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| Bishop's Stortford | |
|---|---|
 Looking down Windhill towards the town centre | |
  Bishop's Stortford Location within Hertfordshire | |
| Population | 41,088 (2020)[1] |
| OS grid reference | TL495215 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BISHOP'S STORTFORD |
| Postcode district | CM22, CM23 |
| Dialling code | 01279 |
| Police | Hertfordshire |
| Fire | Hertfordshire |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| UK Parliament | |
Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in the London commuter belt. Located in Hertfordshire near the border with Essex, just west of the M11 motorway and Stansted Airport, it is 22 miles north-east of Central London and 34 minutes away by rail from Liverpool Street station. The town had an estimated population of 41,088 in 2020.[2] The district of East Hertfordshire, where the town centre is located, has been ranked as the best place to live in the UK by the Halifax Quality of Life annual survey in 2020.[3] The town is commonly known as Stortford by locals.
History
Toponymy
The origins of the town's name are uncertain. One possibility is that the Saxon settlement derives its name from 'Steorta's ford' or 'tail ford', in the sense of a 'tail', or tongue, of land.[4][5] The town became known as Bishop's Stortford due to the acquisition in 1060 by the Bishop of London.[6]
The River Stort is named after the town, and not the town after the river. When cartographers visited the town in the 16th century, they reasoned that the town must have been named after the ford over the river and assumed the river was called the Stort.[7]
First settlements: pre-Roman and Roman Stortford
Little is known of Stortford until the Roman era, with the evidence being small archaeological finds. Limited evidence of ancient Mesolithic and Microlithic peoples in the form of flakes, cores and an axe have been found on the Meads and Silverleys respectively. Most Bronze Age evidence is from the neighbouring parish of Thorley to the south as opposed to Stortford proper, but a 3,000 year old socketed spearhead has been found at Haymeads Lane within the town. Evidence of settlement has been found on Dunmow Road dating from the Middle Bronze Age through to Romano-British times. In Bishop's Stortford: A History, Jacqueline Cooper concludes "existing evidence suggests that the Stortford area was settled only sparsely in prehistoric times, and nearby places like Braughing and Little Hallingbury were of more importance."[8]
Stortford was on the line of the Roman road, Stane Street, which ran from St Albans to Colchester via Braughing. Construction started around 50AD on the road. Little evidence from the period survives except for excavations showing a section of the road, evidence of a cremation facility and a burial site.[9] None of the excavations has shown evidence of the Roman fort which likely existed in Stortford.[10] The settlement was probably abandoned in the 5th century after the break-up of the Roman Empire.[11]
Refoundation: post-Roman and medieval Stortford
Following the end of the Roman era, a new Anglo-Saxon settlement grew up on the site.
However, little is known about Stortford until the 1060s with the evidence becoming much stronger after the Norman Conquest.[12] In 1060 when William, Bishop of London, bought Stortford manor and estate for £8, leading to the town's modern name. By 1086, the motte-and-bailey Waytemore Castle had been built[6] as a local strongpoint for the area. It acted as a centre for defence and civil administration for roughly 125 years before it was dismantled but not destroyed by King John in 1211. Rebuilding of the castle started the following year at John's expense, and John stayed the night in the castle in 1216.[13] By the 15th century, the castle had fallen into disrepair, and the Bishop's Court (one of the administrative structures for the area) moved to Hockerill, to the east of the town.[6]
At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 the village had a population of around 120,[14] and grew to around 700 by the 13th century.[12]
In terms of governance, early medieval Stortford was part of the Braughing Hundred, but acquired burgesses and between 1306 and 1336 was taxed as a borough. No charter survives however, and civil authority passed to two local manor courts at the Castle and the Rectory.[15] Stortford briefly sent two members to parliament in the reigns of Edward II and Edward III, with writs being issued to the town in the 1311–1315, 1318, 1320, 1322 and 1340.[16][17]
Plague and growth: early modern Stortford
At the start of the early modern period in the mid 15th century, Stortford was a primarily agricultural community, but had also acquired a tanning industry.[14] By the 16th century, Stortford had become an important centre of the malting industry. Not only were the local soils well suited for grains, but the fact that the town was just 35 miles to London provided an impetus to its development.[18] The economic draw of the maltings and the town's market supported a large number of inns and public houses by the middle of the 16th century pointing to its prosperity.[19]
Over the following hundred years, Stortford grew markedly. The population of Stortford reached 1,500 by 1660 as a result of a positive net birth rate and migration to the town.[20] This was despite a series of a dozen plagues between the 1560s and 1660s.[21] The town also enjoyed a series of royal visits in the 17th century, with Charles I visiting the town in 1625, 1629 and 1642.[22]
The years following the last of Charles' visits were to prove somewhat turbulent for the town. During the English Civil War Stortford backed the Parliamentarians, with the Manor of Stortford being sequestered from the Bishop of London and sold off for £2,845. It was returned to the Bishop at the Restoration.[22] The Great Plague of 1666–7, and its lasting effects, reduced the population to only around 600 by 1700. The effects of the plague were so severe that the town had to appeal to the Hertfordshire magistrates, who levied a rate on every parish in the county for the relief of Bishop's Stortford, Hoddesdon and Cheshunt.[20]
