Stamford is a market town at the south-west corner of Lincolnshire, with a population of about 21,000. It's a charming place with a well-preserved Georgian centre, and with opulent Burghley House just south.

Understand

St Martin's High Street

This was the lowest point that you could easily cross the River Welland in ancient times, by the stan ford, the stony ford. The river is of no great size but to the east were marshes until the Lincolnshire Fens were drained. It was easily bridged and so a Roman road came this way, and later the Great North Road, now the A1. Medieval Stamford made its living from pottery and agriculture, and the river formed the southern boundary of Lincolnshire. Across the bridge was the separate village of St Martin's, and from Tudor times the domain of the Cecil magnates, who built and embellished Burghley House.

Stamford is halfway between London and York, and was an overnight stagecoach stop on the Great North Road. Some forty coaching inns sprang up to cater to this trade. Several remain that you can stay in, while others have become restaurants or private dwellings. The town retains its medieval street pattern but its heyday was Georgian. Buildings of that era are well-preserved as Victorian industry and construction passed Stamford by. However it was shaken by traffic until the A1 was diverted west of town in 1960.

The Tourist Information Centre is part of the Arts Centre on St Mary's Street, see below. They can book accommodation for you.

Get in

By plane

Stansted Airport has budget flights and an hourly direct train taking 80 min to Stamford.

Other airports generally involve travelling into central London for the northbound train.

By train

Trains run hourly from Peterborough, taking 12 min. These start from Stansted Airport and run via Cambridge, Ely, Peterborough, Stamford and Leicester to Birmingham New Street.

Peterborough is on the northeast mainline, with frequent trains taking just under an hour from London King's Cross. These continue north to Leeds or to York, Newcastle upon Tyne and Edinburgh. Peterborough also has trains to other towns in East Anglia, the Midlands and the northwest.

1 Stamford railway station. Built in 1848 to resemble a Tudor manor house, this has a staffed ticket office and machines, and toilets. There is step-free access to the Peterborough-bound platform but a footbridge with no lift or ramp for the Birmingham-bound platform. (updated Feb 2023)

By bus

Delaine Bus 201 / 202 runs hourly M-Sa from Peterborough, taking 45 min via Barnack (for Hills and Holes NNR) and Pilsgate (for Burghley House), and continuing north to Bourne.

Bus 301 runs hourly M-F from Spalding, taking an hour via Market Deeping.

LincsBus 4 runs three times M-Sa from Grantham, taking an hour via Boothby Pagnell, Castle Bytham and Carlby.

TransportConnect Bus 9 runs once M-Sa from Oakham, taking 30 min.

2 Sheepmarket is the agricultural name for the bus station, which is just an open square with Perspex bus shelters. The buses make multiple stops through town.

By road

From south or north follow A1. This is not motorway hereabouts so cyclists are permitted, but there's no cycle lane so it's misery in good conditions and dangerous in poor visibility - use the back lanes.

The long stay car parks are Cattlemarket 100 yards north of the railway station and Wharf Road (A1175) a quarter mile east of town centre. They're clearly signposted, accessible 24 hours, have 6 ft 6 height restriction barriers and accept contactless payment.

Get around

Walk: town centre is compact, and the shopping area is pedestrianised. Burghley House is just over a mile on foot: go south on B1081 to the gateway into the park, ignoring the "visitor entrance" signpost directing cars around via B1443.

Cycling is a good way to explore beyond town, especially once you get off the ratty main roads onto the zig-zagging lanes.

Taxis wait along Broad Street.

