This modest old
town lying on the strategically important
River Trent was at one time the capital of the
early kingdom of Mercia. It may have been
named after the stones used to cover the tombs
of two princes killed in 665 AD by their
father, King Wulfhere of Mercia, following
their conversion to Christianity. The 18th
century church of St. Michael's is thought to
have been built on this site.
A former canal
and railway town, Stone has two famous sons –
the admiral John Jervis, Earl St Vincent, who
defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Cape St
Vincent in 1797, and the 18th
century watercolour painter Peter de Wint.
