St Wulfram's Church, Grantham, is the

Anglican parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, England. The church is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and has the second tallest spire in Lincolnshire after Louth's parish church. In his book ''England's Thousand Best Churches'',

Simon Jenkins Sir Simon David Jenkins (born 10 June 1943) is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was editor of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1976 to 1978 and of ''The Times'' from 1990 to 1992. Jenkins chaired the National Trust from 20 ...

begins his description of St Wulfram's: "Here is the finest steeple in England", and in 2020 an online contest run by poet

Jay Hulme Jay Anthony Hulme is a transgender performance poet and author from Leicester, in the UK. Career In 2015 Hulme won SLAMbassadors UK, the UK's biggest youth poetry slam, run by Joelle Taylor on behalf of the Poetry Society. That year of the s ...

named it as the finest non-

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

English church. The spire is the sixth highest in the country (

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

and Old Coventry Cathedrals' are higher), and third highest of any parish church, after the

Church of St Walburge, Preston St Walburge's Church is a Roman Catholic church in Preston, Lancashire, England, northwest of the city centre on Weston Street. The church was built in the mid-19th century to a design by the Gothic Revival architect Joseph Hansom, the designer ...

, and St James' Church, Louth. It is the second highest of any

in the UK, after St James', and second highest in Lincolnshire, after St James'. In 2013 an appeal was launched to save the spire.

Music

A set of chimes which had been disused for years, and also some quarter jacks, were re-instated during 1877. The new clock and chimes by Gillett and Bland were started on 16 February 1877. On 5 November 1877 the new clock was inspected by Sir Edmund Beckett, who assessed that it was one of the best turned out by Gillett and Bland. The present organ by John Harris and John Byfield dates from 1735. It was rebuilt by

George Pike England George Pike England (ca.1765 – February 1815) was an English organ builder who was among the most prominent in England during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Life He was the son of organ builder George England and Mary Blasdale. He ...

in 1809 and 1833, by

Forster and Andrews Forster and Andrews was a British organ building company between 1843 and 1924. The company was formed by James Alderson Forster (1818–1886) and Joseph King Andrews (1820–1896), who had been employees of the London organ builder J. C. Bisho ...

between 1845 and 1868, by

Norman and Beard Norman and Beard were a pipe organ manufacturer based in Norwich from 1887 to 1916. History The origins of the company are from a business founded in Diss in 1870 by Ernest William Norman (1851–1927). In 1876 he moved to Norwich where he wen ...

in 1906 (producing the organ that may be heard today), by

Rushworth and Dreaper Rushworth and Dreaper was a firm of organ builders, and later general instrument suppliers associated with Paul McCartney based in Liverpool. The manufacturer was founded in 1828 by William Rushworth, operating until 2002. Upon its liquidation, ...

in 1952, by Cousans of Lincoln in 1972, and by Phillip Wood and Sons of Huddersfield in 1993–94 when a fourth manual was added. The case designed by Sir Walter Tapper RA took eight years to complete. The old organ case now encloses the choir vestry in the north west corner of the church. The specification for the organ, regarded as one of the finest in Lincolnshire, can be found at th
National Pipe Organ Register

Organists

* Mr Sweet 1745–1755 * Andrew Strother 1755–1816 (jointly with Francis Sharp 1808–1816) * Francis Sharp 1808–1832 (jointly with Andrew Strother 1808–1816) * William Dixon 1832–1863–1865 * George Dixon 1865–1886 (previously organist of St James' Church, Louth) * Richard Thomas Back 1886Grantham Journal – Saturday 24 April 1886–1909'' Kelly's Directory of Lincolnshire'' 1909, p. 230–1911 * Frank Radcliffe 1911–1914 (later organist of

St Mary's Church, Nottingham The Church of St Mary the Virgin is the oldest parish churchDomesday Book: A Complete Translation (Penguin Classics) of Nottingham, in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest church after the Cathedral in the city of Nottingham. The church ...

) * Edward Brown 1914–1941 * Stephen John Mundy 1941–1961 * Philip Joseph Lank 1961–1983 (previously assistant organist of

Peterborough Cathedral Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Church of England, Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Sain ...

) * Nicholas Kerrison 1984–1988 * John Ball 1988–1992 * John Wilkes 1992–1996 * Ian Major 1996–1997 * Philip Robinson 1997–2001 * Michael Sands 2002–2007 * Tim Williams 2008–

Gallery

Sources

Jenkins, Simon Sir Simon David Jenkins (born 10 June 1943) is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was editor of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1976 to 1978 and of ''The Times'' from 1990 to 1992. Jenkins chaired the National Trust from 20 ...

(1999), ''England's Thousand Best Churches'', London, Pengin Books, *

Pevsner, Nikolaus Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

; Harris, John; ''The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire'', Penguin (1964), revised by Nicholas Antram (1989), Yale University Press.

References

External links