VISITING WANSFORD Just 8 miles (a staging post) south of Stamford, Wansford is well worth a visit to see attractive and interesting buildings, enjoy good food and take a country walk. Centrebus Service 9 (to Peterborough) leaves Stamford Bus Station at 35 mins past the hour and returns from Wansford at 2 mins to the hour. Refreshments • The Paper Mills is dog friendly and food is available 11.30am - 3pm and in the evening (closed on Mondays) • The Haycock, Wansford’s most famous inn, uses locally sourced food which is served all day every day • The Cross Keys is dog friendly, has a lovely back garden but may only be open in evenings Walking • From the Bridge you can walk along the river to Yarwell • From the church take the road towards Yarwell and Old Sulehay Forest can be entered by several paths on the right • The two walks can be combined by walking through Yarwell village
PAPER MILLS The Paper Mills public house is a reminder of a flourishing 19th century business which was once nearby. Richard Newcomb, the proprietor of the Stamford Mercury and a dynamic figure, was determined to produce a paper of the highest quality. For this reason he bought the paper mill at Wansford in 1824. The 17th century mill had been rebuilt in 1805 following a fire. It was in an ideal situation on the River Nene and adjacent to the Great North Road providing transport for the paper. Newcomb employed a manager to run the mill. The paper was made from cotton rags. The bales of rags were unloaded at the Paper Mills wharf and 40-50 women were employed to remove the buttons. The paper was of an excellent quality, not only providing newspaper for the Stamford Mercury but also for the Times and another London paper, The Weekly Dispatch. The Mill House, later renamed Stibbington House, was included in the sale. The house had been rebuilt in 1810 and later had a lodge designed by Teulon (see below). Richard Newcomb divided his time between Stibbington House in Wansford and Rock House in Stamford. He built a row of houses in the village, called the Barracks, to house his workers. He also built a clubroom (7 Chapel Row) for the employees, which Newcomb allowed the Wesleyans to use as a chapel. In 1855 one of the steam boilers exploded and the mill closed. The Mercury then used a cheaper paper made from esparto grass but the quality was poor in comparison. TEULON, BEDFORD & THE WANSFORD LOOK Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812-73) belonged to a group of 19C architects who spearheaded the Gothic Revival style. He set up practice in 1838
and designed schools, parsonages, churches and country houses mostly for aristocratic clients. The most important of these was the Duke of Bedford who employed Teulon to provide estate buildings. He felt an estate owner should supply, “good and comfortable cottages in which the decencies and dignity of human life may be maintained”. Teulon’s great-great-nephew and biographer, Alan Teulon, commented that “most of his work was done for the Duke of Bedford around Wansford”. This has often been overlooked in architectural books that only cite Teulon’s work on model villages such as Thorney (commissioned by the Duke from 1848). At Wansford the buildings are scattered, making a less immediate visual impact but they produce the ‘Wansford Look’ using local building materials and blending with earlier houses. They date from the 1850s and demonstrate the Duke’s principles, providing for separate eating and living quarters and bedrooms for children apart from their parents. Date-stones and the initial B identify cottages on the east side of Elton Road and the west side of London Road. Less typical of Teulon’s work, but attributed to him, are Goss Cottages, numbers 2 & 4 on the west side of Elton Road. A distinctive house is 19 Old North Road commissioned for the estate cooper with a single storey cooper’s workshop attached. Teulon at his more flamboyant is demonstrated in the gatehouse to Stibbington House. He loved varied rooflines, gables, bays, porches, tall chimneys and if he could incorporate one, a tower. The ‘tower’ at Stibbington House was actually a ventilator for an earth closet! STAMFORD LIVING SEPTEMBER 2016
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