Stamford, Lincolnshire

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Stamford is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and estimated at 20,645 in 2019.<ref>City Population site. Retrieved 28 November 2020.</ref><ref>author= not stated, (2025), Stamford, https://www.visitlincoln.com/explore/lincolnshire/towns-and-villages/stamford/ , Visit Lincoln, access-date 2025/06/04</ref> The town has 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, older timber-framed buildings and five medieval parish churches.<ref>"Stamford Conservation Area Draft Appraisal" South Kesteven Council.</ref>

Stamford is a frequent film location. In 2013 it was rated a top place to live in a survey by The Sunday Times.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Its name has been passed on to Stamford, Connecticut, founded in 1641.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Toponymy

The place-name Stamford is first attested in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it appears as Steanford in 922 and Stanford in 942. It appears as Stanford in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name means "stony ford".<ref>Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p. 436.</ref>

History

Roman and Medieval Stamford

Stamford

The Romans built Ermine Street across what is now Burghley Park and forded the River Welland to the west of Stamford, eventually reaching Lincoln. They also built a town to the north at Great Casterton on the River Gwash. In 61 CE Boudica followed the Roman legion Legio IX Hispana across the river. The Anglo-Saxons later chose Stamford as the main town, being on a larger river than the Gwash.

In 972 King Edgar made Stamford a borough. The Anglo-Saxons and Danes faced each other across the river.<ref name="lewis">Template:Cite book</ref> The town had grown 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 Boroughs of the Danelaw not to become a county town. Initially a pottery centre making Stamford Ware, it had gained fame by the Middle Ages for its production of the woollen cloth known as Stamford cloth or haberget, which "In Henry III's reign... was well known in Venice."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Stamford was a walled town,<ref name=lewis/> but only a small portion of the wall remains. Stamford became an inland port on the Great North Road, the latter superseding Ermine Street in importance. Notable buildings in the town include the medieval Browne's Hospital, several churches and the buildings of Stamford School, a public school founded in 1532.<ref name=lewis/>

A fragment of Stamford Castle

A Norman castle was built about 1075 and apparently demolished in 1484.<ref name=lewis/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Stamford Castle 347832">Template:PastScape</ref> The site stood derelict until the late 20th century, when it was built over and now includes a bus station and a modern housing development. A small part of the curtain wall survives at the junction of Castle Dyke and Bath Row.

In 1333, a group of students and tutors from the University of Oxford, including some from Merton College and Brasenose Hall, dissatisfied with conditions at the university, left Oxford to found a rival institution at Stamford. Oxford had seen violence between students and masters hailing from Northern and Southern England, and those who left for Stamford were Northerners. Oxford and Cambridge universities petitioned Edward III, and the King ordered the closure of the college and the return of the students to Oxford; this took several attempts, but seems to have finally been achieved in 1335. MA students at Oxford until 1827 were obliged to take an oath: "You shall also swear that you will not read lectures, or hear them read, at Stamford, as in a University study, or college general."<ref>Michael Beloff, The Plateglass Universities, p. 15.</ref> The site and limited remains of the former Brazenose College, Stamford, where Oxford secessionists lived and studied, now form part of Stamford School.<ref>B. L. Deed, The History of Stamford School, Cambridge University Press, (1954), 2nd ed., 1982.</ref>

Stamford has been hosting an annual fair since the Middle Ages. It is mentioned in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2 (Act 3, Scene 2). Held in mid-Lent, it is now the largest street fair in Lincolnshire and among the largest in the country. On 7 March 1190, men at the fair who were preparing to go on the crusade led a pogrom, in which several of the Stamford Jews were killed, and the rest, who escaped with difficulty, were given refuge in the castle. Their houses, however, were plundered, and a great quantity of money was seized.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Religious houses and hospitals

Stamford's importance and wealth in the Middle Ages meant that a number of religious houses and hospitals were established in or near the town. The monasteries and friaries were all closed at the Dissolution by 1539. Street names are indicative of their presence: Priory Road, Austin Street, Blackfriars Street etc.

