Grantham, St Wulfram's Church, The Chained Library 1889

Photo ref: 22285

More about this scene

During the First World War, two enormous army camps were situated within two miles of the town, and in 1915 the Machine Gun Corps was founded in Harrowby Camp. There are plaques recalling this, and the Corps standard is laid up in the church. (The Corps was nicknamed 'the suicide club' as they suffered over 62,000 casualties). The church also boasts a superb ring of 10 bells; the Society of Change Ringers of St Wulfram's was founded in 1781, and is the town's oldest club. Across narrow Church Street, formerly Alms Lane, is the nearby King's School; it was re-founded by Bishop Foxe in 1528, although there is an earlier reference to it in 1329. The Old School, now used as the school library, dates back to the very early 16th century, and among its pupils were Sir Isaac Newton and William Cecil, later Lord Burghley, the great advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. He later built Burghley House just south of Stamford. Isaac Newton was fond of carving his initials, sun dials or even his name on walls, and his name can be seen on one of the window sills in the Old School. This boys' school is still a grammar school as it was in the early 1500s, but Latin grammar is not now one of its subjects. The school was one of several endowed by Bishop Foxe, a local man - he was born in the nearby village of Ropsley. Bishop Foxe was appointed Bishop of Winchester in 1501; he died in 1528, and is buried in Winchester Cathedral.