| | PeterboroughAbout Peterborough
Peterborough (pronounced /'pi?t?b?r?/ listen (help·info)) is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with a projected population of 161,800 as of 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. The Town Hall is 75 miles (121 km) north of London at Charing Cross. The city is situated on the River Nene, which flows into the North Sea approximately 30 miles (48 km) to the north-east. The local topography is notoriously flat and low-lying, and in some places lies below sea level. The area known as the Fens falls to the east of Peterborough. The City of Peterborough includes the outlying settlement at RAF Wittering, and as a unitary authority borders Northamptonshire and Rutland to the west, Lincolnshire to the north, and Cambridgeshire to the south and east.
Human settlement in the area dates back to before the Bronze Age, as can be seen at the Flag Fen archaeological site to the east of the current city centre. This site also shows evidence of Roman occupation. The Saxon period saw the establishment of an abbey, which later became Peterborough Cathedral. The population grew rapidly following the arrival of the railways in the nineteenth century, and Peterborough became an industrial centre, particularly noted for its brick manufacture. Following the Second World War, growth was limited until designation as a New Town in the 1960s. The population is once again undergoing rapid expansion and a £1 billion regeneration of the city centre and immediately surrounding area is underway. In common with much of the United Kingdom, industrial employment has fallen, with new jobs tending to be in financial services and distribution.
History
Present-day Peterborough is merely the latest in a series of settlements which have at one time or other benefited from the advantages of where the Nene leaves permanently drained land for the Fens. Remains of Bronze Age settlement and what is thought to be religious activity can be seen at the Flag Fen archaeological site to the east of the city centre. The Romans established the fortified garrison town of Durobrivae on Ermine Street to the west of the current city around AD 43. This was first mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary of the late second century.
Peterborough (Gildenburgh, Burgus sancti Petri) is shown by its original name Medeshampstede to have been a Saxon village before AD 655 when Saxulf, a monk, founded the monastery on land granted to him for that purpose by Peada, King of Mercia. The Peterborough Chronicle, or later Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which contains unique information about the history of England after the Norman Conquest, was composed here by monks. According to some philologists, this is the only prose history in English between the conquest and the later fourteenth century. The town's name was altered to Burgh between AD 992 and 1005 after Abbot Kenulf had built a defensive wall around the minster; but it does not appear to have been a borough until the twelfth century. The burgesses received their first charter from "Abbot Robert" » probably Robert of Sutton (1262-1273).
When civil war broke out, Peterborough was divided between supporters of King Charles I (known as Cavaliers) and supporters of the Long Parliament (known as Roundheads). The city 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 Royalist strongholds at Stamford and Crowland. The Royalist forces were defeated within a few weeks and retreated to Burghley House, where they were captured and sent to Cambridge. While the Parliamentary soldiers were in Peterborough however, they ransacked the cathedral, destroying the lady chapel, chapter house, cloister, high altar and choir stalls, as well as mediæval decoration and records.
Historically the dean and chapter, who succeeded the abbot as lords of the manor, appointed a high bailiff, and the constables and other borough officers were elected at their court leet; but the municipal borough was incorporated in 1874 under the government of a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors. Among the privileges claimed by the abbot as early as the thirteenth century was that of having a prison for felons taken in the Soke. In 1576 Bishop Scambler sold the lordship of the hundred of Nassaburgh, which is coextensive with the Soke, to Queen Elizabeth I, who gave it to Lord Burghley, and from that time until the nineteenth century he and his descendants, the Earls and Marquesses of Exeter, had a separate gaol for prisoners arrested in the Soke. The abbot formerly held four fairs, of which two, St. Peter's Fair, granted in 1189 and later held on the second Tuesday and Wednesday in July, and the Brigge Fair, granted in 1439 and later held on the first Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in October, were purchased by the corporation from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1876. The Bridge Fair, as it is now known, granted to the abbey by King Henry VI, survives. Prayers for the opening of the fair were once said at the morning service in the cathedral, followed by a civic proclamation and a sausage lunch at the Town Hall which still takes place. The Mayor traditionally leads a procession from the Town Hall to the fair where the proclamation is read, asking all persons to "behave soberly and civilly, and to pay their just dues and demands."
Railway lines began operating locally during the 1840s, but it was the 1850 opening of the Great Northern Railway's main line from London to York, that transformed Peterborough from a market town to an industrial centre. Lord Exeter had opposed the railway passing through Stamford, so Peterborough, situated between two main terminals at London and Doncaster, increasingly developed as a regional hub.
Coupled with vast local clay deposits, the railway enabled large scale brick making and distribution to take place. The area was the UK's leading producer of bricks for much of the twentieth century. Brick making had been a small seasonal craft since the early nineteenth century, but during the 1890s successful experiments at Fletton using the harder clays from a lower level had resulted in a much more efficient process. Perkins Engines was established in Peterborough in 1932 by Frank Perkins, creator of the Perkins Diesel Engine. Thirty years later it employed more than a tenth of the population of Peterborough, mainly at Eastfield. Baker Perkins had relocated from London to Westwood, now the site of HMP Peterborough, in 1903, followed by Peter Brotherhood to Walton in 1906; both manufacturers of industrial machinery they too became major employers in the city. British Sugar remains headquartered in Woodston, although the sugar beet factory, which opened there in 1926, was closed in 1991.
