The Bastion

Picture
Not much remains of Stamford's 12th century walls, but St Peter’s Bastion, a Grade 1 listed ancient monument, in West Street (see map, below) is an example. This is how it looked in early 2014; unkempt, unsuitable trees and cars parked against it. The Civic Society Urban Group, with help and encouragement from LCC who are the landowners, and SKDC, determined to renovate the land and make it into a proper feature of the town.

A big concern was the ivy that can be seen in this photo growing up the wall and the potential damage it was doing to the stonework. More ivy damage was being done to the interior wall, not visible in this picture.

With help from private donations and a grant from the Harry Skells Trust, the Civic Society arranged:
  • the removal of the diseased ash tree and sycamore tree
  • the clearing, landscaping and turfing of the site
  • the installation of green oak posts to prevent parking
  • the planting of  two trees, more suitable to the location; these are a broad leaved cockspur thorn – Crataegus Prunifolia and a cut-leaf crab apple – Malus Transitoria
  • the removal of the dead ivy from the inside of the Bastion.
The trees were removed by LCC; the landscaping was carried out by Precision Landscapes, who we would like to thank for providing the turf free of charge. A full description of the project was published in the Stamford Civic Society Annual Review of 2015. It is provided here, as two pages, page 1 and page 2.

The inside walls are still in a very poor state and the Society is working with English Heritage and SKDC to try to get repairs funded and carried out.