The town has a long history: in the Middle Ages, the sea came within a mile or two of the town, and Wisbech was one of the main ports of the Wash (King John lost his jewels and baggage here in 1216, not further out in the Wash as is often thought).
The fortunes of the port waxed and waned as rivers silted up or changed course, but the draining of the Fens and the consequent rise of agricultural production from the early 18th century made Wisbech a prominent trading and shipping centre once again, financing the splendid Georgian houses that now grace the town.
The walk begins in the town centre at the parish church of St Peter and St Paul. The size of this large, dark church reflects a period of prosperity; the nave has four aisles (one of them Norman) and an unusual separate tower built in 1520.
Thomas de Braunstone (died 1401), a constable of Wisbech Castle, is commemorated by a splendid brass in the chancel, while Matthias Taylor (a 17th-century constable) has a fine carved stone memorial above the south porch (in the room above is where Wisbech Grammar School was founded in the 15th century).
A back lane by an old red brick wall leads to Alexander Road and the Angles Theatre and Arts Centre, housed in a Georgian theatre built in 1793. It is the second-oldest theatre still in use in England, and great actors like Edmund Kean and William Macready played here.
The walk continues along the Brinks — streets that face each other across the River Nene, described by Nicholas Pevsner as "one of the most perfect Georgian streets in England". Georgian terraces on South Brink include the birthplace of housing reformer Octavia Hill and the Old Grammar School near the end of the street.
North Brink, on the other side of the River Nene, is even more splendid. Elegant Peckover House (formerly Bank House) was home to the Peckover family for 150 years before being given to the National Trust in 1943. Built in 1722, the house has a restrained exterior but an outstanding interior with excellent decorative wood-carving, panelling, and plasterwork, furnished in contemporary style with suitable paintings.
The walled Victorian garden is also worth a visit, containing fine plants like a maidenhair tree and a tulip tree, a lovely collection of roses, orange trees in the conservatory thought to be 350 years old, an 18th-century stable block housing a collection of harnesses, and a 16th-century barn.
Next on the route are the Old Market and the present Market Place (which superseded it in the early 13th century). The Old Market is characterized by several substantial Georgian and early Victorian buildings (some with ancient warehouses at the back by the river, though many were washed away during floods, notably in 1978).
The present Market Place has a complex mixture of buildings: the Rose and Crown pub has a pretty courtyard linking parts of varying ages, and underneath are early Tudor barrel vaults. Off New Inn Yard at the end of Market Place is the oldest vernacular building in Wisbech — a timber-framed barn or boathouse of around 1500.
A little further on you will find the Wisbech and Fenland Museum, founded in 1835 by eminent local people including William Peckover and his younger brother Algernon. Overcrowded rented accommodation led to the purchase of land and erection of a purpose-built museum in 1845.
The museum became well known, attracting important gifts such as the manuscript of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. Though it experienced a period of decline early in the 20th century, its fortunes have since revived, combining displays connected with fenland and local life with antiquities of worldwide interest.
The early 19th-century houses of The Crescent were built by Joseph Medworth, central to whose scheme is The Castle built for himself in 1816. This replaced the grand house built on the site of a Norman castle in 1658 by John Thurloe, spymaster to Oliver Cromwell (the gate piers are from the original mansion). The moat of the Norman castle has contributed to the layout of the later town and caused subsidence in some buildings, including the museum.
