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Grantham, Lincolnshire

Historical Description

Grantham, a municipal and parliamentary borough, market-town, and head of a county court district in Lincolnshire. It stands 1 mile off the Ermine Street, near the river Witham, among some long wolds, 25 miles SSW of Lincoln and 105 from London. By means of the G.N.R. and its connections it has railway communication towards the four points of the compass, and the Grantham and Nottingham Canal goes westward from it to the Trent near Nottingham. The town is said, in " Stow's Chronicle," to have been built by Gorbomanus, king of Britain, 303 years before the Christian era, and it is thought by some to have been a Roman station, but it is pronounced by Lambard to be more likely to have begun with the Saxons, It was at an early period the site of a suffragan bishop; it was also a mint town under Canute; it is mentioned at some length in Domesday book, and was then royal property; and it was mortgaged, together with Stamford, by Henry III. to his uncle, William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. The royal forces under Colonel Cavendish took it in 1642, and afterwards demolished its fortifications. " About this time," remarks De Foe, " it was that we began to hear of the name of Oliver Cromwell, who, like a little cloud, rose out of the east, and spread, first into the north, till it shed down a flood that overwhelmed the three kingdoms. When the war first broke out he was a private captain of horse, but now commanded a regiment; and joining with the Earl of Manchester, the first action in which we heard of his exploits, and which emblazoned his character, was at Grantham where, with only his own regiment, he defeated 24 troops of horse and dragoons of the king's forces."

The town shows no vestige of fortification, yet it appears to have been walled, and to have had a castle; and hence it retains, for four principal streets, the names of Castle Gate, West Gate, Water Gate, and Swine Gate. The streets are well paved and clean. The town is well drained, the sewage being disposed of at a sewage farm of 231 acres, at Marston, 5 miles N of the town; it has been lighted with gas since 1833, and has an excellent supply of water, derived from springs which rise in Great and Little Ponton, Stroxton, and Stoke. Ancient architectural features were, not very long ago, numerous enough to give artistic and historical interest to the town's appearance, but they have, in large degree, been swept away by modern improvement. An elegant cross, erected by Edward I., in memory of his queen Eleanor, formerly stood on St Peter's Hill. A commandery of Rnights Templars, with some grotesque carvings of cherubs and allegorical figures, was converted into the Angel and Royal Hotel. A priory of Grey Friars, founded in 12 90, and afterwardsknown as the Grange, or Cistercians Place, occupied a pleasant site on the west side of the town, and was pulled down about the beginning of the nineteenth century. An hospital for lepers is supposed to have stood at Spittlegate.

The Guild-hall is a building of brick and stone, in a mixed Renaissance style. It was erected in 1869, and is used for the quarterly, special, and petty sessions, and as a police station. The Exchange-hall, erected in 1852, is used as a corn exchange, and by the public literary institution. Other public buildings are the butter hall, in the market place; the West Gate rooms, and the Grantham Wharf Road hall. There is also a theatre in George Street. A self-supporting dispensary, instituted in 1849, is carried on in Finkin Street, and there is a large hospital for in-patients, erected in 1874-75, about half a mile N of the town. A bronze statue of Sir Isaac Newton, by Theed, set up in 1857, in memory of his having been a native of the neighbourhood and a pupil of the grammar school, stands on St Peter's Hill. At the southern end of St Peter's Hill there is also a bronze statue, which was erected in 1892 to the memory of the late Hon. Frederick James Tollemache, M.P. for Grantham, who died in 1888. The grammar school was founded in 1528 by Bishop Fox, of Winchester; was endowed with the possessions of two dissolved chantries by Edward VI.; was reorganised, under the Endowed Schools Act, in 1876; possesses an income of about, £1000 a year, a portion of which is appropriated to exhibitions at Oxford and Cambridge. There is a college for ladies, established in 1875, and there are ten elementary schools, conducted as British, Church of England, Catholic, National, and Wesleyan. The workhouse, erected in 1891-92, is on the Dysart Road, at the south side of the town. It occupies a site of about 10½ acres, and cost about, £23, 000.

