a military road from Sandy, Bedfordshire. The Roman settlement was sacked by Anglo-Saxons in the third century. In contrast to Huntingdon, archaeological finds have been extensive in the centre of Godmanchester, which has two conservation areas of early recognition, including many timber-framed Tudor houses, the largest being Tudor Farm, dating from 1600 and restored in 1995. The town's prosperity over the centuries has been closely tied to its strategic position on the old Roman Road from London to York. It is suggested that, in the Middle Ages, the Danes allowed development of an inland port by digging the Mill Lade. The place was listed as Godmundcestre in the Domesday Book of 1086 in the Hundred of Leightonstone in Huntingdonshire. The survey records that there were 26 ploughlands, with capacity for a further 31 and, in addition to the arable land, there were of meadows, of woodland and three water mills, a church and a priest. Godmanchester was first recognised with a town charter by King John in 1212, although it had been a market town and royal manor for some years. King James I granted a second Royal Charter in 1604. Farm Hall, on West Street, was used as a bugged detention centre for German nuclear scientists as part of Operation Epsilon, from July 1945 to January 1946. Government Godmanchester was a municipal borough based at Godmanchester Town Hall in the county of Huntingdonshire until 1961. It was then part of the borough of Huntingdon and Godmanchester until 1974. At county level, the town was in Huntingdonshire until 1965, when it became part of the new administrative county of Huntingdon and Peterborough. In 1974, the former, relatively diminutive, county of Huntingdon and Peterborough was absorbed into the administrative county of Cambridgeshire. The highest tier of local government is Cambridgeshire County Council, locally represented by two county councillors serving Godmanchester and Huntingdon East (electoral division). The second tier of local government, the planning authority and council-tax collecting body, is Huntingdonshire District Council, a non-metropolitan district, locally represented by two councillors elected for an eponymous ward. The third and lowest tier of local government is Godmanchester town council. The council comprises 17 councillors, including a mayor and a deputy mayor. At Westminster, Godmanchester is represented in the Huntingdon seat in the House of Commons since 2001 by Jonathan Djanogly (Con). Demography Population Since 1801, the population has been recorded every ten years