Grantham

For other uses, see Grantham (disambiguation).

Grantham
Grantham as seen from the nearby hills and hollows.
Population	34,592
OS grid reference	SK915365
• London	112 mi (180 km)
District	South Kesteven
Shire county	Lincolnshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	GRANTHAM
Postcode district	NG31
Dialling code	01476
Police	Lincolnshire
Fire	Lincolnshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Grantham and Stamford

Grantham is a market town within the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It stands athwart the East Coast Main Line railway (London-Edinburgh), the historic A1 main north-south road, and the River Witham. Grantham is located approximately 26 miles (42 km) south of the city of Lincoln, and approximately 24 miles (39 km) east of Nottingham. The resident population at the 2001 census was 34,592 in around 18,000 households, excluding the adjacent village of Great Gonerby. With the housing estates in Londonthorpe and Harrowby Without (around a population of 4,500), this figure would be around 42,000.

The town is best known as the birthplace of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and the place where Isaac Newton went to school. It is within short walking distance of an ancient Roman road, and was the scene of Oliver Cromwell's first advantage over Royalists during the English Civil War at Gonerby Moor. Grantham is also notable for having the first female police officers in the United Kingdom, in 1914, and producing the first running diesel engine in 1892, and the UK's first tractor in 1896.

Geography

The town boundary crosses the A1 to the west at the Dysart Road bridge. North of there it lies to the east of the A1. It crosses the B1174 at Gonerby Hill. All of the Manthorpe estate is aprt of the town, but the (smaller) Manthorpe village and the church is part of Belton and Manthorpe. The boundary then follows Green lane, bordering the parish of Harrowby Without. It passes to the west of Harrowby Hall and over Hall's Hill. It crosses the A52 at the start of Somerby Hill. It borders Little Ponton, and crosses the B1174 at the southern end of the Spittlegate Level Industrial Estate

History

Grantham Museum is on St Peter's Hill.

Toponymy

The origin of the name "Grantham" is uncertain, though is said to probably be Old English language "Granta+ham", meaning "Granta's village", and appeared as early as 1086 in the Domesday Book in its present form of Grantham.

Prehistory

Late neolithic vessels from a burial were found at Little Gonerby, in the north of the town, in 1875.

Military history

Army training base on the side of the A52

During the famous Dams Raids Royal Air Force (RAF) mission in May 1943, the RAF Bomber Command's No. 5 Group and the operation HQ was in St Vincents, a building which later housed a district council planning department. It was built by Richard Hornsby in 1865, lived in by Richard Hornsby's son, and is now a private house. In 1944 (including D-Day), this was the headquarters for the USAAF's Ninth Air Force's IX Troop Carrier Command, being known as Grantham Lodge. The RAF Regiment was formed (just north of the town in part of Londonthorpe and Harrowby Without) in December 1941 at RAF Belton Park; This had also been the training centre for the Machine Gun Corps in November 1915 in total with Harrowby Camp, they housed 18,000 men. The women's police force was formed locally to control unwarranted women. The RAF Regiment stayed until August 1946, when they left for RAF Honington.

RAF Spitalgate trained pilots in the war, and was not an operational base. It officially closed in 1974. RAF Spitalgate is now a Territorial Army (RLC) barracks called Prince William of Gloucester Barracks. Grantham College use the site for football development. The large mast on the base was part of the BT microwave network.

Industrial history

In 1905 Richard Hornsby (1790-1864) & Sons of Grantham (founded 1815) invented the revolutionary caterpillar track, for use with Hornsby's oil engines; these engines were developed by Yorkshireman Herbert Akroyd Stuart, from which compression-ignition principle the diesel engine evolved, being manufactured in Grantham from 8 July 1892. Although these engines were not wholly compression-ignition derived, later in 1892 a prototype high-pressure version was built at Hornsbys, developed by Thomas Henry Barton OBE - later to be the founder of Nottingham's Barton Transport, whereby ignition was achieved solely (100%) through compression; it ran continuously for six hours, being the first known diesel engine. In the town, Hornsbys built Elsham House and the Shirley Croft.

