Writing a history of Stamford is a daunting prospect, not because of a lack of material but rather because of a surfeit. Where could one possibly start? At the beginning, of course, but since that is considerably more than a thousand years ago, much of the fine detail is lost.

Certainly Stamford was a thriving town in Roman times, a settlement around the ford of the River Welland. But the recorded history of the area really starts in the 9th and 10th centuries, when it was at the centre of the Danelaw – the part of England controlled by the Danish. The Great North Road and the river (leading to the North Sea and thus Europe) provided excellent trade links and the area developed a substantial industry in wool, cloth and textiles, as well as pottery and the distinctive local stone. It became one of the largest towns in England, and the scale of the surviving buildings from the subsequent decades bear testament to the considerable affluence and prominence of the town.

Around the 15th century, the wool trade moved to East Anglia leaving Stamford to the rich merchants who rebuilt and restored many of the older buildings as well as creating new architectural works of their own. Particularly notable is the Burghley Estate, built by William Cecil who was a right-hand man to Queen Elizabeth I. However, the town suffered from the lack of industry and commerce, so expansion was curbed.

The town came through the Civil War relatively unscathed, and the efforts of the Restoration in  1660 saw improvements to both the river (a canal was dug allowing it to be used as a trade route once more) and the Great North Road. Everyone travelling between York and London, or indeed between any points in North and South England, went through Stamford. The town responded by developing an enormous service industry – hotels, coaching inns, grain stores, corn exchanges and the like propelled the town to prosperity again.

Throughout the Georgian era the town continued to blossom and the period once again left its architectural mark. The tourist industry expanded to include not just accommodation and essential services, but also entertainment and leisure facilities such as the racecourse, assembly rooms and theatre. A number of these buildings are still in use today.

The introduction of the railway in the 1830s was a shock to Stamford. The constant throughput of people and goods dwindled, the wonderful coaching inns found that there were not enough coaches to warrant their existence. The Industrial Revolution left its mark all over the country and populations flowed to where the work was, leaving Stamford frozen in time.

During the 20th century, Stamford continued to exist as a small town, with some solid but unremarkable engineering industry and also providing support for the nearby RAF Wittering. However, in 1967 the town was designated as England’s first Urban Conservation Area – an outstanding area of architectural and historical interest that is of national importance. This has allowed conservation and restoration of some 600 listed buildings and has given the town a new opportunity to capitalise on the tourist market again, no longer as a waystation but as an attraction in its own right.