IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Market Place, GRANTHAM, NG31 6LQ

A typical Georgian development in the middle of town, dating from the period before the railways. Grantham was expanding because of the canal and the turnpikes improving road access. This is a grade II listed building - https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1062495?section=official-list-entry .

A part from the conduit house, this is the oldest building remaining on the perimeter of the Market Place, dating from the late 17th century. Some old interior fittings remained at the time of Listing, Listed Grade II.

Robert Parkins inscription on the west face.

Late 18th century building, incorporating two shops. The partial painted name has proved impossible to decipher. Listed Grade II.

I am not the first to photograph Image It is a well-known building in Grantham, and listed grade II. On the upper wall are the remains of more than one painted sign, a palimpsest of ghost signs, each as indecipherable as the other.

This unusual ornamental Gothic style Conduit House was built in 1597, its purpose was to protect the water supply from contamination. It has been repaired twice, in 1795 and 1927.

The conduit was Grantham's public water supply from the late 16th century until the middle of the 19th century when a modern supply system was introduced, based on the earlier medieval supply to the Friary, dissolved in 1539. The building contained a cistern providing a limited reservoir on the spot. It was built in 1597, is Listed Grade II and also a Scheduled Monument. A full history of the conduit can be found here https://www.thecollectionmuseum.com/assets/downloads/IS_arch_9_grantham_conduit.pdf . More pictures: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5281984 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5281983

The inscription has suffered from erosion and is partly defaced. It read in full 'Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of water in the streets', a quotation from the Book of Proverbs. It is thought to be original, although the style of lettering is very different from the others on the building http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5281984 . See http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5281982 for full details.

The upper one, to Robert Bery, Al(derman) records the building in 1597 and below it the inscription records repairs in 1793. See http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5281982 for full details.

Grantham's original conduit was a system built by the Greyfriars in around 1314. The underground lead pipes led from an intake house (said to have been demolished in 1979, but which is also recorded as being in ruins in 1987) which protected the spring three quarters of a mile west. After the Dissolution, the conduit system was extended from the friary site to the Market Place, where the small, highly decorated conduit house building still stands. No trace remains of the original lead pipeline or the iron pipe which replaced it later on. It was the first public water supply to the town. It was a public water supply from 1597 until 1851, but continued in use as a drinking fountain possibly until the late nineteenth century.