In 1909, Hornsbys showed the British Army their invention, who were bemused, but took the idea no further than that, although they subsequently bought four caterpillar tractors in 1910 to tow artillery. A short time later, Hornsbys sold the patent for the caterpillar track in 1914 to The Holt Manufacturing Company of California, USA for $8,000, having only sold one caterpillar tractor commercially. Hornsby's design was far ahead of anything else around at the time. Thanks to the ownership of the patent, this company would become the world-dominating Caterpillar Inc. Tractor Company. Benjamin Holt even claimed to be the real inventor. In December 1914 the British Army's Colonel Ernest Swinton saw one of Holt's caterpillar tractors towing a piece of artillery, and realised its ground-breaking potential as an attack vehicle. One year later the tank was born (using Hornsby's initial designs), being made in nearby Lincoln by William Foster. It first saw action at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on 15 September 1916. In 1918 Hornsbys amalgamated with Rustons and the company became Ruston and Hornsby. Later during World War II, the company would make tanks such as the Matilda at the Grantham factory.

Scale model of Hornsby 1910 steam caterpillar tractor

Aveling & Porter of Rochester, Kent, would join with Barford & Perkins of Peterborough to become Aveling-Barford Ltd in 1934, largely due to financial help from Ruston & Hornsby. The new company took a former site of Hornsbys, naming it the 'Invicta' works, from the motto on the coat of arms of Kent, and translates as 'unconquered'. It initially prospered but with the sinking market for large dumper trucks and road rollers declined and now, as Barford Construction Equipment, it makes dumpers for construction sites, being owned by Wordsworth Holdings PLC, owned in turn by the entrepreneur Duncan Wordsworth. A trailer company, Crane-Fruehauf, has moved into part of the factory, from its former home of Dereham, when it went into receivership in early 2005. In March 2010, Wordsworth Holdings went into administration. Their agricultural division was based at Belton, which in 1947 develeoped the world's smallest tractor, the Barford Atom, weighing 177 lbs.

British Manufacture and Research Company (or BMARC), on Springfield Road, made munitions notably the Hispano cannon for the Spitfire and Hurricane from 1937 onwards. It was owned by the Swiss company Oerlikon from 1971 until 1988, becoming part of Astra Holdings plc then being bought by British Aerospace in 1992, who then closed the site. It has now been developed as a housing estate. The site's former offices are now business units for the Springfield Business Centre. Grantham's register office was moved there in 2007, due to the catering service being up to wedding reception standard, and Berketex Bride is based there.

Traditions

Many traditions have taken place over the years, many of which have been forgotten. There is the Grantham Parade and the Grantham Festival both of which take place every year. There used to be an annual pig drive through the centre of the town until 1962, when it was deemed too dangerous; this tradition dated back to 1755, when pig farmers from the area used to move pigs to greener pastures.

The town was once known for uniquely thick and heavily flavoured Gingerbread biscuits.

Local companies

The food-processing industry is currently the largest employer of Grantham's population; in town this includes Fenland Foods (part of Northern Foods) on the Earlesfield Industrial Estate, which was mothballed in September 2008 following the loss of business with Marks and Spencer, their sole customer; and Moypark (formerly Padleys) in Gonerby Hill Foot. Seven miles from Grantham at Easton there are two large facilities. The first is Norbert Dentressangle who bought Christian Salvesen Plc in November 2007 and have maintained the frozen storage and distribution operation which has been at the site since the late sixties. The second is McCain Foods who purchased Potato Allied Services (PAS) in 1991 who had run a potato processing factory on site since the early seventies. This has since been extended to include a dedicated Fries-To-Go factory. There was a third large frozen vegetable processing factory owned and operated by Christian Salvesen. However this was sold to Pinguin Foods in August 2007 who closed the facility in December 2008.

Spittlegate Level (B1174) - the former A1 south of the town, home of many local companies and the former Corus Service Centre

Bell & Webster are a nationally-known company, part of Eleco plc based in Ware, that makes precast concrete. Escritt Barrell Golding a local Chartered Surveyors and Estate Agents still operate within the town, having been founded in 1860. Jourdan plc is based in the town which since 1973 has owned John Corby ltd., the maker of the Corby Trouser Press. There is also Litcomp plc. The Woodland Trust is based on Dysart Road. Natural England have their Lincolnshire office on Wharf Road. There is a small FM radio transmitter near the town's bypass on Gorse Lane from which Radio Lincolnshire is broadcast on 104.7 and Lincs FM on 96.7, and national radio. The transmitter has five staff permanently on site. Most television comes from Waltham, between the town and Melton, due to the line of sight blocked by hills to the east of the town. Grantham now has a full time community radio station Gravity FM which broadcasts on 97.2 and online at Gravityfm.net Amberjac Projects is the only European company that provides plug-in conversion for conventional hybrid vehicles. Rapstrap has recently been sued for patent infringement.

