The station is situated in Winton Square, which is described as Britain's only piece of major town planning undertaken by a railway company specifically to offset a station building. The station is a grade II* listed building, one of four listed buildings in the square—the North Stafford Hotel, directly opposite the station, is also grade II* listed.
Both the station and the hotel have the coat of arms above their entrances although each is of a slightly different design.
The Coat Of Arms
"These arms were recorded at the Visitation of 1614, certified circa 1953.
Stafford formerly had two castles, one belonging to the King, and the other to the Earls of Stafford. The royal castle, built by William the Conqueror, was held for the King by Robert de Stafford, ancestor of the first Earl of Stafford, who in 1348 built the second castle outside the town. Both castles no longer exist. The royal and feudal elements in Stafford's history a represented by the lion and Stafford knots. The arms carry on the motif of a thirteenth century seal bearing a castle between four lions. The Stafford Knot.
The origin of the Stafford Knot is shrouded in the mists of antiquity, but it can be said that the somewhat barbaric tale of a certain sheriff who invented it to hang three criminals with one rope at the same time, may be dismissed as an effort of the imagination. The earliest authentic appearance of the Stafford Knot is on the seal in the British Museum, and this was the property of Joan, Lady of Wake, who died childless in 1443.
Her personal possessions passed to her nephew, Humphrey, Earl of Stafford, who adopted the Knot of Rope, henceforward to be known as the Stafford Knot, as his badge, probably just preceding his creation as Duke of Buckingham in 1444. That he did adopt it from his Aunt is undoubted and she, being a direct descendent of Hereward the Wake, may have had it handed down to her from past generations, through many unknown but doubtless - romantic circumstances.
The Duke of Buckingham and his descendants used this Stafford Knot as personal cognizance. It did not form part of their armorial bearings, which were personal to themselves, but it was their badge and they gave the knot of rope to their retainers and servants as a livery and means of recognition.
The townsmen of Stafford were leigemen of the Stafford family, and as such also used this badge. As the days of feudalism passed and individual and civic liberties grew, it was gradually adopted by the Citizens, Freemen and Burgesses until ultimately it was included in the borough coat of arms." See the 'previous arms' section of this
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