Stamford Baron St Martin is a former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of Stamford, in the

South Kesteven South Kesteven is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the traditional Kesteven division of the county. Its council is based in Grantham. The district also includes the towns of Bourne, ...

district, in the county of

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, England. It included the southern part of Stamford, south of the

River Welland The River Welland is a lowland river in the east of England, some long. It drains part of the Midlands eastwards to The Wash. The river Source (river), rises in the Hothorpe Hills, at Sibbertoft in Northamptonshire, then flows generally nort ...

, and therefore historically part of

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. In 1921 the parish had a population of 941. It remains an

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

used by the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

; the parish church is St Martin's. St Martins Church Graveyard Stamford

The ''Baron'' part of the name comes from the fact that the area was granted as a barony to the Abbot of Peterborough in the 15th century. Stamford Baron was outside the borough boundaries of Stamford until 1836. The Stamford constituency was enlarged in 1832 to also include the built-up part of Stamford Baron. In 1836 Stamford was reformed to become a

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

, at which point the municipal boundaries were adjusted to match the recently enlarged constituency. The county boundary did not change at that time and so after 1836 the borough straddled

and Northamptonshire, with Stamford Baron being the part in Northamptonshire. Wothorpe was a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

in the parish of Stamford Baron St Martin; it became a separate civil parish in 1866. When elected county councils were established in 1889 boroughs were no longer allowed to straddle county boundaries, and so the part of the parish which was inside the borough of Stamford was transferred to Lincolnshire (becoming part of Kesteven), whilst the more rural rest of the parish remained in Northamptonshire (as part of the administrative county of the

Soke of Peterborough The Soke of Peterborough is a historic area of England associated with the City and Anglican Diocese of Peterborough, Diocese of Peterborough. It was part of Northamptonshire, but was administered by Soke of Peterborough County Council, its own ...

). When parish and district councils were established in 1894 parishes were no longer allowed to straddle county boundaries and so the parish was split into St Martin's Without covering the parts of the old parish in Northamptonshire and a reduced parish which retained the Stamford Baron St Martin name covering the parts within the borough of Stamford in Lincolnshire. On 1 October 1930 all the civil parishes within the borough of Stamford were merged to form one single Stamford parish (also taking in Stamford All Saints, Stamford St George, Stamford St John, Stamford St Mary, and Stamford St Michael). St Martin's Without and Wothorpe still exist as civil parishes, now in the

City of Peterborough The City of Peterborough, is a district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in the ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The district is named after its largest settlement, Peterborough, but also covers a wider area of o ...

unitary authority area of

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

References

{{Reflist *Youngs, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Volume II Former civil parishes in Lincolnshire History of Cambridgeshire Stamford, Lincolnshire