What is "helpston"

Helpston (also, formerly, "Helpstone") is an English village formerly in the Soke of Peterborough, geographically in Northamptonshire — subsequently (1965–1974) in Huntingdon and Peterborough, then in Cambridgeshire — and administered by the City of Peterborough unitary authority.

The civil parish of Helpston covers an area of and had an estimated population in 2005 of 870.

The parish church is dedicated to St Botolph; the chancel window was created by Francis Skeat and depicts " Christ in Majesty".

The poet John Clare was born in Helpston in 1793 and is buried in the churchyard of St Botolph's. The thatched cottage where he was born was bought by the John Clare Trust in 2005. The Cottage, at 12 Woodgate, has been restored using traditional building methods and is open to the public. In 2013 the John Clare Trust received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help preserve the building and provide educational activities for youngsters visiting the cottage.

The name Helpston is Anglo-Saxon in origin and means the farmstead (tun) first settled by Help (an Old English personal name).