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Stamford: the best place in Britain – and the whole world Stamford: the best place in Britain – and the whole world
(6 months later)
Remember when scientists found a rare Amazonian tribe and kept their location a secret so their home wasn't spoilt by the outside world? That's how I feel about my Stamford, the Lincolnshire town that has just been named as the best place to live in Britain.Remember when scientists found a rare Amazonian tribe and kept their location a secret so their home wasn't spoilt by the outside world? That's how I feel about my Stamford, the Lincolnshire town that has just been named as the best place to live in Britain.
Growing up there I thought it was completely normal to play near a priory that was 1,000 years old. Sunday walks were a casual stroll past Burghley House. I knew Elizabeth I had visited there but I just presumed she had also been to Peterborough and Corby for a bit of Tudor B&B (she hadn't). I can't tell you how many times I ate a cheese cob where Boudicca had ridden through on some campaign. Forgive me, Warrior Queen, but my picnic was more interesting at the time. I was a fool.Growing up there I thought it was completely normal to play near a priory that was 1,000 years old. Sunday walks were a casual stroll past Burghley House. I knew Elizabeth I had visited there but I just presumed she had also been to Peterborough and Corby for a bit of Tudor B&B (she hadn't). I can't tell you how many times I ate a cheese cob where Boudicca had ridden through on some campaign. Forgive me, Warrior Queen, but my picnic was more interesting at the time. I was a fool.
Stamford aches with a preserved beauty. Even the toilet blocks are Grade II-listed. The crazy narrow passages that lead you from one street to another are almost Venetian. That's why it's regularly used for film and TV productions – Middlemarch and the Da Vinci Code, for instance.Stamford aches with a preserved beauty. Even the toilet blocks are Grade II-listed. The crazy narrow passages that lead you from one street to another are almost Venetian. That's why it's regularly used for film and TV productions – Middlemarch and the Da Vinci Code, for instance.
The real magic, though, is in Stamfordians. As much as the town itself is cinematic, the community is even more eccentric and wondrous. I have to have two Skype sessions every day with my mum just to keep up with the gossip. Being slightly isolated it's a pressure cooker of affairs, reunions, spats and celebrations – a writer's dream. I can't tell you half of it for fear of legal action. Perhaps when we are down the pub – at one point we held the record for most pubs per capita.The real magic, though, is in Stamfordians. As much as the town itself is cinematic, the community is even more eccentric and wondrous. I have to have two Skype sessions every day with my mum just to keep up with the gossip. Being slightly isolated it's a pressure cooker of affairs, reunions, spats and celebrations – a writer's dream. I can't tell you half of it for fear of legal action. Perhaps when we are down the pub – at one point we held the record for most pubs per capita.
In my adolescence I felt trapped by this small town mentality. I spent 20 years trying to escape. Then I spent 20 years trying to get back. The problem is people have clicked on. What used to be an affordable place to live is now a semirural idyll for people with London-weighted wages. House prices have soared and many locals are locked out of the market.In my adolescence I felt trapped by this small town mentality. I spent 20 years trying to escape. Then I spent 20 years trying to get back. The problem is people have clicked on. What used to be an affordable place to live is now a semirural idyll for people with London-weighted wages. House prices have soared and many locals are locked out of the market.
Rental accommodation is both scarce and expensive, and council housing is limited – especially for families and OAPs. My father, desperate to move back to the town of his birth at the age of 75, is on a huge waiting list for sheltered accommodation and has been told there is little or no hope. He has to stay in Ipswich, poor sod.Rental accommodation is both scarce and expensive, and council housing is limited – especially for families and OAPs. My father, desperate to move back to the town of his birth at the age of 75, is on a huge waiting list for sheltered accommodation and has been told there is little or no hope. He has to stay in Ipswich, poor sod.
Oh, commuters – you have robbed me of an affordable home in my home town. Oh well. I live in hope. One day I'll be back to not just the best place in Britain but, to me, the best place in the world. And I will NEVER take Boudicca for granted again.Oh, commuters – you have robbed me of an affordable home in my home town. Oh well. I live in hope. One day I'll be back to not just the best place in Britain but, to me, the best place in the world. And I will NEVER take Boudicca for granted again.
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