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Today, St Neots is a thriving market town. The modern town incorporates Eynesbury (originally the main settlement and the oldest part of the town) and two areas across the river, Eaton Ford and Eaton Socon (originally separate villages). The town continues to grow rapidly, taking its share of the increasing population in the area near Cambridge. Technology-based industries now operate from some of the town's light industrial estates, and there is a gas-turbine power station at Little Barford on the edge of the town.
St Neots is situated in the valley of the River Great Ouse, partly on the flood plain and partly on slightly higher ground a little further from the water. The Great Ouse is a mature riverMurray River in Australia Australia A river is a large natural waterway. It is a specific term in the vernacular for large streams, stream being the umbrella term used in the scientific community for all flowing natural waterways. In the vernacular, strea, once wide and shallow but now controlled by weirCoburg lake in Victoria (Australia) after heavy rainfall. Sturminster Newton on the River Stour, Dorset. A weir is a small overflow type dam commonly used to raise the level of a small river or stream. Weirs have traditionally been used to create mill pons and sluiceA sluice is a water channel that is controlled at its head by a gate. A sluice gate is traditionally a wooden or metal plate which slides in grooves in the sides of the channel. Operation Raising a sluice gate allows water to flow under it. The term sluics and restrained in a well-defined channel. TributariesA tributary (or affluent or confluent is a contributory stream, a river that does not reach the sea, but joins another major river (a parent river), to which it contributes its waters, swelling its discharge. A tributary joins another river at a confluenc entering the Ouse in the town are the River Kym, Hen Brook, Duloe Brook, and Colmworth Brook.
St Neots developed at the site of a fordA ford is a section of water (most commonly a section of a river) that is sufficiently shallow as to be traversable by wading. The name of several towns is derived from such a location, i. Stratford or Oxford where an ox could cross the river (note the Ox where overland routes converged. This was replaced by a medieval bridge, and today there are two further crossings just outside the town, one to the north and another to the south.
The soil is mainly light, overlying gravelGravel Gravel is rock that is of a certain size range. In geology, gravel is any loose rock that is at least two millimeters in its largest dimension (about 1/12 of an inch), and no more than 75 millimeters (about 3 inches). Sometimes gravel is restricted beds, and gravel extraction is one of the local industries. Older disused gravel pitGravel pit is the British English term for an open cast working for extraction of gravel (river-deposited rounded stones). Gravel pits normally lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they fill naturally with water to form ponds or lakes.s form useful nature reserves and amenity areas at nearby Paxton Pits and at the Wyboston Leisure Park. Away from the river, the higher land is mainly a heavy clay soil with few large settlements. Much of the land is used for arable farming.
St Neots is close to Cambridge, Bedford and Peterborough. The A1 links the town by road with London to the south and Peterborough to the north while the nearby A14 provides access to the Midlands and East Anglia. There is also a good rail service from Peterborough via St Neots to London.
St Neots lies close to the south-western edge of Huntingdonshire. Despite its name, this is not a county but a district council forming part of Cambridgeshire.