The claim
Named after the seventeenth-century bellfounder who lived and worked here, the Tobie Norris fills a Stamford stone house that the Royal Commission's survey reads as a hall and cross wing of about 1500, refronted from 1663. Its owners date parts of it to about 1280. It became a pub only in the 2000s, and its stone-flagged rooms and inglenooks won CAMRA's national restoration award in 2008.
What the records show
Two datings of the same house, and they are a long way apart. The operator and CAMRA put parts of the grade II* building at about 1280, with a thirteenth-century arch on the top floor. The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England surveyed number 12 St Paul's Street for its Stamford inventory and reads it differently: a hall-and-cross-wing house originating about 1500, a wing added behind the hall about 1600, and a new ashlar front built in two phases from 1663 by Toby Norris the younger, bellfounder, who lived and worked here. A lozenge panel on the east gable is inscribed for Toby and Susannah Norris in that year. The Commission also fixes the family a generation earlier than the pub's own telling: the hall had been ceiled by 1626, when the probate inventory of Toby Norris the elder described a chamber over it. Both readings stand. Whichever is right, the age belongs to the building: the house served as an RAF Association club from the 1950s and was converted to a pub only around 2005, so there is no early drinking history here and the house is outside the ranking.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1280 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1280 | Present building | Building fabric |
| 2005 | First record of a drinking house here | British History Online |
What to look for inside
- Bell foundry of Tobias Norris from 1617
- CAMRA national pub restoration award, 2008
Visiting
The Tobie Norris is in Stamford, England, at 12 St Paul's Street, Stamford PE9 2BE. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- camra.org.uk/pubs/tobie-norris-stamford-157649
- www.kneadpubs.co.uk/our-pubs/the-tobie-norris
- www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/stamford/pp144-151
- ratings.food.gov.uk/business/238900
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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