After the end of the coaching era, Caxton declined. In 1863, a traveller described the village as ""a small, rambling village, which looked as if it had not shaved and washed its face, and put on a clean shirt for a shocking length of time"". Fires in 1896 and 1897 destroyed more than a dozen houses and, although the arrival of the motor car brought traffic back through the village, its former prosperity did not return. In 2004 a bypass was completed around Caxton to accommodate traffic for the newly built Cambourne to the north.