Peterborough

Peterborough is a cathedral city in south-central England mainly located in the far east of Northamptonshire. It is the focal point of the historic Soke of Peterborough division of Northamptonshire, and of the council area Peterborough City Council, which administers the city and its southern suburbs in northern Huntingdonshire, with the addition of an adjacent part of north-west Cambridgeshire. The city lies approximately 80 miles north of central London and a similar distance south-east of Doncaster.

Peterborough is a major node on the East Coast Mainline railway between London and Edinburgh.

History

The earliest records for a settlement at the site of present-day Peterborough are from the 7th century. The settlement was called Medeshamstede and centred around an abbey and monastery. Seaxwulf (died 692 AD), the founding abbot of the abbey, dedicated the monastery to St Peter.

The town's name changed to Burch (Old English burh, "fort") after Abbot Kenulf constructed a defensive wall around the town. The name of the abbey's titular saint, Peter, was prefixed to that name, giving rise to the modern name Peterborough. The town's name was recorded in the Domesday Book (1086) as Abbatia St Petri De Burg.

The abbey was attacked by Flemish mercenaries in 1102 and almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1116, along with much of the settlement of Peterborough. St Peter's Abbey, the building that would become Peterborough Cathedral, was constructed on the site of the ruined abbey, with work beginning in 1118 and finishing over 100 years later in 1238 when the new monastic church was consecrated.