Ramsey is a market town and civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England.

[2] The town manor is built on the site of (and using materials from) the ancient Abbey and is the seat of the Lords de Ramsey, major landowners in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.

It received a series of substantial grants of land by King Edgar who confirmed all the privileges in 975, including the banlieue.

The abbey experienced the transition to Norman rule without difficulty and in the 11th century, it underwent a period of rebuilding.

In the civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda the monastery was badly damaged and impoverished.

[3] However, in the 13th and 14th centuries the house had a succession of wealthy abbots who undertook a series of costly building programmes.

The Black Death brought prosperity to a temporary halt, and by the end of the 14th century, the house was financially decayed.

At the dissolution the Crown granted the site of the monastery, its land and associated granges at Bodsey and Biggin to Richard Williams (alias Cromwell) who demolished the buildings and sold the materials.

Throughout the Middle Ages Ramsey remained a small market town serving the abbey and never developed into a borough.

Archaeological excavations have shown that this area was wet during the mediæval period due to the presence of the fen.

[5] By the time of the estate map, the village had expanded along the Great Whyte and along the western end of the High Street by progressive infilling of plots.

The limits of the town of Ramsey and the village of Bury to the south are not clearly defined, with modern housing estates spreading across the urban boundary.

Throughout the Middle Ages, the waterways of the fenland formed commercial transport routes that ran through the heart of the region.

After the dispersal of the estates of the abbey into lay hands in the second half of the 16th century, enclosure at Ramsey and neighbouring parishes gathered momentum.

Systematic drainage of the Great Level from the 17th century increased the area for hay and pasture which was progressively divided and allotted.

On the evening of 31 January 1941, the German spy Josef Jakobs parachuted into the Ramsey area, landing near Dovehouse Farm.

Two local farmers (Charles Baldock and Harry Coulson) were passing by, heard the shots, and found Jakobs lying on the ground under his camouflage parachute.

Then in 1974, as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, Ramsey was made part of the county of Cambridgeshire.

There are accounts of disputes between the major abbeys of Ramsey, Thorney and Ely about profits and limits of their commons.

In 2011 Abbey applied to Huntingdonshire District Council for permission to add a further four turbines to create a five-turbine wind farm capable of powering more than 5,000 homes.

[13] Ramsey is served by local buses, having regular and direct routes to St Ives, Huntingdon and Peterborough as well as from nearby villages.

[18] Every year, over the August Bank Holiday weekend, the town is home to 1940s Ramsey,[19] one of Britain's biggest living history events.

It features living history re-enactors, period dancing, food, exhibitions and trade stands.