See

The library on High Street

• Town centre is the main attraction, a well-preserved Georgian market town with some 600 "listed" (protected historic) buildings. It's relatively untouched by Victorian or later development, so there's a pleasing unity of style, along gently curving cobbled streets and hidden alleyways.
• 1 Red Lion Square is the focus of town. It's a busy traffic thoroughfare but pedestrianised streets lead off it, such as High Street. This has many fine buildings, but ground-level is cluttered by modern shop fronts.
• All Saints Church, All Saints' Place PE9 2AG (north side of Red Lion Square), ☏ +44 1780 591417. M-Sa 9AM-5PM, Su 8:30AM-6:30PM. This Anglican church is mainly 13th century, renovated in the 15th. (updated Feb 2023)
• Barn Hill is the charming Georgian lane leading west from behind All Saints. It's often used as a period film location, as there are so few modern items that need editing out.
• 2 St John the Baptist's Church, 74 High St PE9 2AW. open daily. A redundant Anglican church, its congregation joined All Saints in 2003, but the building remains accessible. The Tower is maybe 14th century, most of the rest is 15th. It has a finely-carved internal roof with angel bosses. (updated Feb 2023)
• 3 Eleanor Cross on Sheepmarket by the bus station is modern. Queen Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290) was the first wife of Edward I. She died at Harby near Lincoln, and the king arranged a funeral procession to bring her to Westminster Abbey for burial. They travelled 20 miles a day, and at each of the 11 overnight resting places, memorial crosses were erected. Most have been lost including Stamford's, and even its site is uncertain - probably further west beneath the modern A1. This monument was put up in 2009 and doesn't resemble the original.
• Stamford Castle survives only as a brief section of wall on the south side of the bus station. The Normans built a motte-and-bailey here, converted to stone maybe mid 12th century and tumbledown by the 14th. The three blind arches in the wall suggests it was part of the castle Great Hall.

All that's left of Stamford Castle

• Mallory Lane is an alley leading north from Sheep Market to All Saint's Street - it may lie upon the route of the Roman road. Since 2018 it's been adorned by a gallery of photographs.
• 4 St Mary's Church, St Mary's Place PE9 2DS, ☏ +44 1780 723798. Daily 9AM-5PM. This was built in the 12th century, with the tower added in the 13th and spire in the 14th. It doesn't lean, but the spire has creaked and tottered and been reinforced for six centuries. The fine Corpus Christi or North Chapel has a decorated medieval wagon vault. The church was refurbished in the late 19th century under Arts & Crafts influence, especially seen in the stained glass window of the Lady Chapel. An ornate tomb holds Sir David Philips (d 1506), ally of Henry VII. The church follows the "High Anglican" tradition of the Victorian Oxford Movement, when English Protestants re-discovered the attractions of Catholic smells and bells. (updated Feb 2023)
• Stamford Town Hall, St Mary’s Hill PE9 2DR (next to St Mary's), ☏ +44 1780 753808. Neoclassical building completed in 1779. Most local government roles now lie with Lincolnshire County Council and South Kesteven Council; the town councillors only get to govern bin collections, parking enforcement, cemeteries and allotments. Free guided tours are available on Fridays. (updated Feb 2023)
• 5 St Michael the Greater Church, 41-52 High Street PE9 2AW. This is what you get when hubris and property development outweigh piety. It dates at least back to Norman times, though much altered in later centuries, especially in 1832 when a reformist vicar had the internal pillars removed. But these were supporting the tower, and down the whole thing came. The church was rebuilt within four years in neo-Gothic style, and served until 1974 when it became redundant. Developers ripped into the structure and turned it into a parade of shops, while most of the graveyard became a car park. (updated Feb 2023)
• Stamford Library, 30 High Street PE9 2BB (opposite St Michael). M-F 9AM-5PM, Sa 9AM-4PM. A curious squat cod-classical building, as if the Natwest had calved. It was opened in 1808 as a meat market: in 1903 Carnegie endowed public libraries all over Britain, and most towns erected new buildings, but Stamford just cleared out the sheep shanks and pigs' trotters and converted this place. It has a small display of local history. (updated Feb 2023)

Chapel of Browne's Hospital

• 6 The Meadows west of Town Bridge are the floodplain of the River Welland. They're the tip of a river island, and popular for picnics. A walk upriver leads to Tinwell village: the "Melancholy Walk" may be named for the gallows that once stood here, but the monks could be lugubrious on any occasion. The south fork of the river became a millstream, and the area has for centuries been used as part of flood defences - Stamford is only a few feet above sea level. Downstream is canalised but not navigable since 1863.
• 7 The Bastion on West Street is one of the last scraps of the town walls. There was probably an earthwork and wooden palisade from the 9th century during the "Danelaw", the Viking realm in eastern England, which was reinforced under William the Conqueror. A stone defensive wall was erected between 1135 and 1154, but like the castle it fell derelict by the 14th century. This turret and stretch of wall is near the site of St Peter's Gate so perhaps it was part of the gateway into town.
• 8 Browne's Hospital, Broad Street PE9 1PF. This almshouse was built in 1475 and still has 12 residents, though they're no longer required to attend chapel twice a day to pray for the founder. (They were called "bedesmen" as they counted off their devotions on their rosary beads.) Vacancies occur through natural causes, so you can apply if you're indigent and genteel enough. As it's a residence not a zoo there is seldom public access, but see the website for an online tour and occasional guided tour. (updated Feb 2023)
• 9 St George's Church, St George's Square PE9 2BN, ☏ +44 1780 481800. M-F 10AM-2PM, Su 9AM-8PM. Anglican church dating from 1225; the tower is 13th-century, the exterior 15th, and the interior was re-worked by the Victorians. William Bruges (1375–1450), first Garter King of Arms is buried in the church. (updated Feb 2023)

