Church Heritage Record 621164

Grantham

The settlement of Grantham pre-dates the Norman Conquest and is mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086).The etymology of the name ‘Grantham’ is unclear. One suggestion is that it was the homestead or village of a man named Granta, or alternatively, it may have come from the OE ‘grand’, ie. gravel. In the Domesday Book (1086) it is called Graham, Gran(d)ham or Gran(t)ham.

Grantham is the largest town and municipal centre of South Kesteven District Council. The parish of St Wulfram is situated in the oldest part of the town.  It is one of only two parish churches in England dedicated to St Wulfram. It was the only Anglican Church in Grantham up to 1840-1841, when St John the Evangelist, Spitalgate was built, though there is evidence that monastic houses in and around the town had their own chapels before the Reformation.

Although parish worship in medieval times was centred on St Wulfram’s, there was a Franciscan Friary close to the town centre in what became the extra-parochial area of Grantham Grange. Remains have been found of a leper hospital on the road to the south of the town, from which Spitalgate gets its name. It is believed to have had a chapel dedicated to St Leonard. There was also chapel of St Peter in the southern part of the town.

Land ownership and administrative responsibility was very complex. The parish of St Wulfram consisted of the Borough of Grantham which was its commercial centre, and the surrounding lordships or townships of Manthorpe and Little Gonerby to the north; Spitalgate, Houghton and Walton to the south; Harrowby to the east and Earlesfields to the west.

Grantham is a market town which is still surrounded by a rural area. Wool from sheep farming was an important industry in the middle ages. In the 17th Century, whilst sheep rearing was still a valuable source of income in the villages, the highest numbers of freemen in Grantham were connected with trades associated with leather working, which suggests that cattle rearing was extensively carried out around the town.

Grantham’s location on the Great North Road led to it becoming an important staging post. Horses were changed at Grantham, so that fresh teams could tackle Gonerby Hill, said to be the steepest part of the Great North Road.  This led to a proliferation of industries associated with hospitality, such as inns and ale houses, and other services such as brewing, stabling, saddle, harness and carriage making.  The Angel, the George and the Red Lion were important hotels on the High Street, but there were many other smaller ones.

In 1793 the Nottingham Canal was finally linked with Grantham, giving access to the River Trent, enabling the tradespeople of Grantham to transport their goods to Nottingham and beyond. Wheat and other crops were transported from Grantham and coal was brought to the town, thus helping to make it a good site for industries that relied on steam power.  The slate used for many of the surviving gravestones in St Wulfram’s churchyard was also brought to the town via the Canal, some from Swithland in Leicestershire and perhaps from as far afield as Wales.

Grantham was a sizeable town in the Middle Ages, with an estimated population of 1,000-1,500. It drew many people from the surrounding villages to its weekly livestock and produce markets. The Corporation of Grantham was granted by Edward IV in a Charter dated 1463. By 1801, the population had grown to 4,288, and it had doubled to 8,691 by 1841 due to the influx of people who came to the town to take advantage of the employment opportunities afforded by the industrial revolution.

The industrial revolution reached Grantham in 1815 when Richard Hornsby formed a partnership with Richard Seaman and expanded his blacksmith’s shop into an agricultural engineering factory in Spittlegate, becoming Richard Hornsby and Sons in 1828.  Hornsby & Sons were a major manufacturer of agricultural machinery, steam threshing engines, early tractors and they pioneered caterpillar tractors.  The company was sidelined into producing munitions in World War I and was bought out by Ruston & Proctor of Lincoln in 1918, continuing as Ruston & Hornsby.

In 1879, the former townships of Little Gonerby, Spitalgate, Houghton and Walton became part of Grantham. The population was now over 15,000 and as Grantham township consisted of only 408 acres of the 5,516 total acreage, much of the new housing was in Little Gonerby, Spitalgate and eastwards across the River Witham in New Somerby.  Manthorpe became a separate parish, with its own church of St John the Evangelist, built in the early 1850’s. As the districts on the periphery of the town centre became populated, they became separate parishes. After St John’s Spitalgate, St Anne’s at New Somerby was formed.  St Saviour’s Mission Church, a daughter church to St Wulfram’s, was founded in 1884 but closed in 1931 and demolished. The money from the sale of the church was put towards building the Church of the Ascension, Harrowby and Epiphany, Earlsfield.

