St Wulfram's Church, Grantham, is the Anglican parish church of

Grantham Grantham () is a market town and civil parish 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 (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, England. The church is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and has the second tallest spire in Lincolnshire after St James' Church, Louth.

Vicars

The Reverend William Glaister was the curate and later vicar of the church in 1876. His sister Elizabeth Glaister was a novelist with an interest in embroidery. She created ecclesiastical embroideries for the church.

The spire

In his book ''England's Thousand Best Churches'',

Simon Jenkins Sir Simon David Jenkins FLSW (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 f ...

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 named it as the finest non-

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

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

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

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, Roman Catholic church (building), church in Preston, Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, England, northwest of the city centre on Weston Street. The church was built in the mid-19th century to a desi ...

, and St James' Church, Louth. It is the second highest of any Anglican parish church 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 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 in 1906 (producing the organ that may be heard today), by Rushworth and Dreaper 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 the 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. The church is Grade I listed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Spo ...

) * 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, and formerly known as Peterborough Abbey or St Peter's Abbey, is a cathedral in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in the United Kingdom. The seat of the Church ...

) * 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

References

Sources

* Jenkins, Simon (1999), ''England's Thousand Best Churches'', London, Pengin Books, * Pevsner, Nikolaus; Harris, John; ''The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire'', Penguin (1964), revised by Nicholas Antram (1989), Yale University Press.

External links

St Wulfram's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Wulfram's Church, Grantham

Buildings and structures in Grantham