St Leonard's Priory

• St Martin High Street south across the bridge is the old London road, busy with traffic yet well-preserved. The defining image of Stamford is the "gallows" sign for the George Hotel spanning the road. It's just decorative and attention-grabbing, but made out to be a warning to highwaymen of the Dick Turpin era. If so, it simply warned them to rob a rich stagecoach, to have ready money to afford a stay at the George.
• 10 St Martin's Church, 18 High St, St Martin PE9 2NT, ☏ +44 1780 753356. Daily 8AM-5PM. This was built in the 12th century and known as "St Martin's Without" as it was beyond the town wall. It was rebuilt in Perpendicular style in the 15th century and re-modelled in the 19th, so at first glance it looks Victorian. It contains tombs of the Cecil family, including Sir William who built Burghley House, and of the enormous Daniel Lambert. It's Anglican, with services on Sunday at 9:30AM, and sometimes used as a concert venue. (updated Feb 2023)
• 11 Stamford School. began in the 12th century in St Mary's Church, moving east onto St Paul's Rd in the 16th. It's near Greyfriars Gatehouse and you can peek through the entrance at the oldest part, the former St Paul's Church. (updated Apr 2023)
• 12 Greyfriars Gatehouse. at the junction of A6121 and A1175 is the only surviving part of Greyfriars Franciscan friary, established in 1230 and suppressed in 1534. Richard Duke of York spent two nights here in 1476 but little cared, as he'd died 12 years earlier at the Battle of Wakefield and was being conveyed for re-burial at Fotheringhay. The land is now part of Stamford & Rutland Hospital. (updated Apr 2023)
• 13 St Leonard's Priory, Priory Rd PE9 2EU. The Priory was re-established around 1082 under William the Conqueror, on the site of a 7th century monastery destroyed in the 11th. It was a "cell" - an outpost - of Durham cathedral monastery until both were dissolved in 1538. What you see now is the exterior of the bricked-up nave, rebuilt in the 19th century, with a fine west front. Other remnants are buried below the present ground level. (updated Feb 2023)

Further out

“ To extract from the Villien saccage and soccage, tollage and tallage, pillage and ullage… ”

—Rights of the medieval Barons, according to 1066 and all that, Sellar and Yeaman 1930

State dining room at Burghley House

The Soke of Peterborough was the territory south of the river, independent of the county structure. It levied "socage", a land tax that was the forerunner to modern freehold, with feudal duties of service replaced by cash payments.

