[3] Evidence of early-middle Iron Age settlement in the form of ditches, a pit and sherds of pottery was found in 2009 by archaeologists at Vicarage Farm off the B1042 Gamlingay Road.

[6] Potton's market was one of the largest in Bedfordshire in the Tudor and Stuart periods, but declined after the Great Fire in 1783.

[6] The Shambles provided folding market stalls in the town square before brick buildings were put in place by Samuel Whitbread, the Lord of the Manor, in 1797.

[6] The Great Fire of Potton started in a stack of clover in a field in the area of what is now Spencer Close, in 1783.

When the Great Northern Railway came to Sandy in 1850, Captain Peel had a branch line built to his estate and on to Potton.

[11] The Potton Barbershop Harmony Club named its male chorus 'Shannon Express' after the locomotive.

[12] Potton railway station, which opened in 1862 and served the Varsity Line between Oxford to Cambridge, was closed in 1968.

It was requisitioned by the armed forces and used as a laboratory during the war and as a car factory by Eva Pokorova and Otto van Smekal.

Potton Brook flows centrally, north to south through the parish and is the dividing point between two National Character Areas (NCAs) designated by Natural England.

The town and west of the parish lie on the Everton Greensand Ridge (LCA 6C), land surrounding Potton Brook is part of the Dunton Clay Vale (5G) and Potton Wood and its surrounds are on Cockayne Hatley Clay Farmland (1C).

The land slopes from north to south and reaches a high of 88 metres (289 ft) at Potton Wood in the north-east of the parish.

[22] Geology, soil type and land use The town is mainly surrounded by arable farmland.

[23] The soil at the centre and west of the parish is of low fertility and is freely draining and slightly acid with a sandy texture.

Alongside Potton Brook the soil is loamy and sandy with naturally high groundwater and a peaty texture.

There are highly fertile lime-rich loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage at and to the south of Potton Wood.

Potton Town Council has 15 members and meets at the Community Centre in Brook End.

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service has a station on Bury Hill staffed by retained firefighters.

A memorial cross to Potton men killed in the First and Second World Wars stands in the cemetery, with a brass plaque bearing the same names in the parish church.

[41] The parish church of St Mary's stands a short distance from the town centre on a small hill.

It has a chancel, a nave, aisles and north porch, and a western tower with circular turret containing six bells.

This company subsequently closed the brewery in Potton and sold the site to the Co-operative Society (the original buildings remain intact).

A sand quarry operated by Breedon Aggregates lies off The Heath to the north-west of the town.