In 1972 a Team Parish was formed, which in many ways reverted back to the old Grantham parish in the 19th century (but with addition of Manthorpe and Londonthorpe), but this was dissolved in 2002. The Church of the Ascension at Harrowby shares a Vicar with St John’s, Londonthorpe, an adjacent village. Further changes have taken place more recently with the reduction in the numbers of clergy, with the parishes of Spitalgate, Earlsfield and New Somerby combining to form the United Parish of the Trinity, and the Rector of St Wulfram’s becoming also Priest in Charge of St John’s, Manthorpe.

The present parish of St Wulfram includes the town centre, and in the immediate vicinity of the church, an area of older housing which is a mixture of larger Georgian and earlier dwellings and Victorian terraces with a few modern infill dwellings. To the east across the River Witham there are a number of small scale 20th century housing developments. The parish contains several care and nursing homes for the elderly. There are Almshouses endowed by individuals who left money for this purpose. To the west the parish stretches to the A1, and includes the large Barrowby Gate housing estate. Across the A52, a large area which is currently being developed for housing and other amenities is also situated within the parish. 

Church of St Wulfram

There was a church on the present site of St Wulfram’s in the 11th Century, and probably much earlier, as there are fragments of Anglo-Saxon herringbone stonework in the chancel near the organ loft.  A relic said to be an arm bone of St Wulfram was brought to Grantham c 1050. It was probably brought by Queen Editha, wife of King Edward the Confessor, when she endowed the church with lands. The church is mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086).  The Anglo-Saxon church is believed to have had a central stone tower.

In 1091 the land and endowment of St Wulfram’s was granted to St Osmund and given to his cathedral at Old Sarum, thus beginning the long-standing link between Salisbury Cathedral and St Wulfram’s. There were two prebendaries, for North Grantham and South Grantham. These were resident at Salisbury, and were represented by a vicar for North and for South Grantham, until the vicarages were finally united in 1714.

St Wulfram’s was extended during the Norman period. By the middle of the 12th century the church was a cruciform shape. The nave was extended to its present width and there were narrow side aisles with sloping lean-to roofs. The rounded arches of six pillars in the nave remain.

Around 1200 the south aisle was enlarged to accommodate guild chapels. These major developments were funded by wealthy wool merchants who lived or held land around Grantham. In 1222 there was a lightning strike which caused a fire, necessitating major rebuilding. In 1250 wider side aisles replaced the narrow ones, and the Norman arches were replaced with high pointed ones in the Early English style. The tower and spire at the West end of the church was started in 1280. To make room for this, the market was moved from its position just to the west of the Norman church to its present site across the Great North Road.

The rebuilding continued with a second storey being built on the north porch. Sacred relics were displayed in this upper room, which was accessed by two staircases. When the floor was installed, the north doorway into the church was mutilated.

By 1350 the church had many small altars and chantries. A stone rood screen, donated by Roger de Woolsthorp stretched from north to south across the church interior. This was decorated with figures.

In the second half of the 14th Century the Lady Chapel was built over the crypt. In 1480 the Corpus Christi Chapel was built in the north-east corner of the church and shortly after that, c 1490, St Kathryn’s Chantry Chapel was built on the north-east side of the church by the gift of Thomas Hall of Hall Place (now Grantham House). This is now the clergy vestry.  During this period, the walls of the church were plastered and richly decorated with paintings of biblical and religious scenes. The only remaining evidence of this is a smear of red paint on the wall in the north aisle, to the right of the North Porch.

Most of the chantry chapels were destroyed at the time of the Reformation under Henry VIII. Six priests were granted pensions as a form of redundancy payment. The stone font, the gift of Richard Fox, is believed to have been taken out of the church, as it shows evidence of damage and erosion caused by the weather.  The stone rood screen was taken down and the Rood burnt at the market cross. The silver and copper shrine of St Wulfram, which had contained his relics, was sold.

