Life . . . Reframed: Stamford the Town of Stone

June 30

Today we went to Stamford - a beautiful historic town that dates back to a 1000 year old Danish settlement. It’s claim to fame is that it is kind of a museum of medieval and Georgian stone buildings - it was designated as a conservation area in 1967, and is really an interesting town to walk around. Not only that, the local residents are quick to notice a stranger and strike up a conversation and offer some notes of interest and in one instance, even invited us inside a building that wasn’t open to the public!

Beautiful old medieval house.

Pinch me - I really am in olde England! It's everything
I ever imagined.

No ordinary sidewalks for these folks. This is so pretty.

Check out the door . . . and the lock!

We met one of the town councillors who was working on a display for the 100th anniversary of the beginning of WWI. It was being set up in a beautiful old building called Browne’s Hospital. It looks exactly like a church, but was a medieval ‘almshouse’ that was used to accommodate poor seniors. At one point, they all had to wear uniforms, but when pensions were introduced in Britain and seniors had their own money, then the uniforms were phased out. It is still used as a senior residence, and has a beautiful little chapel in it, as well as a huge common room for parties, weddings,etc. The stairs going up to the second level are stone, and you can see the dip in the stairs where they have been worn down over the centuries.

Browne's Hospital

One of the residents at Browne's showing me the convertible chapel
seat. You can lift it up to just rest your bum or . . .

Put it down for a full-fledged seat. The carved heads between each
seat are all different. She was polishing everything for the Tuesday
service the next day.

The floor at Browne's Hospital. This one is for my
friend Kathy as well. Maybe for me too . . . I'm
going to get her to teach me to make those floor
mats.

The beautiful common room at Browne's hospital.
Through the doors at the end is the chapel. They were
setting up a WWI memorial display in this room while
we were there.

Browne's Hospital - current residences - I think I could live here.
This is a large garden area in between the residences and the
front of the building.

Stone stairs at Browne's. Notice how they are worn
down in the middle from centuries of feet going up and down.

We also saw an old church that had been ‘decommissioned as a church in 1548’ to become part of the boys school that was built. We met an elderly man walking along the street there who told me he had gone to school there, and had just been to a reunion with the ‘old boys’ and the ‘new boys’. According to him, everyone behaved!

The 'remains' of St. Paul's Church

We went into the town library and found a mini-museum of the town in an annex of the building - pieces of pottery, old stone carvings and these - thought of my mom when I saw these shears - she has always been a beautiful seamstress, and one wonders how on earth she would have managed with these huge shears! There is also a 6 meter long tapestry in this annex - it took 25 town ladies 17 years to work this piece that has over 8 million stitches in it made from local wool. It’s a history of the town - absolutely stunning, and mind-boggling to consider the work that went into it.

Tailors shears - really old!

This is crazy!

A section of the tapestry

Another section of the tapestry. It's all under a glass display unit.

Stamford is also full of tiny little alleyways - these date back many centuries, and they have been preserved by the people of the town. Most of them are about 1 person wide, although there are a few where one can walk two abreast. Some are short, some are long. Most lead to a funny little square with more stores, or with a cluster of ‘cottages’.

One of the larger 'passageways' in Stamford. Lots
of little shops and restaurants in here.

This passageway was quite tiny. We were walking
along a pedestrian-only main street here - hence
all the brickwork.

Another little passageway in Stamford.

There were so many examples of medieval homes - it was a real treat to walk around this town. Many of them sport stone roofs made from local stone. The old process to make the shingles was to get a piece of rock, get it wet, then alternately freeze it and warm it until it started to split. Some of the roofs here are very old - no replacing them after 20 years! The councillor was going to take us to the town hall for a tour, but it wasn’t really open to the public until Friday, so we declined. We’ll go back Friday though.