Monasteries

  • Benedictine Priory of St Leonard – certainly established by 1082 with the possibility of it having been founded originally in the 7th century. Part of the church still stands on Priory Road.<ref name="british-history.ac.uk"/>
  • Priory of Austin Canons at Newstead, just east of Stamford. Originally founded as a hospital at the end of the 12th century it became a priory of Austin Canons in the 1240s.<ref name="british-history.ac.uk">Victoria County History Lincolnshire Vol. 2 1906 https://www.british-history.ac.uk/</ref>
  • Priory of St Michael – this was a nunnery established by an abbot of Peterborough in or before 1155 in Stamford Baron.<ref>Victoria County History Northampton 1906 Vol 2 https://www.british-history.ac.uk/</ref> It was a large establishment for about 40 nuns. In 1354 it was amalgamated with the Augustinian nunnery of Wothorpe which had been depopulated by plague. The reredorter is a Scheduled Monument.<ref>Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>

Friaries At least five orders of Friars were established within the town of Stamford from the 13th century onwards.<ref name="british-history.ac.uk"/>

  • The Austin Friars established in the 1340s in a house near St Peter's Gate on land formerly occupied by the Friars of the Sack. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 the land was eventually bought by the Cecil family of Burghley.
  • The Dominican Friars probably arrived in the 1230s and were regularly supported with donations by the monarchy. The house was dissolved by 1539.
  • The Franciscan Friars had a house - Greyfriars, Stamford - in the east suburb near St Paul's gate.
  • The Carmelite Friars founded about 1268 in the east part of the town. The friary is said to have been a magnificent structure, famous for its beautiful church.
  • The Friars of the Sack or Brothers of Penitence – the sack referred to their clothes, made of sackcloth.

Hospitals<ref name="british-history.ac.uk"/>

  • Hospital of St John Baptist and St Thomas the Martyr on Stamford Bridge. This hospital was certainly in existence from 1323 until the eve of the Reformation.
  • Hospital of St Giles This hospital, which was built just outside Stamford as it was intended for lepers and was certainly operating in the 14th century.
  • Hospital of All Saints was founded in 1485 by William Browne, a wool merchant, for the support of two chaplains, and for the distribution of alms to twelve poor persons, who should pray for the soul of the founder. Browne's Hospital is still used for this purpose.

Tudor and Stuart Stamford

By the early 1500s the wool and broadcloth industry in England, on which Stamford depended, had declined significantly.<ref>Cambridge Economic History of Europe Vol III 1963 p.464 CUP</ref> Stamford was sufficiently poor, financially and demographically, that in 1548 it had to amalgamate its eleven parishes into six and its population had reduced to 800.<ref>Joan Thirsk 1984 The Rural Economy of England Collected Essays, XVII Stamford in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries p.310 The Hambledon Press</ref><ref>Peter Clark and Paul Slack English Towns in Transition 1976 p25 OUP</ref>

However, by the second half of the 17th century, after almost 150 years of stagnation, the population started to increase. As Stamford emerged into the 17th century, leather and fibre working (in the widest sense; weavers, ropers and tailors) were the main activities along with wood and stone working.<ref>Joan Thirsk 1984 The Rural Economy of England Collected Essays, XVII Stamford in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries p.313-4 The Hambledon Press</ref>

In the 1660s the various efforts to make the River Welland navigable again were finally successful. Stamford then became a centre for the malting trade as the barley from nearby fenlands to the east and heathlands to the north and west could make its way more easily and cheaper to the town.<ref>Joan Thirsk 1984 The Rural Economy of England Collected Essays, XVII Stamford in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries pp.317 and 321 The Hambledon Press</ref>

The Great North Road passed through Stamford. It had always been a halting town for travellers; Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, James I and Charles I all passed through and it had been a post station for the postal service journey in Elizabeth's reign.<ref>Joan Thirsk 1984 The Rural Economy of England Collected Essays, XVII Stamford in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries p312-3 The Hambledon Press</ref> By the later 17th century roads start to be used more for longer distance travelling. In 1663 an Act of Parliament was passed to set up turnpikes on the Great North Road, and this was to make a notable difference to Stamford's fortunes in the following century.<ref>Christopher Hill 1969 Reformation to Industrial Revolution p167</ref>

Map by John Speed, 1611-12

During the English Civil War local loyalties were split. Thomas Hatcher MP was a Parliamentarian. Royalists used Wothorpe and Burghley as defensive positions. In the summer of 1643 the Royalists were besieged at Burghley on 24 July after a defeat at Peterborough on 19 July. The army of Viscount Campden was heavily outnumbered and surrendered the following day.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Bull Run

