they stood upon a representation of the old bridge at Huntingdon that linked the two towns. The motto was United We Advance.

In 1982 the union of the two towns ended, with the formation of two separate civil parishes of Huntingdon and Godmanchester, each governed by a town council.

References