 In 1598 the Trigge Library was installed in the former Priest’s Room above the South Porch, but in the next century, the church was said to be in a dilapidated state and concern for its upkeep was low. During the Civil War it suffered under Cromwell’s troops and heads of angels on the medieval tombs were mutilated (eg the Saltby Tomb).  After the religious settlement of 1660 the church was divided, with the western part, the ante-church, being left empty except for tombs and memorials. Eminent citizens were buried in vaults in the western part of the church. The eastern part became filled with pews, clustered around the centrally placed high pulpit. A gallery was built along the north wall in 1736 and extended in 1834, the gallery affixed to the south wall being built in 1834 but even then it was difficult to accommodate the growing congregation in the free seating areas.

Some repairs had already been undertaken before the scheme of Restoration, under Sir Gilbert Scott, was commissioned in 1864. In 1851 the roof over the western end of the south aisle was replaced. In 1860 the weathervane on the top of the spire was removed for re-gilding. However, the church was in such a poor state that it was apparent that a full scheme of restoration was needed.

Before the Restoration, the eastern part of the nave was filled with box pews.  Scott wanted to make better use of the space within the whole church. Towards the end of 1866 he arranged the sale of all the existing church fittings, including the pulpit, screen, pews, galleries, staircases, altar, and gas lamps, though the organ was retained.

From May 1866 until February 1868 the roofs were renewed and the clerestory over the chancel removed. The plaster was removed from the walls, thus exposing the stonework. This enabled the different phases of the development of the church to be more clearly seen. The chancel floor was raised nearly three feet and tiled in glazed Minton tiles with steps made of Derbyshire marble. The marble contains many visible fossils.

 In spring 1868 heating pipes were installed. These are still in use today and the pipes are a fine example of Victorian work.  The boiler was sited in the west crypt, at that time a charnel house. Other burials were discovered under the chancel floor and in the Harrowby vault under the North Porch. Many grave slabs were resited into the floor between the new chair layout. The raised pew platforms that had been in place before the restoration were retained. The new seating consisted of rush-seated chairs.

In October 1868 new choir stalls were completed. Six windows in the north wall and one in the south wall were restored.  The central east window of the chancel was also reglazed and the rood screen, designed by Scott himself, was carved and erected. The tracery of the windows can be seen in the design.

 In 1869 the organ was improved and a new case was designed. The old case was retained and forms the west end screening of the choir vestry. Also in 1869 the church foundations were underpinned and a stone gutter provided around the outside walls. Three more windows in the south aisle were reglazed. The Restoration Festival took place between April 1st and April 4th 1869. The total cost is recorded as £19,777.  Further improvements took place as funds were raised.  In 1876 two more windows east of the North and South Porches were reglazed, and the following year two others in the south aisle were also reglazed.

At the beginning of 1877 a new clock with chimes consisting of eight tunes was installed in the tower, made by Gillett and Bland of Croydon to replace a much earlier clock. It has no clock face. Also in 1876/7, the North Porch was restored as a memorial to Sir Glynne Welby-Gregory who had been Chairman of the Restoration Committee and who had died in 1875. The former processional arches were closed by glazed iron grilles designed by Scott. The oak doors were paid for by Clarke’s Charity. Sir Gilbert Scott died in 1878 but his nephew, J Oldrid Scott, supervised some of the work which took place in the 1880’s, including the rebuilding of the top of the spire in 1884.

The altar reredos was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1883 and enlarged to its present size in 1901/2.  The chancel side screen dates from 1884.

The Trigge Library, which had been neglected in the previous century, was also repaired and restored. The desks were replaced by the present shelves in 1884 and rods made to hold the chains. The frames for the shelves were made from the original desks.

The tall and ornate font cover was designed by Walter Tapper to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and was installed in 1899.  It is medieval in design and based on St Wulfram’s spire.

St Wulfram’s has been blessed with many benefactors throughout the ages, and this has continued until the present time. The church has been very well-maintained sine the time of the restoration, and although there have been additions to the furnishings and fittings of the church, they have been sympathetically carried out. The Gifts Book records 234 gifts made between 1870 and 2013, and this is not the full total, as no records were kept in certain periods.

Some of the post-Victorian additions are stained glass windows, bells, the statues in the niches on the west front of the tower, the coffee shop and seating, the Visitor centre, office and toilets and the glass porch to mark the Millenium. They will be described in section 4.6.

