Now known as Vence Walk, following Stamford’s twinning with the French town of Vence, this was one of several attempts to build a raised footway across the meadows. It appears in records as a public right of way since at least the 19th century following the Enclosure Act of 1871.
“The money subscribed in Stamford some months ago for the construction of a raised footway across the meadows between the Sheep-square and St. Martin’s, and for a new and more convenient bridge at the Lammas ford, has been subscribed; but the plans produced by the surveyor to the Marquis of Exeter, and approved of by his lordship, (he claiming a right to the soil on either side of the present path,) more than 100l. was necessary, and as the parishioners of St. Martins’s set their faces against the proposed improvement, and decided at a vestry that they would not reconstruct their bridge near the George close, it was thought useless to persevere in the matter. Some of the principal inhabitants of All Saints’ parish had been at great trouble to promote the undertaking; and they feel regret that their fellow-townsmen on the other side of the river should assign interested reasons for not co-operating with them.”
The Stamford Mercury, 24th May, 1850.