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

Contents

History

Local economy

Filming location

Television shows

Films

Famous Stamfordians

See also

References

External links

History

The town originally grew as a Danish settlement at the lowest point that the Welland could be crossed by ford or bridge. Stamford was the only one of the five Danelaw boroughs not to become a county town. Initially a pottery centre, producing "Stamford Ware", by the Middle Ages it had became famous for its production of wool and woollen cloth (known as Stamford cloth). Stamford was a walled town but only a very small portion of the walls now remain. Stamford became an inland port on the Great North Road (also part of the Roman road Ermine Street - it passes through the town). Notable buildings in the town include the mediaeval Browne's Hospital, churches and the 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 local 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.
During 1333-34, a group of students and tutors from Merton and Brasenose Colleges, dissatisfied with conditions at their university, left Oxford to establish a rival college at Stamford. Oxford and Cambridge universities petitioned the King, and Edward III ordered their return to Oxford. Oxford MA students 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'. Students in Stamford can now study at New College Stamford for BA (Hons) degrees in art and design, awarded by the University of Lincoln.
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.
In June 1968, a specimen of the ''Cetiosaurus oxoniensis'' sauropod dinosaur was found by Bill Boddington 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 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 A16 (''Uffington Road''), which heads to Market Deeping, meets the north end of the A43 (''Wothorpe Road'') in the south of the town and threads its way through narrow streets. 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.

Local economy

The ''Stamford Mercury'' claims to have been published since 1695 and to be "Britain's oldest newspaper".
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 nineteenth Century and they also have a branch in the town. Nearby to the west, along the A6121, is Castle Cement at Ketton which is a huge production site and vividly lit up at night.

Filming location

Television shows

★ ''Middlemarch'' (1994)

Films

★ ''Pride and Prejudice'' (2004) - used as the village of ''Meryton''.

★ ''The Da Vinci Code'' (2006)

★ ''The Golden Bowl'' (2000)

Famous Stamfordians

★ Torben Betts, playwright

★ Sarah Cawood

★ David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter, as Lord Burghley, gold medal-winning Olympic Hurdler

★ William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

★ Malcolm Christie, professional footballer

★ Rae Earl Johnson, Author and broadcaster

★ Colin Dexter

★ John George Haigh, the "acid bath murderer"

★ Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe

★ General Sir Mike Jackson

★ Daniel Lambert

★ The band Midget

★ Francis Peck

★ Robert of Ketton, Medieval theologian, first translator of the Qu'ran

★ Sir Malcolm Sargent

★ Nigel Sixsmith, Founder member of The Art Of Sound, well known Keytar player

★ Iwan Thomas

★ Sir Michael Tippett

★ Arthur Troop - founder of the International Police Association (1950)

★ Gary Star - manager of the band Klaxons and Rosster (b. 1985)

See also

★ Stamford railway station

★ Stamford School

★ Stamford F.C.

★ Stamford (UK Parliament constituency)

References

External links

★ The George Hotel a notable Stamford landmark

★ Burghley House official site

★ The Churches of Stamford

★ Stamford Museum - a friendly local history museum for locals and visitors

★ Visit Stamford - excellent tourist directory

★ Stamford - finest stone town in England

★ Stamford Arts Centre

★ Burghley House Heritage site

★ History of Blackstones

★ Mirrlees Blackstone history

★ Stamford historical summary (UK & Ireland Genealogy site)

★ Stamford School

★ Stamford as seen from a Hot Air Balloon

★ Uncyclopedia spoof