A jug commemorates Ann Blades – a Stamford bull runner in 1792

For over 600 years Stamford was the site of the Stamford bull run, held annually on 13 November, St Brice's day, until 1839.<ref name=lewis/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Local tradition says it began after William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey had seen two bulls fighting in the meadow beneath his castle. Some butchers came to part the combatants and one bull ran into the town. The earl mounted his horse and rode after the animal; he enjoyed the sport so much that he gave the meadow where the fight began to the butchers of Stamford, on condition that they continue to provide a bull to be run in the town every 13 November.<ref name=lewis/>

Victorian period to 21st century

The East Coast Main Line would have gone through Stamford, as an important postal town at the time, but resistance led to routing it instead through Peterborough, whose importance and size increased at Stamford's expense.<ref>Cecil J. Allen, Railway Building, John F Shaw & Co, undated but 1925 or soon after, p. 6.</ref>

During the Second World War, the area round Stamford contained several military sites, including RAF station, airborne encampments and a prisoner-of-war camp.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Within the town, Rock House held the headquarters of Stanisław Sosabowski and the staff of the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. A memorial plaque was unveiled there in 2004.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A 2,000lb bomb was dropped on St Leonard St on 31 October 1940, which never exploded. 1,000 people were evacuated, until 3 November 1940.<ref>Lincolnshire Echo Monday 10 December 1945, page 3</ref>

Stamford Museum occupied a Victorian building in Broad Street from 1980 until June 2011, when it succumbed to Lincolnshire County Council budget cuts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Some exhibits have been moved to a "Discover Stamford" space at the town library<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and to Stamford Town Hall.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Governance

Stamford Town Hall
Stamford Town Council's arms: Per pale dexter side Gules three Lions passant guardant in pale Or and the sinister side chequy Or and Azure

There are three tiers of local government covering Stamford, at parish (town), district and county level: Stamford Town Council, South Kesteven District Council, and Lincolnshire County Council. The town council is based at Stamford Town Hall on St Mary's Hill, which was built in 1779.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:NHLE</ref>

Administrative history

Stamford was an ancient borough. The original borough was entirely on the north bank of the River Welland, which was historically the boundary between Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> South of the river was Stamford Baron in Northamptonshire. The Stamford constituency was enlarged in 1832 to also include the built-up part of Stamford Baron.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1836 Stamford was reformed to become a municipal borough, at which point the municipal boundaries were adjusted to match the recently enlarged constituency.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

After 1836 the borough therefore straddled Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. When elected county councils were established in 1889 boroughs were no longer allowed to straddle county boundaries, and so the parts of the borough south of the river were transferred to Lincolnshire, with Kesteven County Council serving as the upper tier authority.<ref>Local Government Act 1888</ref> Local government was reformed again in 1974, when Kesteven County Council was replaced by Lincolnshire County Council, and the borough of Stamford was abolished, with district-level functions passing to the new South Kesteven District Council. Stamford Town Council was established as a successor parish council in 1974, covering the area of the former borough.<ref>Template:Cite legislation UK</ref>

Stamford's town council<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> has arms: Per pale dexter side Gules three Lions passant guardant in pale Or and the sinister side chequy Or and Azure.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The three lions are the English royal arms, granted to the town by Edward IV for its part in the "Lincolnshire Uprising".<ref>Template:Cite book Alt URL</ref> The blue and gold chequers are the arms of the De Warenne family, which held the manor here in the 13th century.

Parliamentary representation

Template:Main Stamford belongs to the parliamentary constituency of Rutland and Stamford. The current MP is Alicia Kearns (Conservative).

Prior to the 2024 election, Stamford formed part of the Grantham and Stamford constituency. Previous MPs include Gareth Davies, who won the seat at the 2019 General Election and Nick Boles.

Geography

Stamford, on the bank of the River Welland, forms a south-westerly protrusion of Lincolnshire between Rutland to the north and west, Peterborough to the south, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. There have been mistaken claims of a quadripoint where four ceremonial counties – Rutland, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire – would meet at a point<ref>In minutes and seconds, 52 38' 25 north and 0 29' 4 west.</ref> but the location actually has two tripoints some Template:Convert apart.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Unreliable inline

The River Welland forms the border between two historic counties: Lincolnshire to the north and Soke of Peterborough in Northamptonshire to the south.