• 14 Burghley House, PE9 3JY (Car entrance and bus stop on Barnack Road B1443), ☏ +44 1780 752451, burghley@burghley.co.uk. Mid-Mar-Oct Sa-Th 11AM-5PM. Grand 16th-century "prodigy house": Queen Elizabeth I and her courtiers toured the country, and her nobles vied to construct bling palaces suitable for receiving them all. This example was built 1558-1587 by Sir William Cecil her Lord High Treasurer, and the Cecil family still live here. The Elizabethan exterior is little altered, but the interior was re-modelled in the 18th century and stocked with industrial quantities of Italian artwork. There are also fine collections of furniture and porcelain. The parkland (open all year) was laid out by Capability Brown and nowadays includes a modern sculpture garden and "Garden of Surprises", which proved too surprising for some visitors so they've turned off the water features. The house and gardens are often used as film and TV locations so check ahead for closures around this. Adult £17, child £9. (updated Feb 2023)
• 15 Barnack. is a small village 3½ miles southeast of Stamford. The parish church is Anglo-Saxon. Findings from a Bronze Age burial chamber are in the British Museum in London. The "Hills and Holes" are ancient limestone quarries, abandoned and overgrown from 1500 AD, and now a National Nature Reserve. (updated Apr 2023)
• 16 Wothorpe Towers is nowadays a private residence, well-screened by trees from the road but visible from the public bridleway just south. This was the site of a Benedictine nunnery, dissolved by Henry VIII and scooped up by Richard Cecil. It was replaced in the 17th century by a lodge, which was part-demolished to create a picturesque ruin to adorn the Burghley estate. The Griffin family bought the site in 2004, and stabilised the crumbling structure next to their modern home.
• 17 Priest's House, 38 West Street, Easton on the Hill PE9 3LS (off A43 three miles southwest of Stamford), ☏ +44 1832 205158. Daily 10AM-5PM. This small 15th-century rectory contains a history exhibition, especially on the local slate industry. It was built for John Stokes - he was brother-in-law to William Browne, and oversaw the completion of the Hospital when Browne died. It's managed by the National Trust but usually unstaffed - a sign on the door lists nearby key-holders. The rectory later moved to the much grander Glebe House (now a private residence), birthplace of Captain Lancelot Skynner (1766–1799). His ship HMS Lutine was lost with all aboard off the Friesian Islands, with a fabulous cargo of gold that has never been found. Salvage attempts recovered the ship's bell, and this "Lutine Bell" is rung at Lloyd's of London to mark major events. Free. (updated Feb 2023)

Do

River Welland

“ This year, betwixt gang-days and midsummer, went King Edward with his army to Stamford, and ordered the town to be fortified on the south side of the river. ”

—Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 922 AD

• 1 Stamford Arts Centre, 27 St Mary's Street PE9 2DL, ☏ +44 1780 763203, boxoffice@stamfordartscentre.com. M-Sa 9:30AM-5PM. This 18th century building hosts a 166-seat theatre-cinema, a gallery, cellar bar, a cafe and a large ballroom. Other multifunctional rooms are available to hire. The town tourist office is also based here. (updated Feb 2023)
• Stamford Leisure Pool, ☏ +44 1780 765522, ReceptionStamford@leisuresk.co.uk. M-F: 6:30am-9pm, Sa-Su: 8am-4pm, bank holidays: 7am-6pm. Swimming is on the pool at Drift Rd north side of town, open daily. (updated Sep 2023)
• 2 Stamford Corn Exchange Theatre, Broad Street PE9 1PX, ☏ +44 1780 766455, info@stamfordcornexchange.co.uk. The Victorian Corn Exchange is now a community-run 400-seat theatre. The staple fare is tribute bands. (updated Feb 2023)
• 3 Burghley Park Golf Club, London Road PE9 3JX (Enter off B1081 two miles south of town), ☏ +44 1780 753789, info@burghleyparkgolfclub.co.uk. M-F, Sa Su after 2:30PM. Established 1890 in the Capability Brown park, a round off white tees is 6312 yards, par 70. Visitor round £35. (updated Feb 2023)
• 4 Rutland Open Air Theatre, Tolethorpe Hall, Little Casterton PE9 4BH (3½ miles north of Stamford). Jun-Aug. The Hall is a private (mostly Victorian) residence but they host this theatre, with the audience under cover, but the actors enduring whatever the English summer throws at them. The resident troupe is Stamford Shakespeare Company and they usually put on two Shakespeare and one or two other plays. Lashing rain is what you might hope for in Macbeth or King Lear, but within a Victorian salon in The Importance of Being Earnest it redefines theatrical boundaries. (updated Feb 2023)

By Tallington Lakes

• 5 Tallington Lakes Leisure Park, Barnholm Road, Tallington PE9 4RJ (6 miles east of Stamford), ☏ +44 1778 347000, info@tallington.com. Daily 9AM-9PM. These are a series of flooded gravel pits. They have water skiing, wakeboarding, jet skiing, dinghy sailing, windsurfing and canoeing, a dry ski slope, and a 15 metre climbing tower. There's also a camping and caravan park, open Mar-Jan. (updated Feb 2023)

Hike

Use OS Landranger Map 141 (Corby) for walking routes near town.

• Macmillan Way is a 290-mile trail from Boston on the east coast to Abbotsbury on the Dorset coast.
• Hereward Way is a branch of the Viking Way, which tracks the Great North Road and then doglegs east to follow Roman Ermine Street.

