On the eastern edge of Peterborough is a mysterious Bronze Age site that was assembled some 3,500 years ago.
This feat of prehistoric engineering consists of 60,000 vertical and 250,000 horizontal timbers clustered in five long rows to form a dam.
The landscape has been drained for agriculture by dikes since the 14th century, but in that period it was much wetter and difficult to travel on foot.
Part of the way along the road is an island, which is believed to have had spiritual significance.
Flag Fen has a visitor center exploring the significance of the site and showing the many artifacts found at the site, such as weapons and jewelry, which are believed to have been placed in the water as sacrifices.
In the wet room you can see a number of tree species on the site.
Outside, there are reconstructions of Bronze Age and Iron Age roundhouses, and a Bronze Age access road.

2. Railworld Wildlife Haven

Railworld is open on certain days from February through October. It is a railroad museum and nature park near the Peterborough Nene Valley railroad station.
Children and model railroad enthusiasts will be amazed by the extensive and detailed model railroad OO, which adds new buildings and landforms each year.
Over the past 20 years, the open space around the museum has been transformed into a wildlife park, attracting more than 250 native species.
Beehives, bird boxes and hedgehog “hotels” have been created, a pond has been dug and more than 250 trees have been planted during this time.

3. elton Hall and Gardens

Eight miles southwest of Peterborough, Elton Hall is a baronial hall that has been in the same family, Corbis, since 1660. The Nene River runs through the estate, and the house has a mix of architecture dating back to the 1400s.
The oldest elements can be seen in the pointed Gothic windows of the south façade.
The house is open from May to August, on certain days that tend to fluctuate.
You must see art by Renaissance masters, as well as by Gainsborough and Constable, and step into one of Britain’s richest libraries in private hands.
Among its treasures is Henry VIII’s personal prayer book.
The formal gardens with boxwoods and yews have been restored since the 1980s and contain a charming Gothic-style greenhouse built for the new millennium celebration.

4. Sacrewell

A little to the west, Sacrewell is a heritage farm attraction that will fascinate younger members of the clan.
At 50 acres, the farm was mentioned in the Norman Survey of Inland Days in 1086 and opened as a family day out in 1964. Children will enjoy meeting the animals, and the farm has donkeys, Shetland ponies, pygmy goats, poon horses, alpacas, Boer goats, New Hampshire chickens, Landrace pigs and various breeds of sheep.
There’s also a mini-maze, an indoor Playbarn playground, a cafe with free Wi-Fi and a farm store selling groceries and gifts.
One of the most exciting attractions is the watermill, built in 1755, recently restored to working condition with the help of National Lottery funds.

5. Crowland Abbey

Crowland Abbey, located above the county line in Lincolnshire, 13 miles from downtown Peterborough…
Benedictine Priory until 1539, this Grade I listed building is a working parish church and is quite unusual in that it continues to be used for worship after much of the abbey was demolished.
The monastic buildings, chancel, crossing, and transepts were partially demolished immediately, but the nave retained its roof and housed the church for the past five centuries.
With ruins of pointed bays and window arches stuck to the intact part of the church, Crowland Abbey is extremely picturesque and was the subject of a sonnet by John Clare published in 1828. In the church is the skull of the 9th century Abbot Theodore, killed on the altar by Vikings.

6. Burleigh House.

Burghley House is a good 15 miles from Peterborough on the road to Stamford. It’s a trip worth taking if you follow English aristocratic architecture…
Burleigh House is the archetype of the Elizabethan Wunderkind House, built in the last decades of the 16th century by Lord Treasurer William Cecil…
The 18th-century gardens and royal avenues were laid out by Capability Brown, the leading landscape designer of the day…
The house is open to visitors in spring and summer, free flow or with an experienced guide.
Burghley House’s art collection has several hundred pieces and includes works by Veronese (chapel altarpiece), Luca Giordano, Artemisia Gentileschi, a pioneering female Renaissance painter, and German Baroque painter Johann Carl Loth.