Two Post offices were closed in Grantham in 2008 as part of the Post Office Network Change programme. The conference and hospitality industry are well represented in the Grantham area, with the Olde Barn Hotel in Marston, the De Vere Belton Woods Hotel, the Ramada Grantham and various golf clubs. Stoke Rochford Hall staged a Lib Dem education conference in 2001.

Governance

Grantham once lay within the ancient Winnibriggs and Threo wapentake in the Soke of Grantham in the Parts of Kesteven.

Politically the town is part of the Grantham and Stamford constituency and is represented in Parliament by Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) Quentin Davies. Davies had been elected to the seat as a member of the Conservative Party before crossing the floor to join Labour; the constituency has a long history of electing Conservative members of Parliament.

The local authority - South Kesteven District Council - is currently Conservative-led, with the current political makeup being 35 Conservative, 15 Independent, 2 Labour and 6 Liberal Democrat councillors.

Education

The town is home to Grantham College, a further education college for the district, for those not attending school sixth forms. It has a satellite site at Sleaford, called Sleaford College. Since September 2008 the Walton Girls High School on Kitty Briggs Lane near Harlaxton Road has offered post-16 courses as Grantham's only sixth form college.

Two notable schools in the district are Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School and The King's Grammar School. Both have large sixth forms and are best known for their past students. Britain's first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, attended Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School, and Isaac Newton famously attended The King's School. Both achieve high examination results and are highly placed in the county's league tables. Up to 16, both schools are single-sex. In 1970, Kesteven County Council (based in Sleaford) announced plans to turn both schools into ages 11–16 co-educational comprehensives and make Grantham College the only sixth form for the town. Although other parts of Kesteven became comprehensive, the fact that Margaret Thatcher was education secretary at the time and Kesteven transferred power to Lincolnshire in 1974 was resultant in both schools staying as grammar schools.

Walton Girls High School secured the second-best GCSE results for a secondary modern school in Lincolnshire in 2007: few comprehensive schools in the county achieved better results. In 2008, results were much lower, but much better in 2009 with joint-first place with The Giles School of Old Leake and fifth-best in the county for non-grammar schools. All four secondary modern schools are on the outskirts of the town, with the other notable school of this type being the Technology and Sports College, a co-educational school near Manthorpe. Of the six secondary schools, only three are co-educational. For the Grantham area of South Kesteven, around 60% of those at 16 achieve five GCSEs at grades A*-C. This compares to 45% for those in Melton and under 30% for those in Newark in 2008.

Tucked away out of sight in Gorse Lane is Grantham Preparatory School, an independent school preparing entrants for the 11-plus examination. A small catholic secondary school closed in 1989 due to low numbers.

Landmarks

St. Wulfram's Church, Grantham

The living pub sign of The Beehive, at 10 Castlegate. The bees were ousted in 1831

The main local landmark is the parish church of St Wulfram's, which has the sixth highest spire (282 ft) among English churches. It is the second tallest church in Lincolnshire after St James Church in Louth, and is also home to the country's first public library. In 1598, Francis Trigge, rector of Welbourn, gave £100 for a small library of books for the clergy and literate laity of Grantham. Two hundred and fifty of the original volumes remain and are kept in the parish church. The Bishop of Grantham is currently Tim Ellis and has his official residence in Long Bennington. Grantham House is to the east of the church, and a National Trust property.

Grantham is home to the country's only 'living' pub sign: a beehive of South African bees located outside since 1830. Grantham was the site of an Eleanor Cross, erected by Edward I at each of the resting places of the body of his queen, following her death at Harby, as it was carried to London for burial in 1290. No trace of the cross remains, but is thought to be near St Peters Hill.

File:Guildhall.jpeg

The Victorian Gothic Guildhall on St Peters Hill

Edith Smith Way is the name of the road beside the Guildhall Arts Centre, on 'St Peter's Hill'; it is named after England's first policewoman. Miss Mary Allen and Miss Ellen F. Harburn reported for duty on the 'beat' on November 27, 1914, during the First World War. Mary Allen was a former suffragette and had been previously arrested outside the House of Commons and later went on to be the commandant of the UK's women's police force from the 1920s up to 1940. She helped to set up women's police forces in other countries, including Germany. Edith Smith became the first female with powers of arrest in August 1915.