Rutland Water

• Rutland Water: see that page for wildlife reserves and water sports on the artificial lake 5-10 miles west.

Heritage railway

• Nene Valley Railway: see Peterborough#Do for this standard gauge heritage railway, which runs for seven miles between Peterborough, Orton Mere, Overton, Yarwell and Wansford.

Events

• Mid-Lent Fair is a street fair and travelling funfair. It runs for a week from Mothering Sunday, which is three weeks before Easter Sunday and therefore varies by year.
• Burghley Game & Country Fair is on Spring Bank Holiday weekend in late May, with countryside activities and entertainment in the grounds of Burghley House.
• Stamford Festival is in June, with street parades.
• Burghley Horse Trials are in early September. They draw an international audience and accommodation gets booked out for this weekend.
• Stamford Georgian Festival is intended to be in September of odd years, but funding has been axed and it's unlikely to happen in 2023.

Buy

The Jubilee Leap at Burghley Horse Trials

"What price are people charging for a good set of young bulls at Stamford Fair?"

- in Shakespeare's Henry IV Part II Act 3 Scene 2, Justice Shallow maunders on about bygone times. His colleague barely listens.

• Supermarkets: Morrisons is east edge of town on Uffingham Road A1175, open M-Sa 6AM-10PM, Su 10AM-4PM. It has fuel. Aldi is 200 yards further east. M&S Foodhall and Tesco Express are in the town centre on High Street, near St George's Steet.
• 1 Friday Market. F: 8:30AM-3PM. has been held since the 13th century. It's on Broad St and Ironmonger St. and has some 70 stalls, selling food, clothes and household items. (updated Apr 2023)
• Farmers' Market. is on High St on alternate Fridays. (updated Apr 2023)
• Saturday Market, Red Lion Square and High Street. 20 stalls. (updated Apr 2023)
• 2 Robert Humm, 59 Scotgate PE9 2YQ, ☏ +44 1780 766266, books@roberthumm.co.uk. Tu-Sa 10AM-1PM, 2:15-5PM. Britain's largest bookshop on railways and other transport, specialising in rare and out-of-print books. (updated Feb 2023)
• 3 St Mary's Antiquarian Books, 9 St Marys Hill, PE9 2DP, ☏ +44 1780 763033, info@stmarysbooks.com. M-F 9AM-5PM, Sa 9AM-5:30PM, Su 10AM-4PM. Rooms full of second-hand books, taxidermy and newspapers. (updated Nov 2022)
• 4 Walkers Bookshop, 10 High Street, PE9 2AL, ☏ +44 1780 764405. M-Sa 8:30AM-5:30PM. A traditional family-run bookshop. Stop by and admire the old building and maybe pick up one of the many books about Stamford's history. (updated Nov 2022)
• 5 Stamford Cheese Cellar, 17 St. Mary's Street, PE9 2DG, ☏ +44 1780 489269, orders@stamfordcheese.com. M-F 9:30AM-4PM, Sa 9:30AM-5PM, Su 10AM-1PM. The spiral staircase down is steep, but the range of cheeses (and accompaniments) is wide. (updated Nov 2022)
• Stamford Music Shop, 11 St. Mary's Hill PE9 2DP (opposite Town Hall), ☏ +44 1780 751275, info@stamfordmusicshop.co.uk. M-Sa 9AM-5PM. One of the largest sheet music specialists in Britain. Friendly knowledgeable staff and extensive range of musical instruments for sale or rental. (updated Feb 2023)
• St Martins Antiques Centre, 23a High Street St Martins PE9 2LF (by St Martin's Church), ☏ +44 1780 481158, info@st-martins-antiques.co.uk. Daily 10AM-5PM. The centre leases spaces to over 70 dealers with articles displayed in floor units and cabinets, mostly 19th-/ 20th-century. (updated Feb 2023)

Eat

Daniel Lambert "But I hardly eat" Lambert (1770-1809) was Georgian Leicester's equivalent of a Sumo wrestler, hugely strong in his prime, but bloated in later life. He claimed to only eat normally and not to drink, but it's unlikely he had an endocrine disorder, and he simply overate. In an age when morbid obesity was rare, he became a public curiosity and toured the country. He weighed 52 stone 11 pounds (739 lb / 335 kg) shortly before his arrival on tour in Stamford, where he collapsed and died. It was quite impractical to haul this putrefying whale back to Leicester so he was buried at St Martin's.

