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Number 16 Barn Hill's Former Residents: A Brief History
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Number 16 was an important house in the street as it was a medieval hall, and the Hall Books (minutes of borough meetings) show that it was one of the focal points of the town as well as a scene of public proclamations.

William Stukeley, the famous antiquarian who lived further up the street at Number 9 in the 18th century, wrote:

There was an open hall with many scripture sentences around it; a stone staircase to the bed chamber which was at first hung with tapestry, ceiling wainscotted with oak.

Front of Number 16 Barn Hill

The wainscotting, scripture sentences and tapestry are now gone, together with the stone staircase. Fashion and time have brought changes, but the core structure of the house remains the same. Stukeley made a through study of the layout, with drawings and notes which appeared in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments.

Little is known about the early inhabitants of the house. In 1851 James Richardson, who described himself as a builder, lived in the house. He came from a well-known family of surveyors, architects and builders in the town. Richardson was responsible, in 1859, for the design in Tudor Gothic-style of the almshouses known as St Peter's Callis in Stamford.

In 1861 the house was occupied by Charles Richardson, another builder, with his wife Mildred, four daughters and a nine-year old son, Charles. Ten years later, young Charles was the head of the house at 19 years old with his Aunt, a Miss Elizabeth Crashley, keeping the house for him. Though prospering in business Charles remained unmarried.

No more information is available about the occupiers of Number 16 Barn Hill until later in the twentieth century.

(Text courtesy of Ann Linton)

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