GREAT GONERBY

Great Gonerby was originally a Danish settlement and is recognised today by the village church that beckons visitors to the northern outskirts of Grantham, The church has a lofty 15th century embattled and crocketed tower and spire, clerestoried nave and aisles with panelled parapets. The south arcade is 13th century and the north arcade 15th century with an earlier arch. The lower part of the screen and the woodwork of the pulpit are 500 years old while the eight-sided font is a century older. A copy of Perugino's Martyrdom of Sebastian in the nave is a reminder that this church is one of only two in England dedicated to this saint.

The village of Great Gonerby is set on a hill overlooking the Vale of Belvoir. Once standing on the Great North Road between London and York it has now been by-passed. There was a time when this hill was known as the steepest between London and Edinburgh but since then is has been cut twenty feet lower. When Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII, travelled this way along her bridal route to marry James IV of Scotland at Edinburgh in 1503, she expressed admiration for the beautiful fields of harvest corn around Gonerby Hill and the scene is much the same today in late summer. Jeanie Drains, the heroine of Sir Walter Scott's novel Heart of Midlothian, tramped over Gonerby Hill in her bare feet, going all the way from Edinburgh to London.