 Restoration and repair work in the 20th century included repairs to the tower and spire and re-hanging the bells (1945-6). The organ was rebuilt and enlarged in 1906, modified in 1972 and underwent major refurbishment in 1993/4 when a fourth manual was installed. Two further bells were cast and hung in the 2000s and a further small bell to be used for training was cast and hung to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. A major benefactor over the past sixty years has been the Friends of St Wulfram’s, which was founded in 1952.

The Tower and Spire

The tower and spire and the west front are the most iconic features of the church, especially when viewed from the western approach along Church Trees from Swinegate. The height of the tower is 142 ft, and the top of the spire is almost 282 feet from the ground, six feet or so more than this if the weathervane is added. When it was built c 1300 it was the tallest in England, and it is still the third tallest spire in the country of a parish church.  Lawrence Bond says that the simplicity of its design and its strength makes it typically East Anglian. Part of its beauty is due to the fact that it grows out of the tower, rather than being superimposed on top of it.

The tower does not look symmetrical, and this has been a source of criticism. On the southern side there is a stairway of steps that gives access to the ringing chamber and a parapet walkway at the top of the tower and base of the spire. The tower and spire is believed to have been started in the last quarter of the 13th Century or very early in the 14th Century, and finished by 1320. The existence  of the ballflower which decorate the west doorway and around the intersecting tracery of the four light window above it were a popular early 14th century motif.

The tower has four stages. The lowest has the heavy wooden door, with a richly carved doorway and west window above. To the left and right of the doorway and window are three tiers of niches, in which stand statues of more recent date, the lowest row being installed in 1922 and the top eight, carved by Youngman, in 1956 through the Catlin bequest. The top row depicts the St Luke, St Matthew, St Mark and St John; the middle row St Paul, St Aidan, St Augustine and Bishop Hine; and the bottom row St Michael, St Wulfram, The Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist. The statue of Bishop Hine, who was born in Grantham, is popular as it shows his cat playing with the tassel of his belt. To the right of the doorway can be seen holes in the wall which are evidence of a canopy or roof of the Henry Curteis Chantry which was affixed to the outside wall before the Reformation.

The stage above this has three bands of decoration, two of arcading and the upper band is of deeply cut quartrefoils.  Above this is the belfry with deeply set windows with rich moulding which fill almost all the wall space. The walls of the ringing chamber are five feet nine inches thick. The upper part of the tower is open to the spire and is known as the ‘green chamber.’ It has in each wall a large double window contained in a single arch beneath a triangular hood. The jambs and arches are decorated with enormous ballflowers and the hood has carved crockets and finial. The wall space has further decorative panelling. The tower is crowned by the slightly projecting moulded parapet of the walkway (known locally as the ‘olliers’), and turrets or pinnacles on each corner which look like small spires and are surmounted by a figure, which have been thought to be bishops, clergy or teachers which emphasise the missionary vocation of the Church.

The first tier of openings in the spire is almost directly above the parapets. There are tall niches containing statues of winged figures standing on circular blocks of stone. Bond acknowledges that there has been speculation as to the meaning of these, but believes they are cherubim mentioned in the book of Ezekiel, the guardians of the throne of God. The openings of the middle tier are placed on alternate sides, and smaller eight of the topmost tier of which only alternate ones are pierced. The eight angles of the spire are enriched by closely spaced crockets. Some of these are carved and some are plain.  The walls of the spire are slightly over two feet thick at its base and gradually reduce to six inches below the final 16 feet which is of solid masonry.

The great piers that support the tower at ground level are roughly eight feet square, four times the size of the corresponding piers at Salisbury Cathedral. Although the spire has needed repair on at least seven occasions in its history, the basic structure of the tower has remained sound.

The weathervane which tops the spire is said to have been made in 1818 but has names dated in 1860 engraved on the pennant. It was repaired and regilded in 1946 and a larger cross was substituted for the previous smaller at this time.

