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| Ancestor Gateway Forum - STAMFORD MEMORIES GATEWAY (Lincolnshire England) used as PRIDE and PREJUDICE FILM SET | New Topic | Search |
| Thread Topic: The Stamford Hotel Topic Originator: Lynda Post Date June 17, 2015 @ 5:55 PM |
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| Lynda |
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Does anyone have any photos of the Stamford Hotel interior. Can anyone remember the hotel when it traded or even worked there. |
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| Mike Laughton |
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I don't have any photos of the Stamford Hotel interior but I do remember it a had a classic staircase leading up to the ballroom on the first floor. The windows of the ballroom opened out on to the balconies overlooking St Mary's Street. It was a very popular venue for functions and had quite a big courtyard/car park at the back which is now shops. During the early 1960s, The Stamford Hotel, The George Hotel and the Haycock in Wansford were all owned by the same company headed by Rutland-based Lord Gainsborough. |
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| Jill |
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Miss Selby's dance classes on Saturday mornings. Fox trot walking and the bluebell polka to Hilda Aldwinkle' accompaniment. We always had to run up the very grand staircase and creep in at the back, unnoticed, but late, must have been about1959. |
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| Andy Matthews |
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My mother, Iris Matthews (would have been Walden then) worked for a season at the Stamford Hotel in late 1953 early 1954 when she was between jobs. She was a waitress working in the dining room and mainly worked the lunch and dinner periods. She has told me it was a grand hotel and she once catered a large function for the hotel which was held at Greatford Hall - I believe it was a ball and she told me it was an awesome event. I know there was a public bar attached to the hotel which I believe was more recently known as The Black Bull and was called The Stamford Hotel Tap back then. Unfortunately, we don't have any interior photographs of the hotel. |
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| Mike Laughton |
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Ah Yes! The Stamford Tap! It was detached from the hotel and located alongside the walkway between St Mary's Street and the High Street. When I was a kid we always called the lane "Woolies Passage" because it led to the back entrance to Woolworths. I remember there was always a strong smell of beer emanating from the Stamford Tap and the drains around it. (More so than any other pub in the town). And there always seemed to be the sound of Irish songs coming from the pub. It was almost like a scene from John Ford's 1930s film The Informer which was set in Dublin. I always half expected to see Victor Maclaglan emerging from the Stamford Tap. I don't know if it was Stamford's Irish pub (there were quite a lot of Irish people in Stamford when I was a child) but I certainly had the impression it was. Was it where all the Irish Catholics would go on a Sunday after Mass at St Augustines? I think that was called "Thirsting after righteousness". |
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| Patrick |
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A very interesting entry by Mike Laughton. He is quite right. Around 250 irishmen spent most of the war years in and around Stamford mainly employed on airfield construction. Another 100 or so would arrive in July to help with the harvest. In those days, it was obligatory to go to Mass on Sundays. Sometimes, after Mass the priest would stand at the church gate to say good-bye to churchgoers. He noticed the rapid dispersion to the Roebuck and the Stag and Pheasant. The next Sunday he preached about `Thirst after Righteousness. The Irishmen soon discovered that nipping across the road and down Goldsmiths Lane took them out of sight of their critics.They found the Stamford Tap where they were welcomed. Anyone who has been to Ireland knows a pub is not just for drinking. There are songs, music, conversation and jokes (the `craic`). Another forgotten Irish arrival in Stamford occurred in 1922 after the Irish Free State was formed. The Royal Irish Constabulary, 97% Irishmen, was regarded by the IRA as a British tool. It was disbanded. After over 500 ex-policemen were killed and hundreds more wounded, the British Govt. offered passage to Britain for any ex-policemen. Thousands left Ireland. Blackstones had just compteted the housing in Ryhall Road and thirty ex-policeman and their families came to Stamford to settle in Ryhall Road. Over the nesxt few years, most of them moved elsewhere in the town or away from Stamford. (Apologies for the history lesson). |
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| John Tyers |
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I found your comments about the resettlement of ex members of the Royal Irish Constabulary very interesting Patrick; I worked years ago at Allis-Chalmers, Essendine with the son of an ex Inspector. The latter had moved to Stamford with his family and the ex colleague of mine said they had but hours to leave Ireland or face the dire consequences. A very nice family indeed. |
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| JohnDale McAllister |
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Hi Mike, I have fond memories of the Stamford Hotel in the early 60s. Sometimes on a Saturday lunchtime Chris Nottingham & I used to meet up with Johnny Mason & his wife Sheila for a drink in the hotel. Other times it was in the Millstone,when Bill & Dora were the licensees. I even stayed in The Stamford Hotel for a week in'65 looking up old friends & associates - happy days. Regards,JD. |
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| Peter Leatherbarrow |
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Dancing classes and the Bluebell Polka! I remember it whilst attending Northfields School. My dancing partner was a girl named Christine and we had to wear special shoes like ballet pumps. |
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| Jill |
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I wonder if Readers would find any of this as interesting as I did: In his Stamford archeological history Neville Birch (1972) says 'building began in 1810 to 'afford the inhabitants of Stamford particularly and travellers generally, elegant and superior, apartments, furnished in keeping with a beautiful exterior'. At the expense of Sir Gerard Noel of Exton, but who for private circumstances was unable to complete and had withdrawn interest by 1822. By then the house had only a few apartments in a habitable state....The architect was J. L. Bond and the 100ft exterior was of Ketton freestone from Sir Gerard's own estate. The front 'statue of justice' is of Roach Abbey stone. The hotel eventually consisted of 27 apartments, a ballroom 60 ft long, 25 ft wide and 32ft high, dining and card rooms and reference is made to the rich marble chimney pieces and elegant, tasteful cornices. When finally built, it had cost £43,000, then known as 'Standwells', but was sold on 21st November 1845 for a mere £9,850 along with some nearby houses and shops to Richard Newcomb - this being a poor tribute to one of the grandest of Regency hotels. Pevsner stated "much of its effect was said to have been lost by its close and crowded situation".... Interesting... |
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