Blogs and articles

Owned by James Paine (1789-1855), who originally ran the Great Paxton Farm. Around 1831, Paine decided to enter trade, including milling, brewing and merchanting business, as well as brick kilns. After…

Here at St Neots Museum, our latest exhibition is all about photography! The history of cameras begins long before photography itself, with the ancient concept of the camera obscura, a darkened room…

Blog Editorial November 2022  Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II lived during a century of incredible development and change and this article looks back at local events during her ninety-six…

Blog Editorial May 2022 To celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in May 2022, we take a lighthearted look at local links with Royalty. As far as we know Elizabeth II never visited…

This month, our curator delves into the history of photography and takes a look at the early photographs taken of St Neots. The first temporary exhibition of 2022 is ‘What a Beautiful World’ a photographic…

From biblical personalities sprouting horns to life on Mars, here's five instances that historical misinterpretations and translations have impacted history A few months ago, we wrote a blog post about…

“St. Swithin’s Day if thou dost rain, for forty days it will remain.” – or so says an old Scottish proverb... The 15th July marks the feast day of St Swithin (sometimes spelt St Swithun), an Anglo-Saxon…

From ferocious beasts to friendly rainbow spouting mascots, it turns out that unicorns have been around in some form or other from the earliest of civilisations. As April 9th marks National Unicorn Day,…

The Miles quadruplets, Ann, Ernest, Paul and Michael, soon to be known the world over as the ‘St Neots Quads’, were born on 28 November 1935 at 13 Ferrars Avenue, Eynesbury. They were the first British…

Who do we have to thank for our divisions of time? And how did the days and months get their names? Read on to find out in our brief history of time… We’ve been thinking a lot about time recently.…

The 21st December is the Winter Solstice, which traditionally marks the beginning of Yule, a pre-Christian festival still in part celebrated in Scandinavian and Germanic societies. Whilst it’s easy to…

At this time of year, we crave certain comfort food: pumpkin pies, toffee apples, chocolate (in any form!) … But have you ever wondered why certain foods have become associated with Halloween? Well,…

Historical legend tells us that on the 21st September 1327, King Edward II was brutally murdered at Berkeley Castle, by receiving a red-hot poker to the bottom, yikes! Though the story may merely be fable…

"Don't panic! Don't panic!" Many of us have fond memories of the popular TV series Dad's Army, but how close was this comical depiction to the REAL Home Guard? Here's a brief look at its history... The…

We're thrilled to announce that St Neots Museum has been awarded £14,845 of National Lottery funding by Arts Council England! This comes from ACE's Emergency Response Fund to support the arts and museums…

Here's a fascinating guest post by one of our volunteers, Emily, who's here to enlighten us all about the history of our beloved gardens... Gardens, we all take them for granted these days don’t we?…

We all know the tale of the Greeks sneaking into Troy in the belly of a giant wooden horse, so we thought we’d share three other surprise attacks from history that you may not have heard of… Hannibal…

On Sunday, 9 July 1648, seven months prior to the execution of King Charles, the Earl and his army of approximately 400 men entered St Neots in the county of Huntingdonshire. The Earl's men were…

The foundation of the priory of St Neots is so involved in legend that it is almost impossible to separate what is true in it from what is merely the work of imagination.

A visitor recently asked the museum curator, Liz Davies about the image we are using to advertise our English Civil War Murder Mystery evening – why are the Parliamentarians not wearing roundhead helmets?…

In 1898 a 26-year-old farmer, Walter Horsford, stood trial charged with the murder by poisoning of his cousin Annie Holmes. He was found guilty and later that year hung.