Grey Friars Or White Friars?

By Julie Nicholson

Forty people braved the weather, on what was a really miserable, cold, wet evening, to hear the speaker at the February meeting of Peterborogh Local History Society. Local author, Linda Ball talked about The Mendicant Friars of Stamford. Who they were?  Why they settled there? What became of them? She looked at the question of who these evangelical preachers were, who arrived from Europe in the early 1200s and settled in English towns. She also looked at what became of their magnificent churches, precincts and lands after the Dissolution in 1538-40.

Linda’s own interest stems from her childhood. Her family home had been built on the site once occupied by Greyfriars or Whitefriars in Stamford. She told of the great social good carried out by friars in the town, even referring to them as the first NHS. The inhabitants of Stamford certainly lost out when the Dissolution of the Monasteries left the town without these good people and this much needed service.

Linda has also presented her findings of almost a decade of research into the history and lives of the Stamford friars in an illustrated book: ‘Grey Friars Or White Friars?”.