The Heritage Plaque Trail
Peterborough Civic Society has erected a number of plaques to commemorate sites or buildings of historic interest in and around the city centre. Taken together they form an interesting plaque trail. Copies of the leaflet are available from Peterborough Tourist Information Centre (Tel:01733 452336) or the Society. It contains a brief history of Peterborough, a plan showing the location of the plaques and a description of the historic significance of each site or building. The latest version of the the plaque trail leaflet (with 24 plaques) was launched in January 2005. Here is a sample of the plaque sites and descriptions:
Plaque 2 30 Priestgate
This house was the home of the Hake family from the 16th to the 18th century. Thomas Hake and his son William each represented Peterborough in Parliament during the 16th century and the family included fenland farmers and overseas merchants. There were also members in Virginia, Jamaica and Tangiers in the 17th century. Two of the family died in the Civil War fighting for Charles I and, following the Restoration, William Hake added a sundial on the house which says, in Latin, "Long live Charles I." The last member of the family to own the house died in 1833. His executors divided the property in two and sold both parts in 1847. Only the eastern half survives today.
Plaque 8 Sessions House, Thorpe Road
Between the 10th and 14th centuries, the Abbots of Peterborough gradually gained various legal powers and freedoms from crown jurisdiction so that they exercised almost absolute legal control over eight of the administrative "Hundreds" in Northamptonshire. This lasted until the dissolution of the monasteries and when Henry VIII established the Diocese of Peterborough, he granted to the Bishop the power to hold prisoners and bring them to trial across an area known as the Hundred of Nassaburgh (also called the Liberty of Peterborough). The gaol was then under the King's Lodging. The Bishop's privileges were acquired by Lord |Burghley, and then gradually became enshrined in the authority granted to each of the Liberty magistrates. The Sessions House was designed by W J Donthorpe and built in 1842 as a courthouse, with a gaol behind. The gaol was demolished in 1961 and the magistrates moved to a new courthouse in Bridge Street in 1978.
Plaque 9 Peterscourt, City Road
The familiar name "Peterscourt" was only given to this building in the early 1950s, when it housed the Sales Department of Perkins Engines. Previously, for nearly 90 years, it had been a teacher training college. The St Peter's Training College opened in temporary buildings in 1859 and moved to this building designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott on its completion in 1864. The College closed in 1938 and was used as an American Services Club during World War II. It reopened between 1946 and 1950 as an emergency college, and became the headquarters of Peterborough Development Corporation between 1969 and 1975. It was extensively restored by the Corporation in 1984/86.
Plaque 15 The Old School, Alwalton
Sir Henry Royce, a founder partner in Rolls Royce, was born at Alwalton Mill in 1863. Whether the young Royce went to school in Alwalton is one of many uncertain details of his early life. The family left Alwalton when he was very young and went to London. He probably came back to Peterborough to be apprenticed at the Great Northern Railway's engineering works but did not serve his full term. Much later in 1884 he set up business as an engineer in Manchester. He died in 1933 and his ashes were buried in Alwalton Church in 1937.
Plaque 16 Stuart House, City Road
The Peterborough Development Corporation was established in 1968 to guide the expansion of the City as part of the government's proposals to transfer London's overspill population to a second generation of new towns. The Corporation had its original office at Peterscourt (see Plaque 9), then in Touthill Close, opposite, and finally in Stuart House. The Corporation ceased to exist in 1988. Stuart House was built in 1982/84 and its name, together with the adjoining offices, Aragon Court, preserve the names of Royal burials in the Cathedral (Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots and Katherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII).
Plaque 17 Starbucks, Cathedral Square
A hospital (almshouse) and chapel were begun on this site by Abbot William de Waterville in about 1172 and completed by his successor Abbot Benedict. Benedict was formerly Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury and brought with him some relics of St Thomas à Becket who was martyred there in 1170. The relics were particularly valuable in attracting pilgrims so the nave of the chapel, built out in such a prominent position in the Market Place, was a very suitable place to house them. It is believed that the chapel was demolished in the 15th century. The chancel however remained standing, as it does today, and for some time after the Reformation was used as the Cathedral Grammar School.