Premier Inn Peterborough A1M Junction 16
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

This hotel is conveniently situated just off the A1(M) by junction 16 and only 5 miles from Peterborough city centre. The hotel's Bar Est is ideal for a relaxing drink or evening meal. A wide selection of quality dishes are served, with a traditional English and Continental flavour in a light, bright and contemporary setting. Nearby attractions include Hamerton Zoo Park (4 miles) which specialises in rare, endangered and unusual animals. There are over 100 species to be seen in 15 acres of land. Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery offers a wide array of pieces, including marine dinosaurs and crafted items by Napoleonic prisoners of war.

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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.