Welcome to Somersham

The crossroads and old market place at Somersham, Huntingdonshire

Sumeresham (11th century), Sumresham, Summersham (12th century), Summersum (17th century) and Somersham (Modern)

That Somersham is an ancient village there is no doubt, it has also kept the same name for many hundreds of years although the spelling of it has varied over time. In the 11th Century it was Sumeresham and by the 12th Century Sumresham or Summersham and even as late as the 17th Century the village was known as Summersum. But the changes to the spelling of its name is not the only major change experienced by Somersham; by 991AD the Manor had been given to the Abbey at Ely by Brithnoth, a patriotic leader who fell in battle with Danish invaders.

Somersham was granted a market charter in 1190 and in 1319 the right to hold a three-day fair on the birthday of St John the Baptist to whom the local Anglican church is dedicated. In 1838 the Eastern Counties Railway opened a station at Somersham on its line between March and Cambridge. The station at Somersham and the line closed in 1967. So Somersham got off to a good start and even though the palace and the railway are long since gone, the village has continued to grow and develop.

Somersham is one of the parishes of the District of Huntingdonshire, whose administrative centre is Huntingdon, the other principle towns being St Ives home of the Chapel on the Bridge, St Neots the largest town in the County of Cambridgeshire, the Roman town of Godmanchester and Ramsey site of the former Abbey.