The town of Bishop’s Stortford, like most of Britain’s historic towns, has an interesting past. Below you will find some of the most fascinating articles that have come to light over the years.
historical finds
While not a hotbed of historical finds, Bishop’s Stortford has an interesting history nonetheless. With the continued development of the city, there are bound to be more discoveries, but this is what has been found so far…
In 1900, during excavations on Potter Street in Bishop’s Stortford, a tooth and tusk of a woolly mammoth were discovered.
Two Stone Age hand axes were accidentally discovered while digging drains near the Red, White & Blue Public House in Hazel End. Flint arrowheads have also been found in the vicinity of Birchanger Woods.
The existence of Mesolithic man in the Bishop’s Stortford area came to light in 1962 at Silver Leys, Hadham Road, when leveling ground for a playing field revealed several worked flints consisting of long-bladed sections, dated to between 8000 and 2000 B.C.
the river storm
When the first cartographers arrived in the town in the early 1600s, they reasoned that the town must have been named for the ford over the Stort and assumed the river was named the Stort. It has been ever since. Until then, there was no official name for the river. The name of a river after a city is very unusual.
The Bishop’s Stortford Arsonist
In 1825, a number of buildings in Bishop’s Stortford burned down. This caused great alarm in the town and a committee was formed. A GBP500 reward was offered for information on the arsonist. Several threatening letters were soon received, with a warning stating that “Stortford will be burned to the ground”.
Thomas Rees was arrested and found guilty of the charge of mailing the letters, but not of arson. He was eventually transported to Australia as a convict.
If you know of any interesting historical facts about Bishop’s Stortford, please let us know and we’ll include them in this article and on our website.