The parish church of St Wulfram is a fine building of stone, in the Norman, Transitional, Early English, and Later styles; is surmounted by a western tower and elegant crock- eted spire, of a total height of 297 feet; contains a fine sculptured octagonal font, and numerous interesting tombs and monuments. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lincoln; gross yearly value, £891 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Lincoln. Spittlegate church was built in 1840-42, and is a building of stone, in the Early English Lancet style. The living is a vicarage; net yearly value, £418-in the gift of the Vicar of Grantham. There are several mission rooms, served from the parish and Spittlegate churches. There are also Baptist, Calvinistic, Roman Catholic, Congregational, Free Methodist, two Primitive Methodist, and two Wesleyan Methodist chapels, and a Gospel Union mission hall, erected in 1888. There are several valuable and useful charities, and Hurst's, Bradley's, and Dawson's almshouses have accommodation for about 24 inmates.

The corporation is of high antiquity, and can be traced back to the time of the Saxons, but Grantham was first made a corporate town by a charter of Edward IV. in 1463, and is now governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors. It is divided into east and west wards, and by the Grantham Borough Extension Act of 1879, Grantham Grange, Harrowby, Manthorpe-cum-Little-Gonerby, New Somerby and Spittlegate, and Houghton and Walton were included within the municipal limits. Of these places Grantham Grange is a piece of land near the market-place containing about 10 acres laid out in gardens. Harrowby is a township adjoining the borough on the east. It has an area of 1543 acres; population, 272; and contains the barracks for the Royal South Lincolnshire Militia. Manthorpe-cum-Little-Gonerby adjoins the borough on the north, and has an area of 1304 acres; population, 3467. It was constituted an ecclesiastical district in 1849, and has a church in the Early Decorated style erected in 1848. The living is a vicarage, united with that of Londonthorpe, in the diocese of Lincoln; joint gross yearly value, o£200 with residence. Patron, Earl Brownlow. New Somerby is a part of the parish of Somerby adjoining Spittlegate. It has an iron mission church erected in 1884. Spittlegate is a township and ecclesiastical parish to the south of Grantham. Acreage, 2261; population, 6246. It also contains the county police station, but this is not included in the area of the borough of Grantham. Houghton is a hamlet adjoining Spittlegate on the south-east, and Walton is a hamlet adjoining it on the south. The borough, with slight exceptions, returned two members to Parliament from the time of Edward IV. until the passing of the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, when the number was reduced to one.

The town has a head post office, three banks, and a savings hank, several good hotels, and it publishes three weekly newspapers. The industries include brewing, mailing, tanning, carriage building, paper-making, corn-milling, brick-making, and building. There are also extensive works for the manufacture of agricultural implements, steam engines, mining appliances, &c. A weekly market is held on Saturday, and fairs on the fifth Monday in Lent, and two following days, Easter Eve, 11 July, 26 Oct., and 17 Dec.

The area of the municipal borough is 1833 acres. The parliamentary borough includes in addition to the municipal borough the whole of the townships, of which portions are included within the municipal limits. Area of the parliamentary borough, 5884 acres; population within the municipal limits, 16,746; within the parliamentary limits, 17,170.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyLincolnshire 
Ecclesiastical parishGrantham St. Wulfran 
Poor Law unionGrantham 
WapentakeLoveden 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

Findmypast, in conjunction with the Lincolnshire Archives, have the following parish records online for Grantham, St Wulfram:

BaptismsBannsMarriagesBurials
1566-19111654-16561565-19111562-1884

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Grantham from the following:


Maps

Online maps of Grantham are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Lincolnshire papers online:


Villages, Hamlets, &c

Houghton
Walton
DistrictSouth Kesteven
CountyLincolnshire
RegionEast Midlands
CountryEngland
Postal districtNG31
Post TownGrantham

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