Stilton is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, south of the city of Peterborough. It lies on the old Great North Road, 70 miles from London and was an important coaching stop in the days before motorised transport. It lies just south of the roundabout of Norman Cross. Stilton cheese is made in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

Roman occupation is probably associated with the road that runs from London to the army fortress at Lincoln, which the Saxons later called Ermine Street. For centuries this road seems to have been little used, the important route was the east-west road, Fen Street and Church Street, which is why our oldest building, the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, is found away from the main road that now exists. Stilton is mentioned thrice in the Doomesday Book of 1086 as three landowners, the King, the Bishop of Lincoln and Eustace held land here. The Great North Road had become a busy thoroughfare by the fifteenth century and Stilton was a well-known staging post

The undistinguished field behind the monument at Norman Cross was the burial site during the Napoleonic Wars for 1770 bodies of sailors and marines of mostly French and Dutch origin. The prisoners were captured mainly in naval engagements and detained in the only purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp in England at that time. The site, a forty acre (160,000 m²) field, was purchased by the government in 1796. In the summer of 1796 the requirement for new prison accommodation became essential when Sir Ralph Abercrombie reported that he was sending 4,000 prisoners from the West Indies.

500 carpenters and labourers erected what was considered at the time to be permanent buildings. Approximately 30 wells were sunk to draw drinking water for the prisoners. The prisoners were mostly marched to the prison four abreast, although occasionally they would be loaded into barges at King's Lynn and brought up the River Nene to Peterborough Quay. Problems emerged during the summer months of 1797 arising from the countless numbers of local people, and some not so local, who visited the prisoners. The guards found it difficult to control these crowds and to observe the prisoners.

During December 1804 it was discovered that the prisoners had taken to forgery. Engraved plates of a very high standard and various printing implements were found. In January 1812 a French prisoner was shot whilst escaping after he had overpowered a guard and stolen a bayonet. During August of the following year, escaped prisoners from Norman Cross were discovered as far away as Hampshire.

Peace was finally proclaimed with France in 1814, following Napoleon's defeat and consequent abdication. The prisoners, the garrison guards and local people joined together in celebrations. All the prisoners had left the garrison by June of the same year, and exactly two years later in June 1816 the buildings were demolished. From 1793 until 1815, about 200,000 prisoners of war were brought to Britain, to reside in the infamous prison hulks, or at the prison depots on land such as Portchester Castle near Portsmouth; Dartmoor Prison on the bleak Devon moorland; and at the depot of Norman Cross. This prison was one of the major prison depots of this period, administered by the Transport Board of the Admiralty. From 1808 onwards, General Sir Arthur Wellesley campaigned successfully in Spain and Portugal, finally driving the French over the Pyrénées and back into France in 1814.

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