COBBLERS!
Outcry as Georgian market town plans to Tarmac historic square
ITs traditional cobbles and listed buildings have made stamford a magnet for film crews and generations of visitors.
however, Red lion square at the heart of the georgian town could be brought rudely into the modern era by being resurfaced with Tarmac.
The controversial plan would see the yorkstone cobbles ripped up and replaced by the more hard-wearing but decidely less scenic material.
Many of stamford’s 20,000 residents have been angered after 16 out of 18 town councillors backed the move.
The historic lincolnshire market town with its 600-plus listed buildings doubled as Meryton in the 2005 film of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice starring Kiera Knightley. It was also a backdrop for blockbuster The Da Vinci Code and the 2011 film Middlemarch.
stamford was described by sir Walter scott as ‘the finest sight on the road between Edinburgh and london’ while sir John Betjeman considered the georgian town the ‘most attractive’ in England.
As well as the square with cobbles, or setts, stamford has honey-coloured buildings and Collyweston stone slate roofs to help make it a dream location for period dramas. The 17th- century traveller Celia Fiennes hailed it ‘as fine a built town all of stone as may be seen’. But this historic beauty will be ruined by the resurfacing plans, warned the stamford Civic society.
Chairman Jim Mason said: ‘If you come into stamford on a tour, you’ll walk into that square and it should be a delight and surprise feature. It’s much more appropriate that this is surfaced in something like stone setts that match the surroundings.’ Andy Moore, chairman of the society’s Urban group, said some stones had come loose because the sand between them had not been topped up.
‘Removing and getting rid of the yorkstone setts would be a waste of materials and money. The society is all about saving the heritage of stamford and putting down Tarmac goes against all the principles we exist for,’ he added.
There were also protests on the Facebook page of the stamford Mercury newspaper. sandra Wissen Dring posted: ‘Tarmac! you’ve got to be kidding! Whose ridiculous idea is this?’
Red lion square was resurfaced 13 years ago in a £1.5million project to improve access to the town centre.
lincolnshire County Council will consult on the plans later this year when ‘all options will be considered’.