Rock Terrace

Rock Terrace was built in 1841 by Richard Newcomb, who also owned the Stamford Mercury and who, a year later, built Rock House on the opposite side of the road for himself. The whole area had once been a quarry, which may explain why this handsome stone Terrace is so solidly built.

In those days, without the BP garage, and with coaches and clattering horses heading up the Great North Road towards York or Edinburgh, it must have been an attractive scene.

The whole of Rock Terrace was sold in 1919 for £2500 at an auction held by Messrs Richardson to a Mr Potter, a local printer, with rents payable at £19 per annum for each of the smaller houses and £25 for the larger two.

At the time, only five of the houses had bathrooms, and water for the whole Terrace came from a well in what are now the gardens of Nos 6 and 7. Mains sewerage arrived around 1926. As late as the 1960s, some of the houses were lit by gas, and some still lacked bathrooms.

In 1974, the Terrace was listed Grade 2 as being of Special (Architectural / Historic) Interest.

Iron railings at the front of each house, commandeered for the WW2 war effort, were gradually replaced in the 1980s and 1990s.

Walled gardens behind each house are tiered into what were the sides of the old quarry.