Local events

Ten little gems
Did you know that piped water for the town was provided by the Greyfriars monks in 1314?... More

Markets, fairs, carnivals
The town has had a market for more than 1,000 years, and from 1484 to 1634 it actually had two... More

Town's history

First footings
About 4,000 years ago farmers used bronze tools to clear woods between the Witham and Mowbeck... More

Royal charter
Grantham 'officially' became a town on March 8, 1463, under a Royal Charter granted by Edward IV... More

Wool and iron
Agriculture played a great role in the early centuries of Grantham. The fertile land produced crops... More

People and places

St Wulfram's Church
Built in the 1100s on the site of a Saxon church, St Wulfram's is known as the Glory of Grantham... More

Margaret Thatcher
Britain's first woman Prime Minister was born on October 13, 1925, above a shop at 1 North Parade... More

King's School
King's School, possibly once St Wulfram's Church song school, is one of the oldest in the country... More

Sir Isaac Newton
Newton's lifetime of discoveries started at King's School, Grantham where he was head boy... More

Grantham Journal

Top of page

First Footings

Belvoir Castle - ancestral home of the Duke of Rutland for one thousand years. The name Belvoir means 'beautiful view' and dates from Norman times

About 4,000 years ago a small group of farmers used bronze tools to clear woods in an area between the river Witham and the Mowbeck now covered by Redcross Street, close to the old part of the medieval town.

It was good fertile soil, but prone to flooding, but it appears there was no major growth of the community.

The first major settlement in the area occurred upstream at Saltersford, which by the Iron Age had become an important river crossing point on the Salters Way, the trading route from the east coast to the Midlands.

The Romans made a big impact on the area establishing communities from Colsterworth to Ancaster along the Ermine Way. Although Roman coins were found in the Cherry Orchard area of the town during the building of a housing estate immediatley after the Second World War, Grantham didn’t properly emerge as a settlement until the Romans left in about 400AD and the Saxons began farming in the area alongside the Witham now known as Spittlegate MIll.

The Saxons gave Grantham its name, which means the settlement on the gravel or sandbank. Until 100 years ago a road, in the centre of the town was known as Sandpit Lane.

By the 8th and 9th Centuries the Danes also moved into the area and their word for farm – ‘by’ – is retained in the names of surrounding villages such as Great Gonerby, Barrowby, Old Somerby and Harrowby.

By the time the Normans romped all over the countryside, Grantham had grown to be an important market at the centre of a clutch of villages and was a stop-over for royals and nobility on their travels. At the time of the Domesday survey Grantham had a population of 1,000, and four mills which milled the barley grown in the area.

Top of page