In 1001–1002, a peasant is recorded as uncovering the remains of Ivo of Ramsey, a Cornish Celtic Christian Bishop and hermit while ploughing a field.

[7] Its influence benefited the area as Slepe became St Ives and was granted a charter to become a market town, hosting one of the biggest in the country.

As St Ives was founded on the banks of the wide River Great Ouse between Huntingdon and Ely, it had become an important entrepôt for trade in East Anglia.

In the early 15th century, St Ives Bridge was constructed across the Great Ouse replacing an earlier crossing at this point.

In the Early Medieval period, this had been a strategic location on the Great Ouse because it was the last natural crossing point or ford on the river, 80 kilometres (50 mi) from the sea.

Throughout the medieval period, it was a source of income for the town as tolls had to be paid by all those wanting to cross, this especially applied to drovers bringing their livestock to market.

However, with the arrival of Cambridge and St Ives branch line in the 1840s and improvements to the local road networks, commercial traffic on the River Great Ouse went into steady decline.

500 metres (1,600 ft) of brick-clad steel-piling was put into place to protect the town, most noticeably at the Waits, where a plaza has also been created.

At Westminster St Ives is in the parliamentary constituency of Huntingdon,[12] and since 2024 has been represented in the House of Commons by Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative).

Portions of the open space between Merryland and Crown Street were lost to market stalls that turned into permanent buildings.

Some of the shops in the town centre are still in the same layout as in medieval times, one rod in width, the standard length for floor and roof joists.

The lanes along the north side of town are believed to follow the layout of the narrow medieval fields, and are slightly S-shaped because of the way ploughs turned at each end.

The oldest name is the Dolphin; in use on the same site for over 300 years, its current usage is for a hotel built in 1985, which had been taken over a number of times, most recently by Best Western.

[19] The Official Guide to the Great Eastern Railway referred to it in 1893 as one of two "leading hotels" in St Ives[20] and there are a number of ghost stories associated with the pub.

The chapel features colourfully in the historical novel 'Not Just a Whore', by local St Ives resident K M Warwick, where it is described as a fictitious "Bawdy House" (brothel).

The bridge was partially rebuilt after Oliver Cromwell knocked down two arches during the English Civil War to prevent King Charles I's troops approaching London from the Royalist base in Lincolnshire.

The Norris Museum holds a collection on local history, including a number of books written by its former curator, Bob Burn-Murdoch.

St Ives Corn Exchange is a Grade II listed building, first opened in 1864, built and paid for by local businessmen.

[29][30][31] Each year the town hosts a free 2-day carnival and music festival which was launched in 1999, as part of the committee set up for the millennium.

St Ives Rowing Club was formed in 1865, was once captained by John Goldie and has had a number of members who have competed at Olympic and Commonwealth championships.

A shorter section of the same busway system operates from the railway station on the far side of Cambridge to Addenbrooke's Hospital and Trumpington.

Construction of the busway was beset with problems, causing delays; for example, cracks appeared in the structure allowing weeds to grow through.

Contractors BAM Nuttall were fined a significant amount of money for each day that the busway completion date was not met.

[39] A "Green Update" newsletter came out in Winter 2007 with news on conservation work including protection of the Great Crested Newt.

The new A14 bypass for St Ives and Huntingdon opened in December 2019, leaving the existing alignment near Swavesey and passing to the south of both market towns.

[43] The line from Cambridge and the station almost survived the 1963 to 1973 Beeching Axe, but were lost to passenger service in the final stages of the process.

A campaign to reopen the passenger rail service only ended with the ripping-up of disused track shortly before construction of the Guided Busway.

The Church of the Sacred Heart (Roman Catholic) on Needingworth Road, was originally built by Augustus Pugin in Cambridge, but was dismantled in 1902 and transported by barge to St Ives.

[45] The term tawdry is a St Ives-derived word (vying with the rival Ely claim), basically meaning something that is 'cheap and cheerful', and was evolved directly from the Saint Audrey's Lane cloth market held during the mediaeval and later ages.