Nave and Porches 

The rectangular shape of the main body of the church is broken when viewed from the outside by the south and north porches and the St Katharyn’s Chapel on the north side. St Katharyn’s Chapel was a chantry chapel built for the family of Thomas Hall, who lived in the nearby large dwelling now known as Grantham House. It is late Perpendicular in date and has three closely grouped small three-light windows to the east and west. The four-light window to the north is flanked by niches. There is a small doorway in the east wall with a niche over it.

The north porch was formerly the processional entry to the church and was designed to facilitate the movement of the many pilgrims that came to see the relics of St Wulfram.  The porch is deep with archways from the west and east as well as the north. It has polygonal façade turrets with crocketed spires. The bell turret over the north porch at one time housed the bell to summon the crew in cases of fire, as the parish fire engine was kept in the north porch in the first half of the 19th century.  The archways to the west and east have sunk wave mouldings and the northern has many finer mouldings.  The northern entrance door to the church has had the top of the archway canopy’s decoration sliced off in order to make room for a floor for an upper storey, thus mutilating what was a beautiful Early English arched canopy. Scott refused to renew the canopy as part of his restoration plan for the north porch saying that it explained itself as part of history. The two doorways to the narrow spiral stairs are still in evidence at the northern end of the porch. At some point prior to the Reformation a relic of St Wulfram was housed in this upper storey. There is a window from the upper storey into the north aisle of the church. It has unusual tracery including two transoms, a wavy frieze below the lower, a frieze of irregular squares with pointed quatrefoils between the two.  This tracery is believed to be post Reformation, the aperture being open before this so that the relics could be seen from within the church. The bays are now enclosed with glazing and a double-opening door is at the northern entrance.  Beneath the west porch is the burial vault of the Ryder family, Lords of Harrowby, but there is no entrance to the vault.

The south porch was probably built about 1230 and rebuilt around 1350 to provide a second storey. This is reached inside the church by a spiral staircase from the south aisle. The room was used as a priest’s room before the Reformation. It has a large fireplace, a scoop in the wall for washing, and an oriel window or squint, so that the priest could not only see what was happening in the main body of the church but  also keep an eye on the relics displayed behind the window above the north porch opposite. The description of the south porch (1878) pays tribute to its beautifully and minutely moulded arch, and the doorway which is similarly moulded. The additions in the Perpendicular period were the octagonal turret staircase, finished above with a small battlemented cornice, a crocketed spirelet and a battlemented parapet. The small transomed windows in each wall are believed to be of later origin, probably from Stuart times.

On the south wall to the east of the porch is an octagonal staircase turret which formerly gave access to the rood loft.  It is lighted by two small windows with delicate tracery and topped with a wall-mounted embattled parapet and a crocketed spirelet.

Windows

Styles of tracey from three different periods can be clearly identified. The geometrical Early English patterns can be seen on the north side from St Katharyn’s chapel westwards, on the west side and on the south side eastwards to the South Porch. On the north side there are six windows of identical design, bearing similarities with the Angel Choir at Lincoln Cathedral. The window above the west door is decorated with some 450 ball flowers.

There are three windows from the Decorated period eastwards from the south porch to the east end, plus the window in the Lady Chapel on the east wall. These windows have flowing tracery, which seem to depict images from nature. The petals of a flower, a tulip head and a butterfly can be seen.

The east window of the chancel and the window in the Corpus Christi Chapel next to it are of the Perpendicular period, as can be seen by the straight mullions and transoms. This formality is relieved in the Corpus Christi Chapel window where the arches over the outer sets of four lights intersect to form a small sub-arch over the middle light, which are matched by the sub-arches over the outer lights. Strangely, there is one window of the Perpendicular period to the east of the south porch, which is out of sequence and no reason is known for this. The corbel table is decorated by a numerous variety of carved stone heads of humans and animals.

The Lady Chapel is situated in the south-east corner of the church and can be reached from the chancel and the south aisle. The beautiful window tracery of the Decorated period is evident here. There is an early stone piscine set into the base of the window at the south east corner.

