A little over a hundred miles north of London lays the ancient and impressive burg of Stamford. This city is so filled with history and ages-old splendor that England has named it a National Conservation Area. It is hardly surprising, then, that thousands of tourists, historians, and archeologists flock to this timeless city each year to lay eyes on some of the oldest wonders known to humanity.
To be clear, it isn't just old buildings that draw people to Stamford. The roots of the city go much deeper and further back into the history pages, starting over a hundred million years ago! A Cetiosaurus fossil was found not long ago and was calculated to be one of the oldest remnants of any dinosaur ever found. It is also one of the largest and most complete dinosaur specimens ever uncovered and the entire stretch of land where the fossil uncovered is referred to by paleontologists as "Jurassic Way". Human inhabitation came much later, in the form of Danish clansmen populating the city and using it to craft ancient pottery. By the Middle Ages Stamford was a full-fledged medieval city with the impressive Danelaw and Standford Castles towering imposingly upon the North Road.
What truly makes Stamford an important historical and cultural city, though, is the fact that during the Industrial Revolution, when countless cities across the world were changed forever with steel construction, factories, and smokestacks, Stamford resisted the change and chose to instead keep its beautiful architecture intact and unscathed. Much of the city was built in the 1700s and 1800s and today you can still see the many gorgeous Jacobean and Georgian style buildings made of limestone from local quarries. The streets are built in the quaint nook-and-cranny style and a walk down one of the main thoroughfares is like a journey backward through the centuries. There are very few cities anywhere in the world that have resisted change in a positive way as much as Stamford and one can only hope that it continues to do so for many more years.
Stamford pays due homage to its millennia-old roots by celebrating all that has brought to this point in history. The glorious Tolethorpe Hall, for instance, is a national landmark that is now being used by the Stamford Shakespeare Company to host plays and operas that may have been witnessed in the same city by their ancestors! Many of Stamford's classic churches are also similarly inhabited and cared for, including the world-famous All Saints' Church and its much-lauded wooden war memorial. St. George's in the famed St. George's Square also stands proudly in the same glory it has enjoyed for centuries. Though there are the obligatory railways that permeate nearly every part of Europe, they are unimposing and impressively dependable. If anything, they serve to provide citizens and tourists alike a quick view of the incredible architecture that Stamford is known for. If you're a history buff or fancy yourself an amateur anthropologist, you'd be missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime by passing up a visit to Stamford.
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