Stafford

Stafford, county town of Staffordshire on the River Sow, central England. An industrial and commercial centre, its main industries are electrical engineering, and the manufacture of concrete and shoes. The University of Staffordshire (1992) is there. There is a Crown Court and the headquarters of the Staffordshire police force. A bust of Izaak Walton, a native of Stafford, stands in St Mary's Parish Church which was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the mid-19th century. The 16th-century High House is thought to be the largest timber-framed house in England. Parliamentarians destroyed Stafford Castle and the town walls in 1643 during the English Civil War. Stafford was mentioned in an Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of ad 913 as Bethesey and in the Domesday Book (1086) as Stadford. Population 120,653 (2001).