Scotgate Scotgate is the old Great North Road, the route to Newark, York and ultimately Scotland. The area outside the walls was quarried for stone then built up to service the road with pubs, hostelries and stables. In the 19th century it was a poor and squalid area. In the 1830s Snowden’s and Truesdale’s Hospitals were rebuilt and in the 1840s Richard Newcomb endeavoured to improve the area with new stables, Rock Terrace and his own home, Rock House. However in 1911 courts of slum housing still existed behind the pubs and shops. The occupancy of the street in 1911 reflects the difference in the properties. Publicans and shopkeepers along the street, labourers in the courts and those with private means in Rock Terrace. As soon as cars appeared in Stamford, there were garages along Scotgate.