The Angel & Royal Hotel is one of Britain's oldest inns, dating from about 1200. King John held court there in 1213, when the site was a hostel run by the Knights Templar. Richard III signed and sealed the death warrant of the Duke of Buckingham at the inn. Sandon Road is named after Viscount Sandon, who is also the Earl of Harrowby. The first person with this title was Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby, and a road is also named after him. He purchased Harrowby Hall in 1754. The current incumbent is Dudley Ryder, 8th Earl of Harrowby.

The George Hotel nearby (known as St Peter's Place, now the George Shopping Centre) was mentioned in Charles Dickens's novel Nicholas Nickleby. Also in the town is the Blue Pig, one of many Blue pubs. Much of the town's property and industrial estates have been owned by Buckminster Trust Estates since the time of the Earl of Dysart.

To the west of the town near the A607 is the building of Baird's maltings (formerly owned by Moray Firth until 1999). Other maltings in the town have been converted for residential use such as Riverview Maltings near the river and formerly owned by Lee & Grinling’s.

Nearby are many historic houses including 17th-century Belton House, early 19th-century Harlaxton Manor, Stoke Rochford Hall (the training centre of the NUT), and the 11th-century Belvoir Castle (in Leicestershire).

Further information: [[:public houses and inns in Grantham]]

Transport

Rail

Class 91 electric train at the station in May 2004, looking south

Grantham railway station is served by the London-Edinburgh East Coast Main Line (between the stops for Peterborough and Newark Northgate), and the Nottingham to Skegness Line. Liverpool-Norwich trains also call at Grantham. The electric trains arrived in October 1988. The good transport links to Nottingham and Peterborough attract people to live in Grantham yet work in a larger city. The town's grammar schools also attract pupils from Bingham, Newark and even Retford via the train.

In 1906, a rail accident killed 14 people.

Road

The town has the A1 main road from London to Edinburgh running past it (the town was bypassed in 1962). The main shopping High Street, until recently, was part of the busy A52 (which runs to nearby Nottingham), and Wharf Road and London Road (next to Sainsbury's) still are, meeting the A607 (for Lincoln) at a busy junction. There is a motorway-style Grantham North Services at the north end of the bypass, on the new junction which has recently replaced a roundabout in May 2008. It is east-west traffic on the A52 that causes Grantham the most problems, not least to two of its frequently-hit railway bridges. The east-west bypass will cross Spittlegate Level and join the A52 next to the former RAF Spitalgate.

Waterways

Grantham was once linked to Nottingham by the Grantham-Nottingham canal (the Grantham Canal). Currently the canal is in a state of disrepair, but some sections are undergoing restoration.

Sport

Football

Grantham Town Football Club is the local football team, currently playing in the Unibond League Division One South. The major claim to fame of Grantham Town Football Club (nicknamed 'The Gingerbreads') is that Martin O'Neill started his management path from there. The club was founded in 1874 and currently plays in the 7,500-capacity (covered 1,950, seats 750) South Kesteven Sports Stadium (although average attendances are well below capacity). The ground also doubles as the town's athletics stadium (one of only three in Lincolnshire), next to the Grantham Meres Leisure Centre on Trent Road.

Hockey

Grantham Hockey Club, which fields two men's teams and one women's team in league hockey, play at the Meres Leisure Centre, the astro-turf pitch situated directly behind the football stadium.

Rugby

Grantham also boasts a Rugby Union Football Team, known as Kesteven Rugby Football Club. They play their home games in Woodnook. http://www.kestevenrfc.co.uk/.

Bowls

Grantham is also well known for its indoor and outdoor bowls player's who have represented the clubs within many county and national competitions. Players who have played for the England squad from the indoor club include: Martin Pulling (Retired from bowls), Dion Auckland (still playing), Ian Johnson (still playing) and Mathew Orrey (current England U25 player).

Nature

Grantham and the surrounding area is home to the Peregrine Falcons which roost in the bell tower of St Wulframs Church, and the Grantham Gobbler, a Heron. Unfortunately both of these birds are voracious predators, which has upset pigeon fanciers and fish lovers. Grantham is surrounded by rolling countryside and woodland, for example the nearby Ponton Park Wood, suitable for country walks with views of the Lincolnshire farmland and woodland. To the south of the town the River Witham flows through a number of marshes and water meadows between Little Ponton and Saltersford. This area is rich in wildlife including herons, ducks, geese, water voles and the now critically endangered white clawed crayfish. There are notable populations of dragonflies, especially Aeshna grandis in this area and also on the Grantham Canal which winds through The Vale of Belvoir to the west of the town.

