A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



ST. MARTIN'S STAMFORD BARON. 



Stamford south of the bridge (until xv cent.). 



The ecclesiastical parish of St. Martin Stamford 

 Baron, containing the three civil parishes of St. 

 Martin Stamford Baron in the administrative county 

 of Lincoln and municipal borough of Stamford, St. 

 Martin's Without and Wothorpe, both in the adminis- 

 trative county of the Soke of Peterborough, covers 

 altogether about 1,700 acres. There is no marked 

 elevation in the parish, most of it varying between 

 100 and 200 ft. above the ordnance datum. The 

 soil is varied on a subsoil of upper lias and inferior 

 oolite, producing chiefly wheat, beans and peas. 

 There are many old quarries and sand and gravel pits 

 scattered over the parish. 



The population of St. Martin's Stamford Baron in 

 1901 was 1,011, that of St. Martin's Without 243, 

 and that of Wothorpe 121. 



The Roman Ermine Street can be faintly traced 

 through Burghley Park in a north-westerly direction, 

 reaching the Welland immediately west of Stamford. 

 It is sometimes known as the Forty-foot way.' The 

 main roads now running through the parish are from 

 Oundle in the south skirting the west boundary of 

 Burghley Park, and from Easton in a south-easterly 

 direction, which joins the road from Oundle in Stam- 

 ford Baron. A road to Barnack passes between the 

 northern boundary of the park and the river. The 

 terminus of the Wansford branch of the Great North- 

 ern Railway is in this parish, and there is also a 

 station on the Syston and Peterborough branch of the 

 Midland Railway. 



Stamford Baron on the south bank of the Welland 

 is now practically part of Stamford, but it has had an 

 entirely separate history. It was never within the 

 walls of the ancient borough, though Peck considered 

 that some of the borough customs may have prevailed 

 south of the Welland,' and in 1086 it is called the 

 sixth ward of Stamford, and paid all dues with the 

 borough except goblum and toll, which belonged to 

 the abbey of Peterborough.' 



The only main street, the High Street, runs south- 

 east from the bridge, the other streets branching off 

 from it on either side. Close by the bridge. Water 

 Street, anciently called ' Este-by-the-water,' strikes off 

 east, and is the only street, except the High Street, 

 marked in Speed's map. Here the old church of All 

 Saints south of the Welland used to stand. St. 

 Martin's Church is on the east side of the High 

 Street, and in former days the Hospital of St. Giles 

 stdod to the south of it, the house of St. Sepulchre to 

 the north, and opposite to it St. Mary Magdalen's 

 Chapel, which may have been attached to one of these 

 institutions. There are still many picturesque 17th 

 and 1 8th century stone houses in the street, and a 

 late Gothic doorway remains on the west side a little 

 below the church. The Burghley Hospital adjoin- 

 ing the bridge over the Welland on the west side 

 is an L-shaped building, with a picturesque row of 

 gables, and fronts the river on the north. At its north- 

 east angle are remains of a much older building, 

 c. 1 1 30, with a round arch spanning a backwater of the 



stream, and a pilaster buttress remaining to nearly its 

 full height. In St. Martin's, which runs south-east 

 at right angles to the bridge, are other interesting 

 old houses, notably the Hermitage, occupied by 

 Lieutenant-Colonel Costobadie, and No. 4.0, the resi- 

 dence of the Hon. Miss Dundas. The Lady Anne's 

 House is now in the occupation of the dowager Lady 

 Exeter. 



Though Stamford Baron was never walled, Peck 

 thinks it was defended by five gates as well as the 

 castle, one in the Water Street, one at the opening 

 leading to Burghley by the ' Butts,' one between 

 St. Giles's Hospital and the High Street, one opposite 

 St. Martin's Church towards Little Wothorpe, and 

 the last at the south end of the bridge. The first 

 three of these he identifies as the Webstergate, Bur- 

 leygate, and Highgate, often mentioned in old deeds.* 

 The fortification, on the site afterwards occupied by 

 the nunnery of St. Michael, was thrown up in 922 

 by Edward the Elder: 'This year between the 

 rogation days and midsummer King Edward went 

 with a force to Stamford and commanded the burgh 

 to be wrought on the south side of the river.' ' 



Wothorpe, at one time a separate ecclesiastical 

 parish, is situated on the south of the Welland west 

 of Stamford Baron. It used to be divided into Great 

 and Little Wothorpe — Little Wothorpe being that 

 part nearest Stamford which belonged to Peter- 

 borough, and in which was the nunnery of St. 

 Michael ; and Great Wothorpe the part nearer Easton, 

 where at one time there was a village church and 

 nunnery. These have all disappeared, but the district 

 is now repopulated by the outlying buildings of Stam- 

 ford Baron. On the site of St. Michael's Nunnery 

 there now stands a modern house known as The Nuns, 

 occupied until recently by Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. 

 White, agent of the Marquis of Exeter. 



Burghley Park occupies the whole eastern portion 

 of the parish. The parish boundary between Barnack 

 and St. Martin's Without passes right through the 

 house, which is in about the middle of the park to 

 the west. 



MANOR OF STAMFORD BARON.— 

 MANORS The charter of Wulfhere in 664 con- 

 firmed to Peterborough ' all that part of 

 the vill of Stamford which is against Medesham- 

 stede on this side of the bridge with lands and 

 mills adjacent and the churches of St. Martin and All 

 Saints. The boundaries of the possessions of Peter- 

 borough in Edgar's charter of 972 must have included 

 all Stamford south of the bridge,' and accordi^g to 

 Hugo Candidus this land was confirmed to them also 

 by Thurkil, who was made earl of the East Anglians 

 by Canute.' 



In 1086 the land of Peterborough in Stamford is 

 thus described : ' There are six wards in Stamford, 

 five in Lincolnshire and the sixth in Hamtonshire, 

 which is beyond the bridge, and pays all customs as 

 the others except gai/um and toll, which the abbot of 

 Burg has.' ' The abbot of Peterborough is said to have 

 also in Stamford 10 'manses' pertaining to Lincoln, 



^ ^^ C H. NorrfiantSf i, 204. 



^ Peck, Stamfordf i, 3 5. 



" Dam. Bk. (Rcc. Com.), i, 336A. 



* Peck, Sfamford, ill, 33 ; xii, 22 ; xix, 

 29 ; Ca!. 0/ And. Deeds, D. 482. 



' A. S. Chron ; Chron. Flor. (Fig. (ed. 

 Thorpe), i, 128. 



522 



Birch, Carr. Sax. No. 22 ; .^.5. Chron. 

 (Rolls Scr.), i. 200. See introd. to Soke. 

 " Sparke, Scriptores, p. 44. 

 8 Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 3 3 64. 



