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Town in Lincolnshire, England

Stamford is a town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701 and estimated at 20,645 in 2019. The town has 17th and 18th century stone buildings, older timber framed buildings and five medieval parish churches. It is a frequent film location. In 2013 it was rated a top place to live in a survey by The Sunday Times. Its name has been passed on to Stamford, Connecticut, founded in 1641.

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. 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". In 972 King Edgar made Stamford a borough. The Anglo Saxons and Danes faced each other across the river. 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." Stamford was a walled town, 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 1333–1334, a group of students and tutors from Merton and Brasenose colleges, dissatisfied with conditions at the university, left Oxford to found a rival college at Stamford. Oxford and Cambridge universities petitioned Edward III, and the King ordered the closure of the college and the return of the students to Oxford. MA students at Oxford 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." This remained in force until 1827. The site and limited remains of the former Brazenose College, Stamford, where Oxford secessionists lived and studied, now form part of Stamford School. 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.

For over 600 years Stamford was the site of the Stamford bull run, held annually on 13 November, St Brice's day, until 1839. 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. During the Second World War, the area round Stamford contained several military sites, including RAF station, airborne encampments and a prisoner of war camp. 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. 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. Stamford Museum occupied a Victorian building in Broad Street from 1980 until June 2011, when it succumbed to Lincolnshire County Council budget cuts. Some exhibits have been moved to a "Discover Stamford" space at the town library and to Stamford Town Hall.

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.

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. 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. In 1836 Stamford was reformed to become a municipal borough, at which point the municipal boundaries were adjusted to match the recently enlarged constituency. 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. 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. Stamford's town council has arms: Per pale dexter side Gules three Lions passant guardant in pale Or and the sinister side chequy Or and Azure. The three lions are the English royal arms, granted to the town by Edward IV for its part in the "Lincolnshire Uprising". The blue and gold chequers are the arms of the De Warenne family, which held the manor here in the 13th century.

Stamford belongs to the parliamentary constituency of Grantham and Stamford. The incumbent is Gareth Davies of the Conservative Party, who won the seat at the 2019 General Election. His predecessor, Nick Boles, had left the Conservatives in March 2019.

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 but the location actually has two tripoints some apart. 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. 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.

Much of Stamford is built on Middle Jurassic Lincolnshire limestone, with mudstones and sandstones. 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. Clipsham Stone has two quarries in Clipsham.

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 long, it is about 170 million years old, from the Aalenian or Bajocian era of the Jurassic period. It is one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons found in the UK and was installed in 1975 in the Leicester Museum & Art Gallery.

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, 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. Surrounding villages and Rutland Water provide other venues and employment opportunities, as do several annual events at Burghley House.

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. 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.

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. C & G Concrete (now part of Breedon Aggregates) 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.

The Stamford Mercury claims to be "Britain's oldest continuously published newspaper title". 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), BBC Radio Northampton (103.6 from Corby) 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, 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.

Stamford was the first conservation area designated in England and Wales, under the Civic Amenities Act 1967. There are over 600 listed buildings in and around the town. Significant unlisted properties include the Corn Exchange in Broad Street which was completed in 1859. The Industrial Revolution left Stamford largely untouched. Much of the centre was built in the 17th and 18th centuries in Jacobean or Georgian style. 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.

Lying on the main north–south Ermine Street, 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. The old route is now the B1081. There is only one road bridge over the Welland, excluding the A1: a local bottleneck. 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. 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.

Footbridges cross the Welland at the Meadows, some 200 metres upstream of the Town Bridge, and at the Albert Bridge 250 metres downstream. 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.

The town is served by Stamford railway station, previously 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. The station has direct services to Leicester, Birmingham and Stansted Airport (via Cambridge) on the Birmingham to Peterborough Line. CrossCountry operates most services as part of their Birmingham–Stansted Airport route. Trains to and from Peterborough pass through a short tunnel beneath St Martin's High Street.

The town bus station occupies part of the old castle site in St Peter's Hill. The main routes are to Peterborough via Helpston or Wansford and to Oakham, Grantham, Uppingham and Bourne. There are less frequent services to Peterborough by other routes. Delaine Buses services terminate at its depot in North Street. Other active operators include CentreBus, Blands and Peterborough Council. On Sundays and Bank Holidays from 16 May 2010, there have been five journeys to Peterborough operated by Peterborough City Council on routes via Wittering/Wansford, Duddington/Wansford, Burghley House/Barnack/Helpston and Uffington/Barnack/Helpston. There is a National Express coach service between London and Nottingham each day, including Sundays. Route maps and timetables appear on Lincolnshire County Council's website.

Commercial shipping was carried along a canal from Market Deeping to warehouses in Wharf Road until the 1850s. The one 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, 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. Stamford School and Stamford High School are long established independent schools with about 1,500 pupils between them. Stamford School for boys was founded in 1532, the High School for girls in 1877. They have run co educational classes in the sixth form since 2000. Together with Stamford Junior School, they form the Stamford Endowed Schools. 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. The national scheme was abolished by the 1997 Labour government. The Stamford arrangements remained in place as a protracted transitional arrangement. In 2008, the council decided no new places could be funded and the arrangement ended in 2012. The rest of South Kesteven, apart from Market Deeping, has the selective system. 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. The college also offers a range of informal adult learning.

John George Haigh (1909–1949), "The Acid Bath Murderer", was born in Stamford.

Blackstones F. C.
Stamford A. F. C.
Stamford Belvedere F. C.
There are a number of junior teams in each age group and also school teams.