[7] The Romans built Ermine Street across what is now Burghley Park and forded the River Welland to the west of Stamford, eventually reaching Lincoln.

[9][11][12] The site stood derelict until the late 20th century, when it was built over and now includes a bus station and a modern housing development.

On 7 March 1190, men at the fair who were preparing to go on the crusade led a pogrom, in which several of the Stamford Jews were killed, and the rest, who escaped with difficulty, were given refuge in the castle.

[15] Stamford's importance and wealth in the Middle Ages meant that a number of religious houses and hospitals were established in or near the town.

Stamford then became a centre for the malting trade as the barley from nearby fenlands to the east and heathlands to the north and west could make its way more easily and cheaper to the town.

In 1663 an Act of Parliament was passed to set up turnpikes on the Great North Road, and this was to make a notable difference to Stamford's fortunes in the following century.

[9][27] Local tradition says it began after William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey had seen two bulls fighting in the meadow beneath his castle.

The earl mounted his horse and rode after the animal; he enjoyed the sport so much that he gave the meadow where the fight began to the butchers of Stamford, on condition that they continue to provide a bull to be run in the town every 13 November.

[28] During the Second World War, the area round Stamford contained several military sites, including RAF station, airborne encampments and a prisoner-of-war camp.

[29] Within the town, Rock House held the headquarters of Stanisław Sosabowski and the staff of the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade.

[31] Stamford Museum occupied a Victorian building in Broad Street from 1980 until June 2011, when it succumbed to Lincolnshire County Council budget cuts.

[43] The three lions are the English royal arms, granted to the town by Edward IV for its part in the "Lincolnshire Uprising".

Previous MPs include Gareth Davies, who won the seat at the 2019 General Election and Nick Boles.

There have been mistaken claims of a quadripoint where four ceremonial counties – Rutland, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire – would meet at a point[45] but the location actually has two tripoints some 20 metres (22 yd) apart.

The River Welland forms the border between two historic counties: Lincolnshire to the north and Soke of Peterborough in Northamptonshire to the south.

In 1968, a specimen of the sauropod dinosaur Cetiosaurus oxoniensis was found in the Williamson Cliffe Quarry, close to Great Casterton in adjacent Rutland.

The George Hotel, Lord Burghley, William Cecil, Danish Invader and Jolly Brewer are among nearly 30 premises serving real ale.

[52] Surrounding villages and Rutland Water provide other venues and employment opportunities, as do several annual events at Burghley House.

The town centre's major retail and service sector has many independent boutique stores and draws shoppers from a wide area.

Harrison & Dunn, Dawson of Stamford, the George Hotel and The Crown Arts Centre are other popular places.

A number of smaller firms — welders, printers and so forth — feature in collections of industrial units or more traditional premises in older, mixed-use parts of the town.

Stamford lies amidst some of England's richest farmland and close to the famous "double-cropping" land of parts of the fens.

Stamford has a lower-power television relay transmitter, due to it being in a valley,[57][58][59] which takes its transmission from Waltham, not Belmont.

[9] It is marked by streets of timber-framed and stone buildings using local limestone and by little shops tucked down back alleys.

The station building is a stone structure in Mock Tudor style, influenced by nearby Burghley House and designed by Sancton Wood.

Lying on the main north–south Ermine Street (now the Great North Road and the A1) from London to York and Edinburgh, Stamford hosted several Parliaments in the Middle Ages.

The Hereward Way runs through the town from Rutland to the Peddars Way in Norfolk, along the Roman Ermine Street and then the River Nene.

[74] Local bus services are operated by Delaine Buses, CentreBus, Blands and Peterborough City Council.

In April 2013, a group of parents announced an intention to establish a Free School in the town,[77] but failed to receive government backing.

New College Stamford offers post-16 further education: work-based, vocational and academic; and higher education courses including BA degrees in art and design awarded by the University of Lincoln and teaching-related courses awarded by Bishop Grosseteste University.