Despite the demographic impact of the Great Plague, perhaps the turning point in Stortford's fortunes was the creation of the 'Hockerill by-pass' in 1670.[23] King Charles II had in the 1660s been increasingly travelling from London to Newmarket for the races and disliked the noise and congestion of Stortford, with its odorous market, maltings and tanneries. Moreover, the route was not always passable as noted by diarist Samuel Pepys who in made the following entry in his diary on 23 May 1668: ‘and so to Bishop's Stafford . The ways mighty full of water so as hardly to be passed’. As a result, the road from London to Newmarket was diverted to the east of the centre of Stortford, and instead ran through the outlying settlement of Hockerill.[24] The inns of Hockerill become an important overnight location for stop overs for overnight coaches to East Anglia.[25] Further demands for improved roads led to the creation of the Essex and Hertfordshire Turnpike Trust (later Hockerill Turnpike Trust) in 1744 to repair the road between Harlow Bush Common and Stump Cross in Great Chesterford. Later Acts of Parliament extended the term of the Trust and allowed new road construction.[26] From March 1785 the mail coaches ran from London to Norwich via Stortford.[27] Thus, the improved highways marked the first of the phases of Stortford's growth driven by emergent transport technology.
The second major transport development to provide a significant boost to the town was the construction of the Stort Navigation, which canalised the River Stort, and opened in 1769. The improvements to the navigation of the Stort were driven by the inability of the malting industry to use the Stort for river transport, which caused significant damage to the local roads and handed a competitive advantage to neighbouring malting areas like Ware who were linked to London by the River Lea. The work on the canal undertaken by George Jackson (later Sir George Duckett) had the added benefit of alleviating the flooding risk in the town.[28]
Industrial revolution to World War II
With the roads and Stort navigation providing easy access to London markets, industrialisation came to Stortford. The advent of the Stort Navigation brought new industries to the town, with bargemen, lock-keepers, wharfingers, coal and timber merchants all appearing. The malting industry also saw output significantly increase, with brown malt production doubling between 1788 and 1811. Together with national trends in the brewing industry, the 40 malthouses in Stortford in early 1800s Stortford also helped to stimulate the local brewing trade. At the turn of the 19th century, there were 18 brewers in town which in turn boosted the inn trade.[29] The boom in the town in turn boosted the metal working and bricklaying trades, and also aided the general retail trade. In 1791 there were 30 principal traders according to a contemporary directory.[30]
The vibrancy of the local economy - especially the agricultural trade sector - was demonstrated in 1828 when a consortium of local businessmen built the Bishop's Stortford Corn Exchange, which provided trading accommodation for 65 dealers.[31] By this point, the town directory was listing 200 commercial entries, and 350 by the turn of the century.[32]
The third major transport innovation to have a significant impact upon Stortford was the arrival of the railway in 1842. The line initially ran from London Liverpool Street to Stortford, but by 1845 the line was linked to Norwich. The new rail link brought an almost immediate end to the coaching industry, and the Stort Navigation entered terminal decline. The town, though boomed. Massive new residential estates grew up in the New Town (to the south and west of the historic core) and Hockerill (across the river to the east of the historic core) in the decades following the building of the railway.[33] A Bishop's Stortford–Braintree branch line was built to Braintree to bring goods into Stortford from the surrounding more rural areas, with the first section to Great Dunmow opening in 1864.[34] The single track line struggled to gain traction, and by 1922 had only seven eastbound and six westbound trains per day.[35] The bus service which started between Stortford and Dunmow in 1920[36] contributed to the demise of the line which closed to passengers in 1952 and freight in 1972.[37]
The mid-19th century onwards also saw the rapid growth in public utilities, public services and governance in the town. The first gas street lights were installed in the town in the 1830s,[38] in 1855 the New Cemetery was opened,[39] in the 1870s a sewage farm and an isolation hospital were built,[40] while in 1895 the town's first proper hospital was opened.[41] By 1911, the Encyclopædia Britannica referred to the town as having strong educational pedigree: "The high school, formerly the grammar school, was founded in the time of Elizabeth.... There are a Nonconformist grammar school, a diocesan training college for mistresses, and other educational establishments."[42]
During World War II, Stortford was a reception area for evacuees.[43] This did not, however, mean that Stortford was immune from bombings, with 20 bombs recorded as having been dropped in 1940.[44] Targets included Hockerill Training College where three students were killed on 10 October 1940.[45] The railway station was hit twice during the war and a rocket landed near Farnham Road in the town in 1945.[46]
The modern service-industry town
In the post-war era the town centre underwent changes with the demolition of a multi-storey car park and surrounding area to make way for a new town centre area and city-type apartments and penthouses on the riverside and elsewhere. Jackson Square (a modern shopping complex) was rebuilt and an extension added.
