Peterborough, England: A (very!) quick guide.
I received this info from a friend, with many thanks!
Peterborough -
Cambridgeshire - England
Peterborough is situated in the Fenland region of England, North
Cambridgeshire approximately
80 miles north of London. The area is very flat and is now below sea level
since a flooded fen
was reclaimed by Dutch drainage experts very early AD. Hence the term New
Holland is applied
to North Cambridgeshire / South Lincolnshire. Peterborough has always been
a rural town until
the arrival of the railways when the Great Northern Railway established
their works at New
England, a village north of Peterborough, in 1853.
In 1967, the British government decided that Peterborough should help to
relieve some of
London's housing problems. This proposal led to the birth of the
Peterborough Development
Corporation in 1968. The Development corporation can really take a lot of
the credit for blending
many of Peterborough's old and historic features with the many new housing
and industrial
areas. Also the development of the City's roads and excellent Parkways that
all local people take
for granted. Peterborough's biggest change was the development of the
Queensgate Shopping
Centre, an indoor shopping mall that had never been seen in a small city
before like
Peterborough at a cost of nearly £60 million pounds in 1982.
Over the last 20 years Peterborough has developed from a fairly small City
surrounded by
smaller villages into a major developing City (est 250,000 pop). Major
businesses are attracted
to Peterborough due to its great open spaces and attractive industrial
zones. World wide
companies such as APV, Perkins Engines, Thomas Cook and Pearl Assurance all
have head
offices here.
Peterborough Cathedral:
The Abbey was founded in 655 by the Mercian nobleman, Peada, it was
destroyed by the Danes
in 870. Reconstructed in 972 and then burnt down by mistake in 1116. The
present cathedral,
started in 1118 took more than 120 years to build and was consecrated in
1238 by Bishop
Robert Grosseteste of Lincoln. It is a superb example of Romanesque
architecture.
The Cathedral suffered badly at the hands of Cromwells soldiers, who in
1643 destroyed the
majority of the stained glass and statuary, the choir stalls and the High
Altar. The Apse ceiling
was broken up with musket fire. As a result the interior of the Cathedral
is uncluttered with
monuments and light streams in through clear glass, creating an air of
space and purity. Much
work has been undertaken in recent years and more is now needed. The
painted Nave ceiling
(c1220) is unique in England. It is one of the most important examples of
medieval art in the
whole of Europe. The Romanesque design of the ceiling contains figures of
saints, bishops and
kings as well as grotesque monsters.
A main feature of
the Cathedral is Katherine of Aragon's Tomb
After he divorced her, Henry VIII's first queen was sent to Kimbolton
Castle, where she died in
1536. King Henry wishing to avoid the expense of a funeral in St Paul's,
ordered that she was to
be buried at the Abbey in Peterborough. It is unlikely that Henry's
sentiment for his first wife
influenced his decision to bestow Cathedral status on Peterborough Abbey,
but Katherine is still
greatly honoured here. The standard of Henry VIII over her tomb was given
by the present
Queen, Elizabeth II.
Flag Fen - A
Bronze Age Settlement
Close by to the city centre is the site of Flag Fen situated in Fengate
Peterborough. A bronze
age farm dating back to 1000 BC. The Archaeology park has a host of
attractions from The
Visitor Centre and Museum to a Iron age roundhouse. At the Bronze age farm
you can see
family living quarters, primitive domestic animals. Giving you a real feel
of what life was like for
the people from the Bronze Age. In the Archaeology Park you can see a real
Roman Road with
its original surface intact, Bronze age timber the only excavation in
Europe to have been
uncovered. Also several reconstructed prehistoric houses.
Nene Valley
Railway - A Steam Locomotive Railway
The Nene Valley Railway has been seen by millions of people world wide as
this famous railway
line has been used for Films and television shows world wide, James Bond
was seen hanging
and running along the roof of one of the historic steam locomotives. Nene
Valley railway is
situated along the Nene Country Park giving you beautiful views of the
Ferry Meadows and the
river Nene and the Thorpe meadows golf coarse. The main station is situated
in Wansford a
charismatic village near to Peterborough, the various steam trains and
carriages are from all
over Europe and run on over 7 miles of track taking you from Wansford to
the heart of
Peterborough.
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