• Café Black, 21 High St PE9 2LF (by Library and St Michael), ☏ +44 1780 762999. M-Sa 8AM-5PM, Su 9AM-4PM. Friendly central cafe with substantial breakfasts, cakes and coffee. Caters for GF. (updated Feb 2023)
• 1 Pennies From Heaven, 17 Maiden Lane PE9 2AZ, ☏ +44 1780 481634. Tu-Sa 10AM-3PM. Trad Tea-room with bright decor and friendly service. (updated Feb 2023)
• Asker Bakery, 5a Red Lion Street, PE9 1PA (off Red Lion Square), ☏ +44 1780 481933. M-Sa 9AM–5:30PM. The coal-fired oven used for baking is a real rarity. (updated Nov 2022)
• Cloisters, 9 St Marys Street PE9 2DE (off Red Lion Square), ☏ +44 1780 755162. Tu-Sa noon-2:30PM, 5-10:30PM. Pasta, pizza and Italian cuisine, friendly atmosphere. (updated Feb 2023)
• 2 Lambert's, 5 Cheyne Lane PE9 2AX, ☏ +44 1780 767063. M-Sa 8:30AM–4:30PM. Coffee shop and deli with great breakfasts. They no longer run the evening restaurant. (updated Feb 2023)
• 3 The Mad Turk, 8 St Paul's St PE9 2BE, ☏ +44 1780 238001. M-F 5-11PM, Sa noon-11PM, Su 1PM-10PM. Good Turkish Cypriot food. (updated Feb 2023)
• The Blonde Beet. Tu-Sa 10AM-4:30PM plus F 6:30-10PM.. is a vegan restaurant at 7 St Paul's St next to Mad Turk. mains from £12.50. (updated Apr 2023)
• 4 No 1 Kitchen, 1 Castle Street PE9 2RA, ☏ +44 1780 766522, Info@no1-kitchen.co.uk. F 4PM-11PM, Sa noon-11PM, Su noon-8PM. Burgers, chicken, ribs, steak, skewers, salads and similar fare, service erratic. (updated Feb 2023)
• Gooch's, 3 Castle Street PE9 2RA (next to No 1 Kitchen). Th-M 9:30AM-4PM. Reliable coffee shop for light bites. (updated Feb 2023)
• Riverside Fish Bar, 3 Castle St PE9 2RE (through archway by No 1 Kitchen), ☏ +44 1780 766698. M-F 11:30AM-2:30PM, 4:30PM-9PM, Sa 11:30AM-9PM. Fish & chips near the river. (updated Feb 2023)
• 5 Zada Restaurant, 13 St Mary's Hill PE9 2DP, ☏ +44 1780 766848, zadarestaurant@gmail.com. M-F 5:30-11PM, Sa Su noon-11PM. Specialising in mezze, small plates of Turkish cuisine. (updated Feb 2023)
• Orbis, opened in 2021, specialises in gluten-free food. They're on the main strip at 11 All Saints Place and open W-Sa noon-11PM, Su 11AM-7PM. They have another branch in Oakham.
• 6 Bull and Swan, 24 High St, St Martins PE9 2LJ, ☏ +44 1780 766412, enquiries@thebullandswan.co.uk. Meals M Tu 6PM-8PM, W-Sa noon-2:30PM, 6PM-8PM, Su noon-8PM. Good pub food, gets booked out. Eat pizza in the potting shed and watch the garden cinema. With nine rooms, 3 are dog-friendly. B&B double £120. (updated Feb 2023)
• 7 White Hart, Main St, Ufford PE9 3BH, ☏ +44 1780 740250. Restaurant with rooms in a 17th-century coaching inn, the food gets great reviews. Mains from £15; B&B double £120. (updated Nov 2022)