In 1991, the boundary between Lincolnshire and Rutland (then part of Leicestershire) in the Stamford area was redrawn.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It now mostly follows the A1 to the railway line. The conjoined parish of Wothorpe is in the city of Peterborough. Barnack Road is the Lincolnshire/Peterborough boundary where it borders St Martin's Without.

The river downstream of the town bridge and some of the meadows fall within the drainage area of the Welland and Deepings Internal Drainage Board.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Geology

Much of Stamford is built on Middle Jurassic Lincolnshire limestone, with mudstones and sandstones.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The area is known for limestone and slate quarries. Cream-coloured Collyweston stone slate is found on the roofs of many Stamford stone buildings. Stamford Stone in Barnack has quarries at Marholm and Holywell.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Clipsham Stone has two quarries in Clipsham.

Palaeontology

In 1968, a specimen of the sauropod dinosaur Cetiosaurus oxoniensis was found in the Williamson Cliffe Quarry, close to Great Casterton in adjacent Rutland. Some Template:Convert long, it is about 170 million years old, from the Aalenian or Bajocian era of the Jurassic period.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons found in the UK and was installed in 1975 in the Leicester Museum & Art Gallery.

Economy

Tourism is important to Stamford's economy, as are professional law and accountancy firms. Health, education and other public-service employers also feature, notably a hospital (Stamford and Rutland Hospital), a large medical general practice, schools (some independent) and a further education college. Hospitality is provided by several hotels, licensed premises, restaurants, tea rooms and cafés.

The licensed premises reflect the history of the town. The George Hotel, Lord Burghley, William Cecil, Danish Invader and Jolly Brewer are among nearly 30 premises serving real ale.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Surrounding villages and Rutland Water provide other venues and employment opportunities, as do several annual events at Burghley House.

Retail

The town centre's major retail and service sector has many independent boutique stores and draws shoppers from a wide area. Several streets are traffic-free. Outlets include gift shops, eateries, men's and women's outfitters, shoe shops, florists, hairdressers, beauty therapists and acupuncture and health-care services. Harrison & Dunn, Dawson of Stamford, the George Hotel and The Crown Arts Centre are other popular places. Stamford has several hotels, coffee shops and restaurants. Its branch of the national jeweller F. Hinds can trace its history back to the clockmaker Joseph Hinds, who worked in Stamford in the first half of the 19th century.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the summer months, Stamford Meadows attract visitors.

The town has stores, supermarkets, three builders' merchants and several other specialist trade outlets and skilled trades such as roofers, builders, tilers etc. There are two car showrooms and a number of car-related businesses. Local services include convenience stores, post offices, newsagents and take-aways.

RAF Wittering is nearby to the south, seen here with an RAF Harrier jump jet

Engineering

South of the town is RAF Wittering, a main employer which was until 2011 the home of the Harrier. The base opened in 1916 as RFC Stamford. It closed in 1919, but reopened in 1924 under its present name.

The engineering company, largely closed since June 2018, is Cummins Generator Technologies (formerly Newage Lyon, then Newage International), a maker of electrical generators in Barnack Road.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> C & G Concrete (now part of Breedon Aggregates)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is in Uffington Road.

The Pick Motor Company was founded in Stamford in about 1898. A number of smaller firms — welders, printers and so forth — feature in collections of industrial units or more traditional premises in older, mixed-use parts of the town. Blackstone & Co was a farm implement and diesel engine manufacturing company.

Stamford lies amidst some of England's richest farmland and close to the famous "double-cropping" land of parts of the fens. Agriculture still provides a small, but steady number of jobs in farming, agricultural machinery, distribution and ancillary services.

Media and publishing

The Stamford Mercury claims to be "Britain's oldest continuously published newspaper title".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Mercury has been published since 1712 but its masthead formerly claimed it was established in 1695 and still has "Britain's Oldest Newspaper".

