Ramsey grew up around the Abbey which had been founded on a marsh-surrounded island in 969 at roughly the same time as that of the second foundation of Ely.  Ramsey's  Abbey became one of the most important monastic houses in the 12th and 13th Centuries - it then had some 80 monks and even at the Dissolution in 1539 there were 34 monks.  The story of the town is intertwined with that of the Abbey.  A weekly market was held, together with an annual three-day fair on the feast of St. Benedict.  Fishing, fulling, tanning and weaving were carried on under the careful guardianship of the monks.

The Dissolution brought an end to the Abbey and to the town's way of life.  The Abbey lands were sold to Sir Richard Williams, alias Cromwell and in Elizabethan times most of the buildings were demolished and the stone used to refurbish Caius, Kings and Trinity Colleges in Cambridge and in the 17th Century to build the tower of Ramsey's own church.  The Cromwells built a mansion on the site of what may have been the Lady Chapel.  It was the Cromwells, too, who brought the Great Plague to Ramsey in 1666.  As at Eyam, the infection was introduced in a bale of cloth from London.  Over 400 local people died and their names are recorded in the parish register.  Ramsey was, in later periods, to go through other tragedies including fires in the 17th and 18th Centuries, the latter rendering over 100 families homeless.

Although the Abbey was for so long a vital part of Ramsey's life, surprisingly little of it survives today.  The great house of the Cromwells with its monastic remnants is now used by the Abbey School and indeed, has been so occupied since the late 1930's.  Looking out across Abbey Green are the ruins of the elaborately carved 15th Century Abbey Gatehouse.  These now belong to the National Trust and are open from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm daily from April to October.  Within is a marble effigy dating from 1230, possibly depicting Ailwyn the founder of the Abbey.

Alongside the Abbey Green is the town's church, of interest in that it was originally built in 1180 as the abbey hospital or guest house.  At that time the area around the Abbey was in the parish of Bury and was served by that village's church.  The Ramsey Church is adorned by some colourful stained-glass windows by the William Morris Company.

Apart from the above, Ramsey has few buildings of any age, a result of its various fires.  The town nevertheless does exert a quiet charm, especially around Abbey Green.  The Great Whyte is the town's main thoroughfare, one time the Bury Brook flowed down the centre to join the Ramsey Lode.  The watercourse was directed through culverts in the last Century.  The shopping centre lies at the southern end of the Great Whyte and along the High Street.

At Ailwyn School, one of the town's two comprehensive schools situated in the former Abbey precinct, is a youth centre and a sports centre incorporating a swimming pool.  On the outskirts of the town and converted from former estate and farm buildings is the excellent Ramsey Rural Museum, open to the public on Thursday and Sunday afternoons from April to September.  Local rivers provide fishing; a ten acre playing field caters for football and cricket whilst a bowling green flanks the golf course that extends as far as Bury.  A second course can be found on the Stocking Fen Road.

North and east from the town itself, the parish of Ramsey extends for several miles across the fens of Bedford Level and the long straight roads link several small communities including Ramsey St. Mary's, Ramsey Mereside, Ramsey Heights with its nature reserve and Ramsey Forty Foot.  Near the latter is Bodsey House, now a private residence and once the country home of the last Abbot of Ramsey and a house also linked with the Cromwell family.  Its oldest features date from the 13th Century.