Best Western Orton Hall Hotel
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

A seventeenth century manor house set in 20 acres of mature parkland in the conservation village of Orton Longueville yet only 2.5 miles from city centre and the A1. Previously the home of the Marques of Huntly. Several spacious public rooms and sixty-five bedrooms which are generally the largest and quietest in the area (some four-posters). Every bedroom is fully equipped. There is a choice of dining in either the elegant award-winning oak panelled Huntly Restaurant, with its warm and intimate atmosphere and a selection of wines to suit most palates, or The Ramblewood Inn, a traditional country pub converted from the old stable block. The Ramblewood Inn offers a wide selection of real ales and hearty food in either the bar or conservatory. Special getaway 2 day offers available all year. The hotel is adjacent to Nene Park and two 18 hole golf courses. Picturesque Stamford is nearby. Peterborough has many local attractions including the museum, a magnificent cathedral, Nene Valley Railway and Burghley House. It is also an excellent centre for visiting Cambridge which is only half an hour away.

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The Romans first established the fort of Durobrivae in the vicinity around 43 AD which later grew into the town. Peterborough (Burgh, Burgus sancti Petri) is proved by its original name Medeshampstede to have been a Saxon village before 655 when Saxulf, a monk, founded the monastery on land granted to him for that purpose by Penda, king of Mercia. Its name was altered to Burgh between 992 and 1005 after Abbot Kenulf had made a wall round the minster, but the town does not appear to have been a borough until the 12th century. The burgesses received their first charter from "Abbot Robert" — probably Robert of Sutton (1262–1273). Longthorpe TowerHistorically the Dean and Chapter, who succeeded the Abbot as lords of the manor, appointed a high bailiff, and the constables and other borough officers were elected at their court leet, but the borough was incorporated in 1874 under the government of a Mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Among the privileges claimed by the abbot as early as the 13th century was that of having a prison for felons taken in the soke and borough. In 1576 Bishop Scamble sold the lordship of the hundred of Nassaburgh, which is coextensive with the soke, to Queen Elizabeth I, who gave it to Lord Burghley, and from that time until the 19th century he and his descendants, marquesses of Exeter, had a separate gaol in Peterborough for prisoners arrested in the soke.