Local radio provision was shared between Peterborough's Heart East (102.7 – Heart Peterborough closed in July 2010) and Greatest Hits Radio Midlands (formerly Rutland Radio) (a 97.4 transmitter on Little Casterton Road) from Oakham. Since March 2021, Rutland and Stamford Sound has been providing a locally based service via the internet. Other stations include BBC Radio Cambridgeshire (95.7 from Peterborough), and BBC Radio Lincolnshire (94.9). NOW Digital broadcasts from an East Casterton transmitter covering the town and Spalding, which provides the NOW Peterborough 12D multiplex (BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and Heart East).

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East Midlands and ITV Central. Stamford has a lower-power television relay transmitter, due to it being in a valley,<ref>Stamford transmitter Template:Webarchive</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which takes its transmission from Waltham, not Belmont. BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and ITV Yorkshire can be received from the Belmont transmitting station.

Local publishers include Key Publishing (aviation) and the Bourne Publishing Group (pets). Old Glory, a specialist magazine for steam power and traction engines, was published in Stamford.

Landmarks

Burghley House

Stamford was the first conservation area designated in England and Wales,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> under the Civic Amenities Act 1967.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> There are over 600 listed buildings in and around the town.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

St Leonard’s Priory is the oldest building in the town, legendarily founded by Wilfrid, tutor to the son of the Anglo-Saxon King Oswiu. The site retains Norman architectural features, including pillars and arches dating to around 1090, with a west front constructed circa 1150.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Significant unlisted properties include the Corn Exchange in Broad Street which was completed in 1859.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Industrial Revolution left Stamford largely untouched. Much of the centre was built in the 17th and 18th centuries in Jacobean or Georgian style.<ref name=lewis/> It is marked by streets of timber-framed and stone buildings using local limestone and by little shops tucked down back alleys. Several former coaching inns survive, their large doorways being a feature. The main shopping area was pedestrianised in the 1970s.

Near Stamford (but in the historical Soke of Peterborough) is Burghley House, an Elizabethan mansion, built by the First Minister of Elizabeth I, Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghley.<ref name=lewis/> It is the ancestral seat of the Marquess of Exeter. The tomb of William Cecil is in St Martin's Church, Stamford. The parkland of the Burghley Estate adjoins the town on two sides. It includes ancient trees, a population of fallow deer, and vistas designed by landscape architect Capability Brown.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Another country house near Stamford, Tolethorpe Hall, hosts outdoor theatre productions by the Stamford Shakespeare Company.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Tobie Norris had a bell foundry in the town in the 17th century. His name is borne by a pub in St Paul's Street.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Transport

Railway

Stamford railway station, before being extensively refurbished by Network Rail and Central Trains; Robert Humm's bookshop has now moved into the town centre

The town is served by Stamford railway station, previously known as Stamford Town to distinguish it from the now closed Stamford East station in Water Street. The station building is a stone structure in Mock Tudor style, influenced by nearby Burghley House and designed by Sancton Wood.<ref name="Stamford Station 499042">Template:PastScape</ref>

Services are provided by two train operating companies:

Trains to and from Peterborough pass through a short tunnel beneath St Martin's High Street.

Road

Lying on the main north–south Ermine Street (now the Great North Road and the A1) from London to York and Edinburgh, Stamford hosted several Parliaments in the Middle Ages. The George Hotel, Bull and Swan, Crown and London Inn were well-known coaching inns. The town coped with heavy north–south traffic through its narrow streets until 1960, when a bypass was built to the west of the town.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The old route is now the B1081, which has the only other road bridge over the Welland; this is a local bottleneck.<ref>Template:Cite mapTemplate:Gbmappingsmall</ref>

Until 1996, there were plans to upgrade the bypass to motorway standard, but these have been shelved. The Carpenter's Lodge roundabout south of the town has been replaced by a grade-separated junction.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The old A16, now the A1175 (Uffington Road) to Market Deeping, meets the northern end of the A43 (Kettering Road) in the south of the town.

On foot

All Saints' Street

Footbridges cross the Welland at the Meadows, some 200 metres upstream of the Town Bridge, and at the Albert Bridge 250 metres downstream.<ref>Template:Cite mapTemplate:GbmappingsmallTemplate:Gbmappingsmall</ref>

The Jurassic Way runs from Banbury to Stamford. The Hereward Way runs through the town from Rutland to the Peddars Way in Norfolk, along the Roman Ermine Street and then the River Nene. The Macmillan Way heads through the town, finishing at Boston. Torpel Way follows the railway line, entering Peterborough at Bretton.