Stortford continued to grow as a commuter town from the second half of the 20th century onwards, spurred by the construction of the M11 motorway and Stansted Airport, as well as rail links to London and Cambridge. This contributed to its rise in population to almost 38,000 at the time of the 2011 census.[1]
Of the seven suburbs of Thorley, Town, Havers, Stortford Fields, Bishop's Park, St Michael's Mead and Snowley the last is a separate ecclesiastical parish east of the River Stort, centred around the old coaching inns, All Saints in Stansted Road and Snowley Parade, bordering Birchanger Woods and Essex. Postwar development has enlarged the town's area further.
Demography
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| Source: 1801–1961 & 1939 Register Census via Vision of Britain, 1971–1991 Hertfordshire Populations 1801–1991 (Hertfordshire County Council, undated), 2001–2020 ONS Mid-Year Population Estimates | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Demographic history
The earliest reliable population figure for Stortford was 120 at the publication of the Domesday Book in 1086.[14] Over the successive centuries the population waxed and waned as a result of economic growth and plagues, and generally only rough population estimates exist.[20][21] By the time of the first nationwide census in 1801 Stortford's population had reached 2,305[47] spurred by the town's position on the Hockerill Turnpike[26] and the canalisation of the River Stort.[28] Steady growth continued over the coming decades as the railways spurred industrialisation.[33] Population growth averaged 1.12% per annum through to 1911 and the advent of World War I. Inter-war growth averaged 1.54% per annum. Stortford's population exceeded the county town of Hertford in the 1961 census,[48] even though Stortford's average population growth slowed to 1.39% between World War II and 2020. Sources of population growth have been predominantly natural growth and in-migration, but on a number of occasions the boundaries of Bishop's Stortford parish have been expanded. Most recently this occurred in 1992 when some neighbouring parts of Essex were moved into the town[49] and in 2018 when homes were moved into Stortford from neighbouring Thorley Parish.[50] In 2020 Bishop's Stortford was the largest town in East Hertfordshire.[51]
Ethnicity and nationality
At the 2011 census, 93.6% of the population of Stortford described themselves as white,[52] which was lower than the 96.2% recorded in the 2001 census.[53] The number of people describing themselves as having a white background in 2011 was significantly higher than the England aggregate of 85.4%, but slightly lower than the overall East Hertfordshire figure.[52]
| Bishop's Stortford, % | East Hertfordshire, % | England, % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | 93.6 | 95.5 | 85.4 |
| Mixed/multiple ethnic groups | 2.2 | 1.6 | 2.3 |
| Asian/Asian British | 2.9 | 1.9 | 7.8 |
| Black/African/Caribbean/Black British | 1.0 | 0.7 | 3.5 |
| Other ethnic group | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.0 |
The proportion of Bishop's Stortford residents reporting having been born in the United Kingdom was 87.8%, and was only slightly higher than the English average of 86.2%. Stortford recorded a significantly higher proportion of European Union-born residents than either East Hertfordshire or England.[52] The number of UK-born residents in 2011 was down from the 92.4% recorded in 2001.[52][53]
| Bishop's Stortford, % | East Hertfordshire, % | England, % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 87.8 | 92.0 | 86.2 |
| Ireland | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Other EU | 5.3 | 3.0 | 3.7 |
| Other countries | 5.8 | 4.3 | 9.4 |
Housing
The number of occupied dwellings in Bishop's Stortford rose from 13,733 in 2001 to 14,920. In Stortford 3.0% of properties were recorded as empty in 2011, compared with 4.3% across England. Overall, the dominant type of housing are detached and semi-detached housing, although the proportion of flats has grown from 13.0% in 2001 to 17.6% in 2011. The proportion of flats is well below the English average of 22.1%[52][53]
| Bishop's Stortford | East Hertfordshire | England | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| All Dwellings | 15,377 | 100 | 58,356 | 100 | 23,044,097 | 100 |
| Occupied Dwellings | 14,920 | 97.0 | 56,577 | 97.0 | 22,063,368 | 95.7 |
| Empty Dwellings | 457 | 3.0 | 1,779 | 3.0 | 980,729 | 4.3 |
| Detached Houses | 5,198 | 33.8 | Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Ealdgyth_of_Stortford||||