Two Days in Stamford, Lincolnshire, Stamford, England (B)

I went because my daughter booked a cottage in Stamford for us to stay for a weekend and a table at a Michelin star restaurant nearby on the Saturday. It was a wonderful birthday present and fabulous surprise when she told me about it. Her decision was based on finding the restaurant first and then somewhere nearby to stay. But we both knew Stamford a little. However, my own experience of the town had been skirting round the edge to visit friends who lived in a village a few miles out and I don’t think I’d ever ventured into the centre before. Well, I’m sure I didn’t, because it was all a lovely surprise and I’d never realised how special the town is.

A lot of people will know it as the location for many films and TV series, including Pride and Prejudice (2005) with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden (my favourite version!) and the 1994 BBC TV adaptation of Middlemarch. It also appeared in The Da Vinci Code and The Golden Bowl. Movie fans might well want to go simply to experience the familiar setting. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).