Buses

The town bus station occupies part of the old castle site in St Peter's Hill.<ref>Stamford bus station, St Peters Hill, Town Centre, Stamford, PE9 2PE Template:Gbmappingsmall</ref>

Local bus services are operated by Delaine Buses, Stagecoach, CentreBus, Blands and Peterborough City Council. The main routes run to Peterborough, via Helpston, Wansford, Wittering, Ailsworth, and to Oakham, Grantham, Uppingham and Bourne. On Sundays and Bank Holidays, Peterborough City Council operates a route via Wittering/Wansford, Duddington/Wansford, Burghley House/Barnack/Helpston and Uffington/Barnack/Helpston.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

There is a National Express coach service between London and Nottingham each day, including Sundays.

Waterways

River Welland

Template:Main Commercial shipping was carried along a canal from Market Deeping to warehouses in Wharf Road until the 1850s.<ref name=lewis/> This is no longer possible, due to abandonment of the canal and the shallowness of the river above Crowland. There is a lock at the sluice in Deeping St James, but it is not in use. The river was not conventionally navigable upstream of the Town Bridge.

Education

Stamford has five state primary schools: Bluecoat, St Augustine's (RC), St George's, St Gilbert's and Malcolm Sargent. There is also a fee-paying school: Stamford Junior School.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Stamford's main state secondary school is Stamford Welland Academy (formerly Stamford Queen Eleanor School), formed in the late 1980s from the town's two comprehensive schools: Fane and Exeter. It became an academy in 2011. In April 2013, a group of parents announced an intention to establish a Free School in the town,<ref name="Stamford Mercury, April 2013">Template:Cite web</ref> but failed to receive government backing. Instead, the multi-academy trust that submitted the bid was invited to take over the running of the existing school.<ref name="Stamford Mercury, July 2014">Template:Cite web</ref>

Stamford School is a long-established public school with around 1,200 pupils. Stamford School, originally for boys but converted into a co-educational school, was founded in 1532.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> The girls' school was established in 1877 and originally known as Browne's Middle School for Girls.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The two school formally merged in 2023. Together with Stamford Junior School, they form the Stamford Endowed Schools.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Most of Lincolnshire still has grammar schools. In Stamford, their place was long filled by a form of the Assisted Places Scheme, providing state funding to send children to one of two independent schools in the town that were formerly direct-grant grammars.<ref>"Last stronghold of assisted pupils faces legal threat" by Julie Henry, The Daily Telegraph 23 March 2003.</ref> The national scheme was abolished by the 1997 Labour government. The Stamford arrangements remained in place until funding ended in 2012.

Other secondary pupils travel to Casterton College or further afield to The Deepings School or Bourne Grammar School.

New College Stamford offers post-16 further education: work-based, vocational and academic; and higher education courses including BA degrees in art and design awarded by the University of Lincoln and teaching-related courses awarded by Bishop Grosseteste University.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The college also offers a range of informal adult learning.

Churches

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

In the 2011 Census, less than 67 per cent of the population of Stamford identified themselves as Christian, over 25 per cent as of "no religion". Stamford has many current or former churches:<ref name=lewis/>

Filming location

Template:In popular culture

Filming Pride and Prejudice in September 2004
Broad Street looking east

Television shows

Films

Notable residents

In alphabetical order by section. References appear on each person's page.

Arts and broadcasting

Business

  • John Drakard (c. 1775–1854), newspaper proprietor
  • Arthur Kitson (1859–1937), managing director of Kitson Empire Lighting Company and monetary theorist

Crime

Government and armed forces

Medicine

Performance

Scholarship

Sports

Sport

Football teams

There are a number of junior teams in each age group and also school teams.

Rugby teams

  • Stamford College Old Boys R.F.C.
  • Stamford College Rugby Team
  • Stamford Rugby Club
Tolethorpe Hall in nearby Little Casterton

Cricket teams

Festivals and events

November Sheep Fair, Stamford,
c. 1905
George Hotel, Stamford

See also

Community Groups

Stamford Cycling is a community cycling group based in Stamford, affiliated with Cycling UK since 2025. The group promotes recreational cycling, organises regular group social rides, and fosters a welcoming environment for cyclists of all skill levels.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

References

Template:Reflist

Further reading

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