Drink

• Paten & Co (formerly The Periwig), 7 All Saints Place PE9 2AG (North side of Red Lion Square), ☏ +44 1780 408647, paten@kneadpubs.co.uk. M-Sa noon-10:20PM, Su noon-8PM. Pleasant place with bar downstairs and grill upstairs. (updated Feb 2023)
• The Stamford Post, 7 Sheep Market PE9 2QZ (South side of Red Lion Square), ☏ +44 1780 753832. Su-Th 8AM-midnight, F Sa 8AM-1AM. Reliable family-friendly JD Wetherpoon with real ale and good grub. The Stamford Post was the newspaper published her from 1710, becoming the Stamford Mercury after a couple of years. (updated Feb 2023)
• The King's Head, 19 Maiden Lane PE9 2AZ (behind Starbucks off High St), ☏ +44 1780 753510, info@kingsheadstamford.com. W Th noon-10PM, F Sa noon-11PM, Su noon-8PM. Cosy pub with beer garden just off High Street. (updated Feb 2023)
• 1 Mama Liz, 9a North Street PE9 1EL, ☏ +44 1780 765888. Th-Sa noon-2AM, Su noon-midnight. Lively bar with Cajun and Creole food plus live music. (updated Feb 2023)
• The Tobie Norris, 12 St Pauls Street PE9 2BE (next to Mad Turk), ☏ +44 1780 753800. M-Sa noon-11PM, Su noon-8PM. The building dates to 1280, and Tobie Norris made it into a bell-foundry. It's been restored into a trad pub with original timber beamed ceilings and does good food. Dog-friendly, but they ban prams and pushchairs, claiming these are a fire hazard. (updated Feb 2023)
• 2 The Wine Bar, 10 St Paul's St, PE9 2BE, ☏ +44 1780 757844, info@stamfordwinebar.co.uk. Daily 11AM-11PM. Pleasant small place with a courtyard. (updated Feb 2023)

Sleep

Sir William Cecil at rest in St Martin's

Budget

• Travelodge have three sites within 10 miles along A1: one south near Peterborough, and two north towards Grantham.

Mid-range

• 1 Stamford Meadows Glamping, Meadow Cottage, Waterfurlong PE9 2QL (off A6121), ☏ +44 7501 275170. Yurts have at last arrived in Lincs, so presumably Georgian coaching inns are proliferating across Mongolia. This one is open March-Dec and gets great reviews. Minimum stay two nights. Yurt £145 / night. (updated Feb 2023)
• 2 Crown Hotel, 6 All Saints' Place PE9 2AG, ☏ +44 1780 763136, reservations@thecrownhotelstamford.co.uk. Old coaching inn, but made-over in modern style. Great scores for comfort, food and service. B&B double £120. (updated Feb 2023)
• 3 The William Cecil (formerly the Lady Anne's), St Martins, PE9 2LJ, ☏ +44 1780 750070, enquiries@thewilliamcecil.co.uk. Good location between town and Burghley Park (it's actually on the Estate), dog-friendly, most customers leave satisfied. B&B double £150. (updated Feb 2023)
• 4 Stamford Cider Huts, Grange Farm, Main St, Southorpe PE9 3BX, ☏ +44 7432 643872. Styling glamping cabins, open Apr-Sep. Hut £100. (updated Nov 2022)
• IndieHaus, 27a Scotgate PE9 2YQ, hello@indiehaus.co.uk. Self-catering accommodation in the centre of Stamford. (updated Mar 2023)

Splurge

• 5 The George, 71 High Street St Martin's PE9 2LB, ☏ +44 1780 750750. Wonderful old coaching inn which may date to 947 AD - it's documented as owned by the Abbey of Croyland, and here the Knights Hospitaller hosted pilgrims. As traffic grew on the Great North Road, it was the Tudorbethan and Georgian equivalent of a motorway service area. It scores well for comfort and service, and the highlight is dining in the Oak Room, a real "old money" experience. Non-residents are also served but they have often experienced indifferent service and food. B&B double £215. (updated Feb 2023)

Connect

As of Feb 2023, Stamford has 4G from all UK carriers, though with patchy coverage of its approach roads. 5G has not reached this area.

Go next

• North to Grantham, birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton.
• West is Rutland Water, with water activities based around its shores. Just beyond is the pleasant market town of Oakham.
• East to Bourne, Market Deeping, Deeping St James, and Crowland with its semi-ruined abbey.
• South to Peterborough with its medieval cathedral
• Further south to Cambridge, a wonderful old university city.

Routes through Stamford

Birmingham New Street ← Oakham ←	W  SE	→ Peterborough → Stansted Airport
Doncaster ← Grantham ←	N  S	→ Peterborough → London
Northampton ← Corby ←	SW  NE	→ END