Then and Now with Grantham Civic Society looking at Guildhall

Ruth Crooks, of Grantham Civic Society, looks at the Guildhall in Grantham.

On May 30, 1790 there was an item in the Stamford Mercury, concerning the old Guildhall on the corner of Guildhall Street and the High Street.

It said: “At a meeting of the owners of land and other property, within the Borough of Grantham…… Mr Alderman Cook in the chair…..resolved that a subscription be now opened for the internal defence of the county, and that of the Kingdom at large, and that the sums to be subscribed or engaged, be called for, and remitted to and disposed of by the said committee of expenditure.”

The largest sums were given by William Earle Welby Esq £100, John Rowland £25, Thomas Hall £23, J Roe, Tho. Burton Shaw, R Palmer D D £21 each, C Gety £20,Bennet Storer D D, John Dodsworth M D, Thomas Tristram, Clerk, £10 10s each, N Smith, J Knipe, James Garnar and William Gibson £10 each, D Lely, B Leeson, Hemingway & Kirke and Charles Clarke £5 5s each.

There were a few others with £3 and £2 amounts, but most of the others paid a few shillings each.