Bishop's Stortford

Bishop's Stortford is a historic English market town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex. It is the closest sizeable town to London Stansted Airport, 27 miles north-east of Charing Cross in central London, and 35 miles by rail from Liverpool Street station, the London terminus of the line to Cambridge that runs through the town. Bishop's Stortford had a population of 38,202 in 2001, easing to 37,838 at the 2011 Census.
Nothing is known of Bishop's Stortford until it became a small Roman settlement on Stane Street, the Roman road linking Braughing and Colchester. The settlement was probably abandoned in the 5th century after the break-up of the Roman Empire.