Seven of Earlesfield’s roads are named after steam locomotives that once passed through the town. Built off Trent Road in the later 1960s, some take their names from railway engineers, others from birds. Archibald Sturrock was a Scottish mechanical engineer, born at Petruchie, Angus, in 1816. He was locomotive superintendent of the Great Northern Railway […]

The Whalebone Arch, which spanned Whalebone Lane between Somerby Hill and Little Ponton, was destroyed when two trees blew down on it in a gale. It stood 18ft high. The arch was believed to have been brought from Grimsby by seafarer William Daye of Little Ponton Hall, who died in 1741. He was said to […]

Hornsby Road was built in the 1970s, off Trent Road. It is named after Richard Hornsby, the most important man in Grantham’s development. After completing his indentures in the early 1800s, fate brought him to Grantham where he joined Richard Seaman’s smithy at Barrowby. They moved to Spittlegate by the side of the Great North […]

INDUSTRIALIST Richard Hornsby bought the pasture land which makes up this area in 1858, to develop housing for his ever-growing workforce. In deference to the previous owners, Hornsby decided to name the streets after universities and schools. Thus we have Oxford, Cambridge, College, Harrow and Eton Streets. But Harrow Street did not come up to […]