Designated a New Town in 1967, Peterborough Development Corporation was formed in partnership with the city and county councils to house London's overspill population in new townships sited around the existing urban area. There were to be four townships; at Bretton, Orton, Paston/Werrington and Castor. The last of these was never built, but a fourth township, called Hampton, is now taking shape south of the city. It was decided that the city should have a major indoor shopping centre at its heart. Planning permission was received in the late summer of 1976 and Queensgate, which contains over 90 stores and includes parking for 2,300 cars, was opened by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1982. 34 miles (55 km) of urban roads were planned and a network of high-speed roads, known as parkways, was constructed.
Peterborough's population grew by 45.4% between 1971 and 1991. New service-sector companies like Thomas Cook and Pearl Assurance were also attracted to the city, ending the dominance of the manufacturing industry as employers. An urban regeneration company named Opportunity Peterborough, under the chairmanship of Lord Mawhinney, was set up by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in 2005 to oversee Peterborough's future development. Between 2006 and 2012 a £1 billion re-development of the city centre and surrounding areas will take place. The master plan provides guidelines on shaping the physical form of the city centre over the next 15-20 years. Proposals are already progressing for the north of Westgate, the south bank and the station quarter, where Network Rail is preparing a major mixed use development. Whilst recognising the reconfiguration of the relationship between the city and station is critical, English Heritage found the current plans for Westgate unconvincing and felt more thought should be given to the vitality of the historic core.
Administration
The city formed a parliamentary borough returning two members from 1541, with the rest of the Soke being part of Northamptonshire parliamentary county. The Great Reform Act did not affect the borough, while the rural portion of the Soke was included in the northern division of Northamptonshire. In 1885 the borough's representation was reduced to one member, and in 1918 the boundaries were adjusted to include the whole Soke. The serving member for Peterborough is the Conservative, Stewart Jackson MP, who defeated Labour's Helen Clark in the 2005 general election. In 1997 the North West Cambridgeshire constituency was formed, incorporating parts of the city and neighbouring Huntingdonshire. The serving member is the Conservative, Shailesh Vara MP, who succeeded the (then) Rt Hon Dr. Sir Brian Mawhinney, former Secretary of State for Transport and Chairman of the Conservative Party, in 2005. Mawhinney, who had previously served as Member of Parliament for Peterborough from 1979, was created Baron Mawhinney of Peterborough in the county of Cambridgeshire later that year. Peterborough and North West Cambridgeshire are included in the East of England constituency for elections to the European Parliament. It currently elects seven members using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.
From 1889 the ancient Soke of Peterborough formed an administrative county in its own right with boundaries similar, although not identical, to the current unitary authority. The area however remained geographically part of Northamptonshire until 1965, when the Soke of Peterborough was merged with Huntingdonshire to form the county of Huntingdon and Peterborough. Following a review of local government in 1974, Huntingdon and Peterborough was abolished and the current district created by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Peterborough with Peterborough Rural District, Barnack Rural District, Thorney Rural District, Old Fletton Urban District and part of the Norman Cross Rural District, which had each existed since 1894. This became part of the non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire. Letters patent were granted which continued the style of the city over the greater area. In 1998 the city became autonomous of Cambridgeshire county council as a unitary authority, but it continues to form part of that county for ceremonial purposes. The leader and cabinet model of decision-making, first adopted by the city council in 2001, is similar to national government.
Policing in the city remains the responsibility of Cambridgeshire Constabulary; and firefighting, the responsibility of Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service. Nowadays the Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade, one of few of its kind, effectively functions as a retained fire station.
Peterborough Primary Care Trust guides primary care services (general practitioners, dentists, opticians and pharmacists) in the city, directly provides adult social care and services in the community such as health visiting and physiotherapy and also funds hospital care and other specialist treatments. Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the country's top performing NHS acute trusts. In 2004 it became one of the first ten NHS foundation trusts in England. A £300 million health investment plan will see the transfer of the city's two hospitals to a single site by building a modern, flexible facility more suited to modern healthcare. The full planning application for the redevelopment of the Edith Cavell Hospital was approved by the council in 2006. Planning permission for the development of an integrated care centre on the existing site of the Fenland Wing at Peterborough District Hospital was granted in 2003. Following merger of the Cambridgeshire, then East Anglian Ambulance Services, the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust is responsible for the provision of statutory emergency medical services in Peterborough.
The council's budget for the financial year 2007/8 is £226.8 million. The main source of non-school funding is the formula grant, which is paid by government to local authorities based on the services they provide. The remainder, to which the police and fire authorities set a precept, is raised from council tax and business rates. Mains water and sewerage services are provided by Anglian Water, a former nationalised industry and natural monopoly, privatised in 1989 and regulated by OFWAT.
Following deregulation, the consumer has a choice of energy supplier. Electricity was formerly provided by Eastern Electricity, which was privatised in 1990. In 2002 the supply business was sold to Powergen and the distribution rights sold to EDF Energy. Natural gas was (and still is) supplied by British Gas, which was privatised in 1986. Distribution and, as with electricity, transmission, is the responsibility of the National Grid, having been demerged as Transco in 1997. These industries are regulated by OFGEM.
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