Page "St Ives, Cambridgeshire" Paragraph 23

St Ives experienced town planning at a very early date, giving it a spacious Town Centre.

Portions of this 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 to 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.

Similar field boundaries can be seen in Warners Park.