7. Queensgate

As the largest city by some distance, Peterborough is a regional shopping center, as indicated by the Queensgate Shopping Center, which was opened by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1982. The center was modernized in the early 2010s, and when written plans were announced for further £30 million improvements, including a multi-screen movie theater.
The center has all the mid-market brands you’d hope to find on a prosperous British street, such as Office, Paperchase, John Lewis, H & M, John Lewis, Lush, River Island, Superdry and M & S, to name a few.
For restaurants, familiar names such as Greggs, Pret, Costa and several fast food chains are at hand.

8. Key Theater.

On the north shore of the Nene, the glass Key Theatre has been a staple of Peterborough’s live culture since 1973…
Touring books, musicals, musicals and dance shows, and local community productions…
The culmination of the program comes at the end of the year, when the Key Theatre puts on pantomimes for families that have been an institution for more than 40 years…
The Key Studio is a more intimate 112-seat venue for drama and live comedy.
During daytime hours, the theater’s highly-rated Riverside restaurant has a beautiful view of the river…

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History
Etymology
The original name of the town was Medeshamstede. The name changed to Burg from the late tenth century, perhaps after Abbot Kenulf built a defensive wall around the abbey and eventually became Peterborough; the town does not appear to have been a town until the twelfth century. The contrasting form of Gildenburg is also found in the 12th-century history of the abbey, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’s version of Peterborough, and in the history of the abbey by Friar Hugh Candideous.

Early history.
Modern Peterborough is the last of a number of settlements that, at one time or another, benefited from its location, where the Nene leaves large areas of permanently drained land for swamps. Remains of Iron Age settlement and what is considered religious activity can be seen at the Flag Fen archaeological site east of the city center. The Romans established a fortified garrison town at Durobriva on Hermine Street, five miles (8 km) west of Water Newton, around the middle of the first century AD. The earliest appearance of Durobriva among the surviving records is in the Antoninus Route of the late 2nd century. There was also a large 1st century Roman fort at Longthorpe, designed to house half a legion or about 3,000 soldiers; it may have been founded around 44-48 AD. Peterborough was an important area of pottery production in the Roman period, supplying wares from the Nene Valley that were sold even in Cornwall and the Antonine wall in Caledonia.

The original name of Peterborough is shown as Medeshamstede; this may have been an English settlement before 655 AD, when Sequulf founded a monastery on land given to him for this purpose by Peada of Mercia, who had converted to Christianity and for a time was ruler of the smaller Middle Angles. His brother Wolfer killed his own sons, converted in the same way, and then completed the monastery by atonement.

Here in 1069 or 1070 Wake raged through the city. The indignant Abbot Turold built a fort or castle, which, after his name, was called Mont Turold: this hill, or knoll, is outside the garden of the benefice, now called Toot Hill, though in 1848 Tot Hill or Toot Hill. The abbey church was rebuilt and greatly enlarged in the 12th century. The Peterborough Chronicle, a version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, contains unique information about the history of England after the Norman Conquest, written here by monks in the 12th century. It is the only known prose history in English between the Conquest and the late 14th century. The townspeople received their first charter from “Abbot Robert” – probably Robert Sutton (1262-1273). The place suffered greatly during the war between King John and the Confederate barons, many of whom took refuge in the monastery here and in Crowland Abbey, from whose shelters they were driven by royal soldiers, who plundered the religious houses and carried off great treasures. . Abbey Church became one of Henry VIII’s surviving, more secular cathedrals in 1541, being valued at dissolution (in the Royal Books) as having an income of 1972.7 shillings a year.

When the Civil War broke out, Peterborough was divided between the supporters of King Charles I and the Long Parliament. The town lay on the border of the Eastern Association of Counties, which sided with Parliament, and the war reached Peterborough in 1643, when soldiers arrived in the city to attack the Royalist strongholds at Stamford and Crawland. Royalist forces were defeated within weeks and retreated to Burleigh House, where they were captured and sent to Cambridge. While the parliamentary soldiers were at Peterborough, however, they sacked the cathedral, destroying the Lady Chapel, the chapter house, the cloister, the high altar and choir, and the medieval decorations and records.

