“ Among the privileges claimed by the abbot as early as the 13th century was that of having a prison for felons taken in the soke and borough. In 1576 Bishop Scamble sold the lordship of the hundred of Nassaburgh, which is coextensive with the soke, to Queen Elizabeth, who gave it to Lord Burghley, and from that time until the 19th century he and his descendants, marquesses of Exeter, had a separate gaol in Peterborough for prisoners arrested in the soke. The trades of weaving and wool combing were carried on in Peterborough in the 14th century. ”

“ The old parish church of St John originally stood to the east of the cathedral, but was rebuilt on its present site in the centre of the city (1401–1407) in Perpendicular style. The educational establishments include the Henry VIII. grammar or chapter school, which used the chapel of St Thomas à Becket until 1885, the St Peter’s training college for schoolmasters for the dioceses of Peterborough, Ely and Lincoln, erected from designs of Sir Gilbert Scott (1864) ; and Deacon’s and Ireland’s charity school, established in 1721 for the clothing and educating of twenty poor boys. ”

“ It embraces in all, however, eight periods of construction, and in no other building can the transition be better studied through the various grades of Norman to Early English, while the later addition is an admirable example of Perpendicular. ”