A walk around Wisbech

The town has a long history. In the Middle Ages, the sea came within a mile or two of the town, and Wisbech was one of the main ports of the Wash. King John lost his jewels and baggage here in 1216, not futher out in the Wash as is often thought.

The fortunes of the port waxed and waned as rivers silted up or changed course, but the draining of the Fens, and the consequent rise of agricultural production from the early 18th century, made Wisbech a prominent trading and shipping centre once again. This new wealth financed the splendid Georgian houses that now grace the town.

The walk begins in the town centre, at the parish church of St Peter and St Paul. The size of this large dark church reflects a period of prosperity. The nave has four aisles, one of them Norman. An unusual feature is the separate tower, built in 1520.

Thomas de Braunstone (died, 1401), a constable of Wisbech Castle, is commemorated by a splendid brass in the chancel, while Matthias Taylor, a 17th century constable, has a fine carved stone memorial above the south porch is the room where Wisbech Grammar School was founded in the 15th century.

A back lane by an old, red brick wall leads to Alexander Road and the Angles Centre Theatre and Arts complex housed in a Georgian theatre, built in 1793. It is the second oldest theatre still used in England, and the great actors Edmund Kean and William Macready played here.

The walk continues along the Brinks, strets that face each other across the River Nene. The Brinks, which Nicholas Pevsner described as 'one of the most perfect Georgian streets in England'. The Georgian terraces on South Brink include the. birthplace of Octavia Hill, the housing reformer, and the Old Grammar School (one of two in the town) near the end of the street. one of the most perfect Georgian streets in England North Brink, on the other side of the River Nene, is even more splendid. Elegant Peckover House, formerly known as Bank House, was home to the Peckover family for 150 years, then given to the National Trust in 1943. Built in 1722, the house has a rather restrained exterior, but an outstanding interior, with excellent decorative wood-carving, panelling and plasterwork. It is furnished in the contemporary style, and suitable paintings have been lent or donated.

The walled Victorian garden is also worth a visit. It contains many fine plants, including a maidenhair tree and a tulip tree, and there is a lovely collection of roses. In the conservatory are orange trees that are thought to be 350 years old. There is also an 18th-century stable block, housing a collection of harnesses, and a 16th century barn.

Next on the route are the Old Market and the present Market Place, which superseded it in the early 13th century. The Old Market is now characterised by several substantial buildings, most of them Georgian and early Victorian. Some had ancient warehouses at the back, by the river, but many were washed away during floods, notably in 1978.

The present Market Place has a complex mixture of buildings. The Rose and Crown pub has a pretty courtyard linking its different parts of varying ages; underneath are early Tudor barrel vaults. Off New Inn Yard, at the end of Market Place, is the oldest vernacular building in Wisbech, a timber-framed barn or boathouse of around 1500.

A little further on you will find a Wisbech and Fenland Museum, which was founded 1835 by a group of eminent local people, including William Peckover and his younger brother, Algernon, who donated the first exhibits. Soon the rented accommodation became overcrowded. This led to a move to purchase land and erect a purpose-built museum in 1845.

The museum became well known and attracted some important gifts, among which was the manuscripts of Charles Dicken's Great Expectations. The museum went through a period of decline early in the 20th century, but its fortunes have since revived and its exhibitions now combine displays connected with fenland and local life with antiquities of worldwide interest.

The early 19th-century houses of The Crescent were built by Joseph Medworth. Central to the scheme is The Castle built by Medworth for himself in 1816. This replaced the grand house built on the site of a Norman castle in 1658 by John Thurloe, spymaster to Oliver Cromwell.

The gate piers are from the original mansion. The moat of the Norman castle has contributed to the layout of the later town and has caused a certain amount of subsidance in some of the buildings, including the museum.