Belton House was the subject of postcard in the 1920s

This charming shot of Belton House and gardens was the subject of an old sepia-tinted postcard brought into our office by Journal reader Len Rawding.

The postcard is postmarked June 28, 1927, and features a ‘penny red’ one penny stamp with King George V on it.

The card was sent to Mrs E. Fox of Hornsey, London, by someone who appears to have signed themselves off as ‘L.C.’ or ‘L.G.’., writing that “everything is fine at B[elton]”.

The Brownlow family began accumulating land in the Belton area around 1598.

Building work began on the present house in 1685.

The 7th Baron Brownlow finally sold off the family estate to the National Trust in 1984.

Olympian won Grantham road race

Journal reader Andy Weston, of Fulbeck, was digging through his boxes of old photographic slides when he came across this one.

It is a snap of the Grantham Fireworks 5 Road Race in 1977, a race in which Andy competed.

Andy said the race was won by Olympian [Keith?] Angus, followed by Exton, a top club athlete.

Leading the pack up Castlegate in the picture are Angus, Mitcham, Exton, Milne and Dewhirst.

The dying days of steam at local quarries

Pictured here in 1969 are Anthony Bass (right), of Denton, and his shunter mate ‘Bunty’ Smart, of Stathern, atop steam engine ‘Ajax’.

The photos was shot back when the old locos were being replaced by diesels at Harlaxton and Woolsthorpe quarries.

Looking back . . .

10 YEARS AGO

• Grantham’s streets went live on Google Street View for the first time.
• Old Somerby roundabout's new arrangement of Ancaster stone quickly gained it the moniker 'Grantham's Stonehenge'.
• Teenage table tennis sensation Emily Bates added to her medal collection with a silver at the U21 English Nationals.

25 YEARS AGO

• Five Labour councillors, including the Mayor and group leader, were axed by the party’s South Kesteven group to prevent them contesting district council seats at the upcoming May election, ‘because better candidates had been selected’.
• An invasion of ladybirds in the area, brought on by a mild winter, was welcomed by gardeners.

50 YEARS AGO

• Scotland Yard Art Squad detectives joined the nationwide hunt for a thief who stole a £2,000 16th century oil painting from the Jesuit Order-owned Harlaxton Manor, the suspect being a middle-aged man who posed as a clergyman and spoke with a refined American accent.
• Dental filling amalgam was stolen from Miller and Braunton's dentistry in Church Trees.

100 YEARS AGO

• Kesteven County Council sanctioned an increase to the weekly maintenance rate for each ‘pauper lunatic’ in the county asylum.
• North Road Garage and Motor Works, of Great Ponton, was the stole Lincolnshire agent for the 10hp Lington Light Car, and also stocked the Martinsyde Newman motorcycle combination and the Metro Tyler motorbike.