The dustpan now seen in Westgate was originally in Market Place

It's a curious addition to any street scene, a giant dustpan suspended on the exterior wall of a shop.

But the story behind it helps to make sense of why it's there - and where it was based originally, as Ruth Crook of Grantham Civic Society explains the shop that started it all...

Number 12 Market Place was the original site of The Little Dustpan.

The top of the Market Cross has been removed, so the photograph (above) must have been taken in 1885. The shop was run by George Willoughby and his son George Henry, who also owned the hardware shop at number 2 Westgate.

The front of the shop included the words, ‘English, French, German Fancy Goods, Picture Frames, Toys, Brushes, Combs, Fancy Woods and Cutlery’. The ‘Little Dustpan’ was moved to the Westgate shop in 1901.

George senior died in 1901, when George Henry was already living in Harrowby Mill (Willoughby’s Mill), with his family, which consisted of five daughters and a son Clement, who was wounded in World War One.

The Little Dustpan business was later taken over by Collards. Here, you can see another picture of The Little Dustpan when it was on Westgate.

The store closed in 1982 but the dustpan remains.

To contact Grantham Civic Society visit the website www.granthamcivicsociety.co.uk search on Facebook, call secretary John Manterfield on 01476 565782 or email granthamcivicsociety@virginmedia.com