Beneath the Lady Chapel are two crypts. The western part is now used as a boiler house. The eastern part is now known as the Crypt Chapel, but before the Reformation it was the Chapel of the Holy Trinity. It has two entrances, one from the chancel by way of wide but steep stone steps leading from a box-like stone stairhead which has been likened to a chantry. It is of the Perpendicular period and is richly carved, thus indicating the importance of the crypt beneath. The extra steps down from the chancel to the original level shows how much the chancel was raised at the time of the restoration by Scott. Another stairway, where pilgrims would have entered in the middle ages, leads into the crypt from the south wall outside, but is no longer in use. The chapel is vaulted and the altar has a recess underneath where the relic of St Wulfram was once stored. The stone is worn down where pilgrims knelt to pray in front of the altar.  The Crypt Chapel is still a place of great peace and beauty.  After the Reformation the corporation records and church valuables were stored in the Crypt, but despite a double lock and secret bolt on the door from the chancel, the church silver and plate was stolen in 1808 and never recovered. Before it was restored, the Crypt was used as a charnel house when the churchyard was cleared for new burials.

Towards the west end of the church are the two massive pillars which support the tower and spire. There are two columns of pillars on either side of the nave.  Two flat-sided pillars, the third pair from the tower, indicate the position of the western end of the early church. The change in stonework can be clearly seen. Above the pillars to the east of this can be seen the arches of rounded Norman work, which were thought to be clerestory windows, but may have been lancets in an aisleless nave.

The Lady Chapel is situated in the south-east corner of the church and can be reached from the chancel and the south aisle. The window tracery of the Decorated period is evident here. There is an early stone piscine set into the base of the window at the south east corner. Beneath the Lady Chapel are two crypts. The western part is now used as a boiler house. The eastern part is now known as the Crypt Chapel, but before the Reformation it was the Chapel of the Holy Trinity. It has two entrances, one from the chancel by way of wide but steep stone steps leading from a box-like stone stairhead which has been likened to a chantry. It is of the Perpendicular period and is richly carved, thus indicating the importance of the crypt beneath. The extra steps down from the chancel to the original level shows how much the chancel was raised at the time of the restoration by Scott. Another stairway, where pilgrims would have entered in the middle ages, leads into the crypt from the south wall outside, but is no longer in use. The chapel is vaulted and the altar has a recess underneath where the relic of St Wulfram was once stored. The stone is worn down where pilgrims knelt to pray in front of the altar.  The Crypt Chapel is still a place of great peace and beauty.  After the Reformation the corporation records and church valuables were stored in the Crypt, but despite a double lock and secret bolt on the door from the chancel, the church silver and plate was stolen in 1808 and never recovered. Before it was restored, the Crypt was used as a charnel house when the churchyard was cleared for new burials.

The Corpus Christi Chapel is in the north-east corner of the church. Some of its space is now taken by the organ. It is believed to have been built by Richard Fox, born at Ropsley and later Bishop of Winchester, in the second half of the 1400’s. The important citizens of Grantham all belonged to the Guild of Corpus Christi. It was the chapel used by the Corporation for the election of Aldermen and the Mayor. It has plain glass in its windows which makes it much lighter than the rest of the church. It was restored in the late 1950’s and has a modern stone altar with the symbol of a pelican feeding its young. The pelican is a symbol associated with Richard Fox.

St Katharyn’s Chapel, the chantry of Thomas Hall and family, is now used as the vestry. It is the only one of the seven medieval chantries that still exists. Thomas Hall’s tomb was in the doorway. To the side of the entrance door which is used nowadays is a smaller door which would have been used by Thomas Hall to enter the church. The chapel passed with Grantham House to the family of Earl Brownlow, and in 1820 he gave the chapel to the church for use as a vestry.

St Michael’s Chapel is situated on the north side of the church, in front of the organ case. It is the newest chapel and was dedicated in 1960.  

The roofs of the church were all renewed (with the exception of the western part of the south aisle which had been done earlier) in Danzig oak by James Hall of Nottingham at the time of the restoration. The carvings of angels and the text were executed by Farmer & Brindley of London. The chancel roof was later coloured blue. The text around the base of the nave roof was gilded and the angels limed in the late 1990s.

As with the corbel table on the exterior, there are a multitude of carved heads inside the church. Perhaps the most unusual is a head that looks like a hippopotamus which is located in the Lady Chapel. Also in the Lady Chapel, opposite the hippopotamus, are the heads of a King and Queen which could be Edward III and his Queen Philippa.