The Grantham Journal

Grantham has a newspaper, The Grantham Journal, which first went on sale in 1854 under the name The Grantham Journal of Useful, Instructive and Entertaining Knowledge and Monthly Advertiser, which was shortened to its current name a few years later. The Grantham Journal is owned by Johnston Press and has a sister newspaper in Melton Mowbray, called the Melton Times.

Twin town

• - Sankt Augustin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (near Bonn, 57,000 population), twinned since 1980. The A52 relief road is named Sankt Augustin Way. Sankt Augustin has its Grantham-Allee.

Notable people

Sir Isaac Newton by William Theed, 1858, bronze; St Peter's Hill, Grantham

The house where Margaret Thatcher was born in Grantham

• Two world-famous people associated with the town are:
  • mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton, who was educated at the The King's School, Grantham
  • Conservative MP and Prime Minister (1979–1990) Margaret Thatcher, who attended the Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School (K.G.G.S). Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925 over her father's grocery shop in North Parade, Grantham. In 1923 her father had also acquired a shop in Huntingtower Road, opposite the primary school which she attended.
• William Stukeley (1687–1765), archaeologist, was a doctor in Grantham 1726-30.
• Thomas Paine, influentional in the French revolution and American independence, was resident from 1762-64.
• Eric Chappell, writer of many 1970s and 80s television sitcoms, including Rising Damp, Only When I Laugh and Duty Free, comes from Grantham and still lives in a village two miles outside the town.
• Graham Fellows of The Shuttleworths lives nearby, having previously lived near Louth.
• Des Lynam lived there with his partner, Harriet Hopkins, from 2005 until 2006.
• Johnny Downes DFC (1920–2004) - BBC producer who created the first live children's TV programme, Crackerjack, in 1955 and also The Basil Brush Show in 1968.
• Richard Todd, retired actor famous for the film Dambusters, lived in the hamlet of Little Humby, about 7 miles from the town until his death in 2009.
• Geoff Capes, former World's Strongest Man lives in Stoke Rochford, three miles south of Grantham.
• Judy Campbell (1916–2004) English light comedy actress and occasional playwright

Others

• Beverley Allitt - British female serial killer
• Clare Tomlinson - Sky Sports presenter
• Graham Lewis - musician.
• Roderick Bradley - Gladiator named Spartan in the Gladiators (2008 UK TV series)
• Vince Eager singer
• Stephen Lewis - actor (most notably 'On the Buses' and 'Last of the Summer Wine')
• Jessie Lipscomb - sculptress.
• Nicholas Maw - composer.
• Richard Nooky Nauyokas - from ITV's Lads Army.
• Nicholas Parsons - TV and radio presenter. His father, a local doctor, "brought Margaret Thatcher into the world."
• Maxwell Hutchinson - architect
• Luke Wright - England cricketer
• Bruce Longden, former coach to Sally Gunnell, taught in the town for four years in the 1960s.
• Philip Knights, Baron Knights - Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police from 1972-5, and West Midlands Police from 1975–85
• Marine Jonathan Wigley - killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan from a US aircraft in 2006. Attended the Central School.

Bibliography

• The Royal Charters of Grantham 1463-1688 Edited by G.H. Martin - Limited to 400 copies and contains list of Charters and index.

Further reading

• Thomas Allen (1834). "Grantham soke and town". The history of the county of Lincoln: from the earliest period to the present time. Vol. 2. London and Lincoln: John Saunders Jr. pp. 300–317.

External links

• Grantham tourist information, business services, community information, youth zone, news. - published by Kesteven District Council
• Grantham Journal Newspaper
• Information on Grantham's history
• Description of the town, street photographs and business directory.
• History of Ruston & Hornsby.
• South West Lincolnshire
• Grantham Future
• Kesteven RFC
• Gingerbread recipe
• Lincolnshire Life article (PDF)

Video clips

• Proposal for new bypass
• Kelvin MacKenzie tours Grantham Museum
• Mrs Thatcher and Grantham in July 1970