Stamford, Lincolnshire

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Stamford

Coordinates: 52.6556° N 0.4837° W
Population	19,525
OS grid reference	TF025075
District	South Kesteven
Shire county	Lincolnshire
Region	East Midlands
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	STAMFORD
Postcode district	PE9
Dial code	01780
Police	Lincolnshire
Fire	Lincolnshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Grantham and Stamford
European Parliament	East Midlands
List of places: UK • England • Lincolnshire

Stamford is a town on the River Welland in Lincolnshire, England. It is situated in a protrusion of Lincolnshire, between Rutland to the north and west, and Cambridgeshire to the south. It borders Northamptonshire to the south-west at the only point in England where four counties meet.

1 History
2 Local economy
3 Filming location
- 3.1 Television shows
- 3.2 Films
4 Famous Stamfordians
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

The town originally grew as a Danish settlement, which by the Middle Ages had became famous for its production of wool and cloth (known as Stamford cloth). Stamford was originally a walled town but only a very small portion of the walls now remain. Later still, Stamford became an inland port on the Great North Road (also part of the roman road Ermine Street - it passes through Wothorpe and Burghley Park). Notable buildings in the town include the mediaeval Browne's Hospital, churches and the beautiful buildings of Stamford School, a public school founded in 1532. The industrial revolution largely passed Stamford by. Much of town centre was built centuries ago, and the older streets have been a set for television "period" dramas. Stamford is a quaint town, with street after street of timber-framed and stone buildings (using the luminous limestone that Lincoln Cathedral is built from), little shops tucked down back alleys, and without the traffic and street furniture it would be difficult to tell what century you were in. A situation which the District council appears to be trying to remedy by tearing out the heart of the towns old market squares and replacing them with an identikit modern precinct . For more details contact councillor John Smith at S.K.D.C.

For about twenty years in the Middle Ages, Stamford was the venue for a break-away university after students and scholars left Oxford. Oxford and Cambridge Universities petitioned the King, however, and the university was suppressed. Oxford MAs were obliged to swear the following: 'You shall also swear that you will not read lectures, or hear them read, at Stamford, as in a University study, or college general'.

Also lying near Stamford (actually in the Soke of Peterborough) is Burghley House, an Elizabethan mansion, vast and ornate, built by the First Minister of Elizabeth I, Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghley.

Another historic country house near Stamford is Tolethorpe Hall, now host to theatre productions by the Stamford Shakespeare Company.

Stamford was the only one of the five Danelaw boroughs not to become a county town. In June 1968, a specimen of the Cetiosaurus oxoniensis sauropod dinosaur was found in the Williamson Cliffe quarry, close to Great Casterton. It was calculated to be around 170 million years old, from the Aalenian or Bajocian part of the Jurassic era. It is one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons found in the UK, being fifteen metres long, and is now in the New Walk Museum in Leicester, being on display since 1975. It is known as the Rutland Dinosaur.

Lying as it does on the main north-south route (Ermine Street and the A1) from London, several Parliaments were held in Stamford in the Middle Ages. The town had to manage with Britain's north-south traffic through its narrow roads until 1960, when the bypass was built, only a few months after the M1 opened. The old route is now the B1081. There is only one (and structurally unsound) bridge over the Welland (excluding the A1): a local transport anxiety. Until 1996, there were firm plans for the bypass to be upgraded to motorway standard; though these have been shelved. The Carpenter's Lodge roundabout south of the town is being upgraded to a grade-separated junction. The railway station, hidden away between Wothorpe Road and the Welland, has direct services to Leicester, Birmingham and Stansted Airport (via Cambridge) on the Birmingham to Peterborough Line.

[edit] Local economy

Stamford south bound from Town Bridge towards The George, a famous coaching inn

All Saints Church with the wooden war memorial, and Red Lion Square to the right.

River Welland banks and Town Bridge

The second oldest newspaper in England (after the London Gazette) is the Stamford Mercury. Local radio choice is shared between Peterborough's Hereward FM (102.7) and the smaller Rutland Radio (the 97.4 transmitter is on Little Casterton Road) from Oakham. Then there are the BBC's Radio Cambridgeshire (95.7 from Peterborough), Radio Northampton (103.6 from Corby) and Radio Lincolnshire (94.9). NOW Digital broadcasts from the East Casterton transmitter covering the town and Spalding, which provides the Peterborough 12D multiplex (BBC Radio Cambridgeshire & Hereward FM).

South of the town is RAF Wittering, a main employer, and the Home of the Harrier. The engineering company Cummins Generator Technologies (formerly Newage International), a maker of electrical generators, is based on Barnack Road. National jeweller F. Hinds can trace their history back to the clockmaker Joseph Hinds, who worked in Stamford in the first half of the 19th Century and they also have a branch in the town.