Visiting Stamford Town

The weather has finally turned for the better this week. We experienced a bit of sunshine and the wind has died down a bit so going outside is more favorable. We decided to take a drive and visit Stamford, a town about an hour away from us. This town has a reputation as being one of the best preserved late Medieval towns in Britain.

As usual one of the first things we did was locate the tourist information center and found a local map of the town. Inside there was a historic walk thru town that pointed out many of the interesting sites.


The red dots show the walking trail thru town and the green dots are the interesting sites we could find thru out the town.

As a family we enjoy doing these types of walks as you can often get a really good feel for the town. There were lots of interesting side streets and cute specialty shops along the way.






Standing outside one of the historic buildings and Daddy and the kids plotting the next stop on our route thru town.
















Below of some pictures of the town. Almost all of the building are made of limestone.





















One of the pedestrian walking districts for shopping


















Lots of interesting statues found through out the town


















Many of the old buildings date to the late 14th century.













Graveyard outside a church near the center of town. Stones were so old we could not read the dates or many names.












There are many old churches in this town, each one more impressive than the other. Just beautiful!




































Brass rubbings found inside one of the churches. These are very common here. I have never seen this in the states. These were from the 1470's and were so old you couldn't clearly distinguish some of the details.












Several churches had hand carved and painted angels on the ceilings directly over the alter. So pretty


















Many stained glass windows. I love stained glass windows, however all of these stained glass windows were installed/replaced during the Victorian period.















An old doorway found in a church



















There were a few late medieval timber frames shops.













One of many side streets we found with hidden shops

















According to the brochure we got from the tourist board the reason this town remain unspoilt was that the industrial revolution bypassed this town mainly due to the Cecil family who were the land aristocrats who owned the large Burghley House outside of town. The family discouraged expansion and modernization resulting in the railway bypassing Stamford as did much of the economic growth that occurred int he late 19th century.

We enjoyed our day out and I wish to go back to visit the Burghley House. It is still a privately owned home and does not open for visitors until mid March.