High Street, St Martin’s is lined with important buildings, some of them dating back to mediaeval times, with imposing Georgian facades. Sloping down to the Town Bridge over the river Welland, it was an important street for several centuries, centred on the parish church of St Martin’s.

In the 1800s it was the site of many coaching inns. Traffic going up and down the Great North Road stopped to change horses and travellers rested and were refreshed. With the coming of the railway in the mid-19th century the coach trade came to an end and the High Street lost much of its importance.

By the beginning of WW I the railway had tunnelled underneath the road and most of the inns had closed although the ‘George’ at the bottom of the hill remained popular. The large stone houses near the top of the hill were lived in by prominent local families but the buildings in between had become small shops and businesses. With the church on one side and the school on the other it was still the most important street in the life of the parish.