TALE OF TWO CITIES
Stamford representative learns storied history of English town
STAMFORD — Long before this city was formed, there was one by the same name in England.
The town of 20,000 about 90 miles north of London arose with one of the world’s original highways, the Great North Road, built by ancient Romans. It included a crossing — or ford — at a shallow section of what is now the River Welland.
A walled settlement was built at the crossing in the 9th century by the Danes, who captured that part of England when the Roman Empire fell. By 972, it was in the hands of the English, and King Edgar created a borough, Stamford, which means “stony ford.”
Stamford, Conn., founded in 1641, is a child-city by comparison.
But it’s a daughter nonetheless, as city Rep. Steven Kolenberg found when he prepared for a visit to the English town a few weeks ago. Kolenberg first did some research here, at the Stamford History Center on High Ridge Road.
“They told me that up to 80 percent of the original English colonists who came to this area were from Lincolnshire, the region that includes Stamford, England,” Kolenberg said. “They brought the name with them.”
Kolenberg, 25, a Republican from District 16 who
was elected to the Board of Representatives when he was a 20-year-old University of Connecticut student, has been to England half a dozen times this year to visit his girlfriend, Ellen, who lives in Hastings, about three hours from Stamford.
During his latest visit, Kolenberg wanted to see the sister city. His girlfriend surprised him by arranging a meeting with Stamford Deputy Mayor Breda-Rae Griffin and Councilor Mike Exton, whose family members have governed the town for hundreds of years.
“I was expecting to have a cool day, maybe spend an hour with my counterparts in England,” Kolenberg said. “I was not expecting to have the red carpet rolled out for me.”
Past as treasure
Griffin and Exton showed him Town Hall, posted with boards that list historic Stamford events since 1462. It contains the royal borough’s coat of arms, and benches — called “settles” — from 1780. Kolenberg saw the town’s “civic regalia,” displayed behind armored glass. It includes a silver Wand of Office given to the town by Edward IV in the 1400s, and the Chain of Office, an elaborate necklace made of Sshaped links and engraved with the names of all the mayors.
“Stamford, Connecticut has Old Town Hall” on Atlantic Street, Kolenberg said. “This is a really old town hall.”
Beyond his kind, warm welcome, he “was not expecting to fall in love with the town,” Kolenberg said. “I’ve been all over England, and Stamford is one of the most beautiful spots I’ve seen.”
The town has many stone buildings from the 1600s and 1700s, and five medieval churches.
“It’s the best-preserved 18th-century town in the country,” Kolenberg said.
On that count, it shares little with Stamford, Connecticut, known for knocking down historic structures and redeveloping the real estate.
“I told the councilors we have one building left from the 17th century and we moved it,” Kolenberg said of the 1699 Hoyt-Barnum house, trucked from downtown to High Ridge two years ago. “They said, ‘Did you, really?’ ”
In Stamford, England, history is revered, Kolenberg said.
Inns go out
Take Burghley House, the grand country home of Sir William Cecil, chief advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. In 1587, Cecil persuaded Elizabeth to order the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, who was implicated in an assassination plot.
“His descendants still live there,” Kolenberg said.
Or take the 900-year-old George Hotel, among England’s great coaching inns, once overnight stops for stagecoaches. Stamford marks the midpoint between York and London, and offered the only crossing of the River Welland, so it was visited often by royalty.
It’s not clear such a building would survive in Stamford, Conn. Kolenberg said he tried to explain to Griffin and Exton.
“I told them we are always looking to the future, and leading development,” he said.
The English town first was a pottery center known for “Stamford Ware.” In the Middle Ages, it became famous for its wool and “Stamford cloth.”
“There are still a lot of sheep on the hills,” Kolenberg said.
The bull lull
Stamford has a tradition more associated with Spain — for almost 700 years, the town held a running of the bulls, Kolenberg learned. It apparently began after William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey, saw two bulls fighting in the meadow near his castle. Some butchers tried to break up the fight but one bull broke free and ran into the town.
The earl got on his horse and chased it, enjoying the adventure so much that he gave the meadow to the butchers of Stamford if they hold a bull run each Nov. 13.
The run, which ended with the killing of the bull, stopped in 1839.
“Now they carry a papiermache bull through the town every November,” Kolenberg said. “At the end, they light it on fire.”
The 1700s were the height of Stamford prosperity, Kolenberg said. In the 1800s, trains replaced coaches.
“After the railroad was built, the town went into decline,” he said.
That’s the opposite of Stamford, Conn., which prospered with the advent of the railroad.
The English Stamford reinvented itself as a tourist spot, and a set for period films, including the 2005 “Pride & Prejudice,” starring Keira Knightley.
But the two Stamfords share some details.
Human hope
The English one is 45 minutes from a major British university, Cambridge. That’s the same distance between the Connecticut Stamford and a major American university, Yale.
The English Stamford has a wealthy neighboring town named Greenwich.
And they have a number of the same street names — Broad, North, High and St. Mary. One, though, would sound exotic to an American Stamfordite: Ironmonger Street.
Kolenberg said his trip taught him that cross-cultural exchange offers great benefits.
“It’s heartening in times like this, when people are so pitted against each other, to learn that you can have so much in common with people 3,000 miles away,” he said. “It gives you hope for humanity.”