Housing and sanitary improvements were made in accordance with the provisions of an Act of Parliament passed in 1790; and in 1839 an Act was passed to build a jail to replace the two previously standing. After the dissolution the Dean and Chapter, who succeeded the Abbot as Lords of the Manor, appointed the Chief Bailiff, and the Constables and other city officials were elected according to their court; but this ended when the municipal district was incorporated in 1874 under the Mayor, six Aldermen, and eighteen Councilors. Among the privileges insisted upon by the rector as early as the 13th century was a prison for criminals at Sauk in Peterborough. In 1576 Bishop Edmund Scambler sold the possession of the hundred of Nassaburg, which amounted to Soca, to Queen Elizabeth I, who gave it to Lord Burleigh, and from that time until the 19th century he and his descendants, the Earls and Marquesses. Exeter had a separate prison for prisoners arrested at Soca. The abbot used to hold four fairs, of which two, the St. Peter’s Fair, established in 1189 and later held on the second Tuesday and Wednesday of July, and the Brigge Fair, established in 1439 and held later on the first Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. in October, were purchased by the corporation from the church commissioners in 1876. The bridge fair, as it is now known, donated to the abbey by King Henry VI, has survived. Prayers were once said at the morning service in the cathedral for the opening of the fair, followed by a civic proclamation and a sausage dinner in the town hall, which continues to this day. The mayor traditionally leads the procession from the town hall to the fair, where the proclamation is read, urging all people to “behave soberly and courteously and pay their fair dues and demands in accordance with the laws of the area and the rights of the city. Peterborough.”

Modern History
Railroad lines began locally in the 1840s, but it was the opening of the Great Northern Railroad line from London to York in 1850 that transformed Peterborough from a market town into an industrial center. Lord Exeter opposed the railroad running through Stamford, so Peterborough, situated between the two main terminals in London and Doncaster, increasingly developed as a regional hub.

Combined with extensive local clay deposits, the railroad allowed for large-scale brick production and distribution. The area was the leading brick producer in Great Britain for much of the twentieth century. Brick production had been a small seasonal craft since the early nineteenth century, but during the 1890s successful experimentation at Fletton using harder clays from a lower level led to a much more efficient process. The dominance of the market during this period by the London Brick Company, founded by the prolific Scottish builder and architect John Catles Hill, resulted in some of the country’s most famous landmarks built using the ubiquitous Fletton brick. Perkins Engines was founded in Peterborough in 1932 by Frank Perkins, creator of the Perkins diesel engine. Thirty years later, more than a tenth of Peterborough’s population worked here, mostly in Eastfield. Baker Perkins moved from London to Westwood, where His Majesty Peterborough Prison is now located, in 1903, and then Peter’s Brotherhood to Walton in 1906; both manufacturers of industrial equipment, they too became major employers in the city. British Sugar is still headquartered in Woodston, although the beet sugar factory that opened there in 1926 was closed in 1991.

Norwich and Peterborough (N&P) was formed by the merger of the Norwich Building Society and Peterborough Building Society in 1986. It was the ninth largest building society at the time of its merger with the Yorkshire Group in 2011. N&P continued to operate under its own Lynch Wood brand until 2018. Before merging with Midlands Co-op in 2013, Anglia Regional, Britain’s fifth largest cooperative society, was also based in Peterborough, where it was founded in 1876. began operations as Central England Co-op in 2014.

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The value of the park lies in the fact that there are 9 mounds where the Indians of one of the nomadic tribes were buried. The site was the site of the Indian tribe’s camp. The burial occurred about 2 thousand years ago. The largest mound is 200 feet long and has a zigzag shape resembling the path of a snake.

Petroglyph Park
Petroglyph Park is a national park located in Woodview, northeast of Peterborough.

The park contains examples of prehistoric rock art by the Anishinabek people. Images of people, animals, and mysterious abstract figures are carved into blocks of limestone. A total of about 900 different figures can be seen here. The scientists assume that the petroglyphs were made 500-1000 years ago.

Rock carvings in this area were discovered in 1954 by miners of Industrial Minerals Canada. Now this area is under the protection of a national park. Since 2002, the park has been open to visitors.

