Everything about Grantham England totally explained
Grantham is a
market town within the
South Kesteven district of
Lincolnshire,
England. Located along the course of the
River Witham, twenty-four miles (39 km) to the south-southwest of the city of
Lincoln, it has a total resident population of 34,592. in around 18,000 households, including the village of
Great Gonerby.
The town is best known as the birthplace and childhood home of former prime minister
Margaret Thatcher, and as the place where
Isaac Newton went to school. The town is situated 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 police officers in the
United Kingdom, who began their role together on
November 27 1914, during the
First World War. Miss
Mary Allen
and Miss E. F. Harburn reported for duty on the
beat. 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.
Geography
Grantham once lay within the ancient
Winnibriggs and Threo wapentake in the Soke of Grantham in the
Kesteven.
Political representation
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 spread as 35 Conservative, 15 Independent, 2 Labour and 6 Liberal Democrat councillors.
History
Etymology
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
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, as
Barnes Wallis nervously learnt the grim news, 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 (External Link), being known as Grantham Lodge.
RAF Spitalgate trained pilots in the war, and wasn't an operational base. 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
Herbert Akroyd Stuart, from which
compression-ignition principle the
diesel engine evolved, being manufactured in Grantham from July 8 1892. Although these engines were not wholly compression-ignition derived. Later in 1892 a prototype high-pressure version was built at Hornsbys whereby ignition was achieved solely (100%) through compression which ran continuously for six hours, being the first known
diesel engine. 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 literally ground-breaking role 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.
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 rollersm declined and now as
Barford Construction Equipment, it makes
dumpers for construction sites, being owned by
Wordsworth Holdings PLC, owned 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.
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. Now it has been developed - as a new 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.
The food processing industry now employs the largest contingent of Grantham's citizens, including Fenland Foods (part of
Northern Foods) on the Earlesfield Industrial Estate,
Moypark (formerly Padleys) in Gonerby Hill Foot, and a large
frozen vegetable factory (PAS) near
Easton. The
Woodland Trust is based on
Dysart Road. There is a small FM transmitter near the town's bypass on
Gorse Lane from which
Radio Lincolnshire can be heard on 104.7 and
Lincs FM on 96.7, and national radio.
Landmarks
The main local landmark is the impressive parish church of
St Wulfram's, which has the
sixth highest spire (282 ft) among English churches, and is also home to the country's first public library. In 1598,
Francis Trigge, the 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.
Grantham is home to the country's only
'living' pub sign: a
beehive of South African
bees located in outside since 1830.
Edith Smith Way is the name of the road beside the
Guildhall Arts Centre,on 'St Peter's Hill'; it's named after Englands first policewoman. The
Angel & Royal Hotel is one of Britain's oldest inn c1200.
King John held court there in 1213, when the site was a hostel run by the [[KnightsTemplar]. The
George Hotel nearby (known as St Peter's Place in 1992 becoming now the George Shopping Centre) was mentioned in
Charles Dickens’ novel
Nicholas Nickleby. Also in the town is the
Blue Pig one of many "Blue" pubs. Much of the town's property is owned by
Buckminster Estates, since the time of the
Earl of Dysart.
Nearby are many historic houses including 17th century
Belton House, early 19th century
Harlaxton Manor,
Stoke Rochford Hall (once the training centre of the
NUT), and the 11th century
Belvoir Castle (in
Leicestershire).
Transport
Grantham railway station is served by the
East Coast Main Line (between the stops for
Peterborough and
Newark Northgate),
Nottingham to Skegness Line, and
Liverpool to Norwich Line. 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
service station at the north end of the bypass, on the
new junction which has recently replaced a roundabout.
Sport
Grantham Town Football Club is the local football team, currently playing in the Unibond First Division 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 they currently play 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.
Notable people
- In the Domesday Book of William the Conqueror, Grantham is first mentioned as "Grant ham".Its name is much older and could be derived from the Anglo-Saxon for the settlement on the gravel or sand bank.
Two world-famous people associated with the town are:
William Stukeley (1687-1765), archeologist, was a doctor in Grantham 1726-30.
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 village two miles outside of the town.
Graham Fellows of The Shuttleworths lives nearby, having previously lived near Louth.
Des Lynam lived there with his mistress, 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, lives in the hamlet of Little Humby, located around 7 miles from the town.
Geoff Capes, former world's strongest man resides in Stoke Rochford, located 3 miles south of Grantham.Others:
Clare Tomlinson - Sky Sports Presenter
Graham Lewis - musician.
Roderick Bradley - Gladiator named Spartan in the Gladiators (2008 UK TV series)
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
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 Information
Get more info on 'Grantham England'.
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