Stamford
Stamford in Lincolnshire is widely regarded as the finest stone town in England, a market town of extraordinary architectural quality built almost entirely from local oolitic limestone that gives it a pale cream colour and a streetscape of remarkable consistency and beauty. The combination of medieval churches, seventeenth and eighteenth-century town houses, the absence of significant modern development and the setting beside the River Welland creates a townscape used repeatedly as a film location when historical England is required. The town was one of the five Danish boroughs of the Danelaw and the five medieval parish churches demonstrate the prosperity of a community that was one of the most significant commercial centres in the east Midlands. The Georgian architecture of St Mary's Street, Barn Hill and St George's Square is the most celebrated quality of the townscape, the eighteenth-century rebuilding creating the streetscapes that are the architectural highlights of any walk through the town. The nearby Burghley House, one of the grandest Elizabethan houses in England, provides an architectural complement to the town visit. The combination of the town quality, the surrounding Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire countryside and the accessibility from the East Midlands makes Stamford one of the most rewarding small towns in the region.