Whittlesey (also Whittlesea) is a market town and civil parish in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England.

[9] Whittlesey was linked to Peterborough in the west and March in the east by the Roman Fen Causeway, probably built in the 1st century CE.

The ground is all wett and marshy but there are severall little Channells runs into it which by boats people go up to this place; when you enter the mouth of the Mer it looks formidable and its often very dangerous by reason of sudden winds that will rise like Hurricanes...."[11] The town is still accessible by water, being connected to the River Nene by King's Dyke, which forms part of the Nene/Ouse Navigation.

Moorings can be found at Ashline Lock, alongside the Manor Leisure Centre's cricket and football pitches.

[citation needed] Whittlesey was significant for its brickyards, around which the former hamlet of King's Dyke was based for much of the 20th century, although only one now remains, following the closure of the Saxon brickworks in 2011.

[12] The local clay soil was also used to make cob boundary walls during a period in which there was a brick tax.

[13] Clay walls predate the introduction of brick tax in other parts of the country,[citation needed] and some were thatched.

Evidence for this was found at the archaeological site of Must Farm, where log boats, roundhouses, bowls with food in them, and the most complete wooden wheel were housed.

According to a diary entry of Mrs Thomas Shaftoe Robertson, manageress of the Lincoln Theatre Circuit, "What a gap in my journal!

The Lincoln Theatre Circuit also included at various times Whittlesey, Wisbech, Boston and other nearby towns.

[22] St Andrew's Church originally dates back to the 13th and 14 centuries, with a major restoration taking place in 1872.

The church, featuring a three-storeyed west tower with an eastern clock face, blends the Perpendicular and Decorated Gothic architectural styles of the 13th to 15th centuries.

Originally a place for people to sell goods, the structure was considered useless in the 1800s and only saved from demolition when a local businessman donated some slate tiles for the roof.

[27] The civil parish of Whittlesey includes the town itself and the villages of Coates, Eastrea, Pondersbridge and Turves.

[31] The 1849 Act also established a body of improvement commissioners to provide public services and infrastructure to the area around the town itself.

[33] The urban district council met at Whittlesey Town Hall on Market Street, which also served as a magistrates' court and fire engine house.

No successor parish was created for the area of the abolished urban district at the time of the 1974 reforms and so it became unparished.

Historically, it was connected with Peterborough and March by the Roman Fen Causeway of the first century CE, a route roughly followed by the modern A605.

Whittlesea railway station, using the town's alternative spelling, is on the Ely to Peterborough Line; it is served by direct trains to Cambridge, Birmingham New Street, Liverpool Lime Street, Leicester, Stansted Airport, Ely, Ipswich and Peterborough.

[42] An art competition for students of Sir Harry Smith Community College runs during the festival, with a display at Whittlesey Christian Church.

[44] Plans for over 400 houses on an adjacent site, construction of which began in late 2014, caused concern about extra traffic on the A605.

[49] The festival of the Straw Bear or "Strawbower" is a custom known only to a small area of Fenland on the borders of Huntingdonshire and Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, including Ramsey Mereside.

[55] The Bear dances to a tune (reminiscent of the hymn "Jesus Bids us Shine") which featured on Rattlebone and Ploughjack, a 1976 LP by Ashley Hutchings,[56] along with a description of the original custom that had partly inspired the Whittlesey revival.

The town has a non–league football club, Whittlesey Athletic, which plays in the Eastern Counties League Division One North, at Feldale Field.