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An indispensable sight in Peterborough is its stunning cathedral, which was largely completed before 1237. It is one of the treasures of cathedrals in the country and has retained its 12th century Norman architecture, which is conspicuous by the long line of semicircular arches traced in zig-zag patterns along the nave.
The west façade is an unusual Early English Gothic structure with three massive arches that resemble nothing that came before or since.
Peterborough Cathedral emerged from a much earlier Anglo-Saxon church, founded around the 7th century, and a seductive Hedda stone from this building is on display.
The east end of the church in the “New Building” has a perpendicular vault of fans by John Westell, the architect of King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, and you can also find the tomb of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife.

2. Peterborough Museum.

The solemn 1816 stone townhouse at the Peterborough Museum houses more than 220,000 objects that tell the human and natural history of the city and region.
The mansion was Peterborough’s first hospital in the mid-18th century, and upstairs you can see what a Victorian-era operating room would have looked like.
You can see art from the 17th century to the present, as well as a collection of original manuscripts by the poet John Clare, who was born near Helpston.
It was a camp set up outside Peterborough for French and Dutch soldiers captured during the Napoleonic Wars.
It was the world’s first purpose-built POW camp, and the museum features crafts such as model ships and dollhouses handmade by prisoners more than 200 years ago.

3. the Nene Valley Railroad

Peterborough Station, Nene Valley, at the center of the eastern terminus of the preserved Nene Valley Railroad, which runs 7.5 miles through the Nene Valley to the village of Yarwell…
This is a fragment of the line that once extended from Peterborough to Blisworth, 45 miles southwest in Northamptonshire.
Opened in 1847, the line was closed in 1966, and in the ’70s a section was purchased to become a visitor attraction.
In 2008, it was extended a little further to Yarwell.
Generally, you’ll be able to ride the train fueled by BR Strandard Class 5 steam locomotives, but diesel locomotives are fueled during maintenance.

4. Longthorpe Tower.

In the western Peterborough suburb of Longthorpe is a stunning three-story tower from a 14th-century manor house.
Longthorpe Tower is a Class I listed English Heritage.
The tower is a must-see for its incredible murals, painted around 1330 and covering almost the entire first floor.
The paintings are almost unique in Britain and have religious, moral and secular themes…
Reflecting on these works, you’ll see musicians, saints, animals, kings, and a strange mythological beast shooting flaming excrement from its backside.
The exhibit in the tower tells the story of the building and the family that built it.

5. John Clare Cottage.

The beloved Romantic poet John Clare was born in this modest thatched-roof cottage in the village of Helpson in 1793. The cottage was purchased by the Trust for the poet in 2005 and over the past decade has become a visitor attraction.
Several rooms have been returned to their rustic appearance in the late 19th century, and there are examples of John Clare’s work and information about his life, which was surrounded by bouts of poor mental health.
The idyllic garden is staffed by volunteers, and there is a café serving homemade baked goods.
You can also browse the cottage bookstore, complete with Claire’s work.
Visit the Helpleston Temple to find Claire’s grave.

6. Nene Park.

Downtown Peterborough is home to a colossal public park that continues west for 3.5 miles along the banks of the Nene River…
The park encompasses more than 2,500 acres, and within this chain are lakes surrounded by hiking and biking trails that beckon you through meadows and into the woods…
You can get there by taking the large rectangular canoeing route, and you get there through Orton Mere, which is also a stop on the Nene Valley Railroad.
Nene Park also includes Ferry Meadows Country Park, below, which contains many attractions and amenities.

7. Ferry Meadows Country Park.

About a quarter of Nene Pak is occupied by Ferry Meadows Country Park, which has tons for families to enjoy in the summer.
At Gunwade Lake, you can rent jet skis, paddle boats, canoes, kayaks and kayaks.

At the Ferry Meadows Visitor Center, you can view footage from a camera nest in the Martin Sand Box at the park.
The country park also features a miniature steam railroad, three playgrounds for children, horseback riding stables, two 18-hole golf courses, a pub, garden center and plant nursery…

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