The Bell
The Angel
The Talbot
A1-The Great North Road
The Great North Road through Stilton lies on the Roman Ermine Street but, though a heavy Roman silver seal-ring was found here, there does not seem to have been any Roman settlement at the site of the village. Some Neolithic tools were also found here. The village is at a point where Ermine Street was crossed by an east-west road (now Church Street and Fen Street/Drove) which may formerly have been of greater significance, perhaps in connection with the Bullock Road.
Stilton was on the A1 until 1959 when the bypass was opened. That removed the through traffic - and the passing trade. But at least one could drive through. Since the A1 was enlarged into a motorway Stilton has become less accessible. Leave the A1 at Norman Cross, that's Junction 16, and one enters Stilton from the north. Drive along the enormously wide main street, so obviously part of the Great North Road, and out to the south, the road beckoning the traveller to speed up for London, and then stop! There's a fence straight across the road and one realizes that Stilton is now a grand cul-de-sac. The motorway has seen to that. So one can't drive through Stilton; better have a look around. Harper's words, written over a century ago, are curiously apposite today: ...the road...widens out to almost treble its usual width, where a long street of mingled old houses and cottages, a medley of stone, brick and plaster, stands, strangely silent. This is Stilton, dreaming of bygone busy times. The dream has returned. And if you turn up on Mayday you may think you're dreaming, but it's just the annual cheese rolling competition.
There were three coaching inns in Stilton, The Bell, The Angel and The Talbot and about a dozen other pubs at one time of which only the Stilton Cheese remains. The stone built Bell was the oldest, mentioned in a document of 1500 but largely rebuilt in the mid 17th century. The brick built Angel became the busier inn in the heyday of the coaching era. Also dating from the 16th century, it was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in the late 18th century.
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The Bell |
The Angel |
The Talbot |
All three seem to be thriving these days but their fortunes seem to have waxed and waned. A very busy place in the early 19th century, Stilton's trade must have been seriously hit when the railway was built further east to pass through Peterborough. Writing in 1901, Harper noted that ...The Angel, in the best days of posting, became the principal house at Stilton, and the little public house of that name next door to the commanding brick building which is now a private residence was only the tap of the hotel. By 1974 Webster found it closed completely, but now, with no through traffic at all, the Angel is a thriving hotel again. The Bell had a closed spell of a few years but was reopened in in 1983 after some substantial rebuilding. There has been some extensive housing development recently to the west of the old village so the population is now four times the 19th century figure.
A web-page with the suitably descriptive title of: Coaching Inns and Characters of the Great North Road, or A short journey along the A1 from Alconbury Hill to Wansford taking in some of the long established inns and their associated characters and notable persons, can be found here
Lincolnshire
©Biff Vernon 2002