Ford at Eaton of great importance, and slowly the name Eaton Ford came to be used. Young speculates that it was a little to the north of the present-day bridge, because of the angle of approach of Crosshall Road, which nowadays lurches southwards as it approaches the river. Sudbury In Anglo-Saxon times there was a small settlement named Sudbury ("southern fort"). It was probably at the junction of the present-day Crosshall Road and the traditional Great North Road. In 1086, according to the Domesday Book, Eudo Dapifer held Eaton Socon "with the Manors of Wyboston and Sudbury"; the tenant-in-chief at Sudbury being Richard, son of Gilbert. Later, Sudbury was recorded as having belonged to St Neots Priory in King Edward’s time. The family who became Lords of the Manor there in the 13th century eventually adopted the name of the Manor as their surname and became known as "de Sudbury". The Manor House may have stood on or near the site of the present farmhouse to the north-east of Cross Hall crossroads. The word "Hall" is usually associated with manor houses and it would be logical for a manor house situated at a crossroads to be called "Cross Hall". Traces of the strips that once composed the arable fields of Sudbury can still be seen as ridge-and-furrow waves on St Neots Golf Course. The disappearance of Sudbury village may have been due to the Black Death of 1348-9 which reputedly shrank the population of England by a third. Many travellers would have passed through the village from London to the north and they may have carried their germs with them. The river bridge The first bridge across the River Great Ouse at St Neots was probably built in the 11th or 12th century to bring traders and pilgrims into the market place established by the monks of St Neots Priory. It probably replaced a ford. It was constructed entirely in timber and, because there were marshy areas both sides of the river, it included a long causeway. In 1588, a new town bridge was built. A survey of the old bridge showed that it consisted of 72 arches, and it was 704 feet in length and 7 ft 6in wide. The replacement bridge was to have masonry piers up to the flood water level. The river formed the boundary between Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire, so both counties had to contribute to