23 Westgate (formerly Blue Man Public House)

Summary

Inn, constructed during the early-C18, extended during the mid-C19, converted to a restaurant in around 2008.

History

Grantham was a settlement of considerable size by the time of the Norman invasion, with the Domesday book (1086) recording a population of over a thousand. The town’s name is listed under its current spelling in Domesday, and is believed to be of Old English origin, combining ‘Granta’ and ‘ham’ (Granta’s manor). The town lies on the Roman Great North Road (Ermine Street) from London to York, which has brought commerce and travellers seeking accommodation throughout the town’s history. The north-south road (London Road-High Street-Watergate-North Street) remains the central spine of the town’s urban plan. Notwithstanding the importance of the town’s positioning on this ancient highway, its medieval and early-modern prosperity was due in large part to wool and agriculture. The town’s historic wealth is illustrated through its principal church, St Wulfram, with its 86m high spire, and the C15 stone frontage of the Angel and Royal Hotel. The town’s building stock was historically built of stone or timber, but much was rebuilt during the C18 and C19 in local red brick. The opening of the canal to Nottingham in 1797 and the arrival of the railways in 1850 and 1852 increased opportunities for trade, while an industrial economy developed with the opening of Richard Seaman and Richard Hornsby’s Spitalgate ironworks in 1810. Hornsby and Sons later became known for producing the UK’s first diesel engine in 1892, and were early pioneers or tractors and caterpillar tracks.

23 Westgate was constructed during the early-C18, possibly on the site of an earlier building. The pub’s original name is not known, but it is first recorded as the Blue Man Inn in a local newspaper article of November 1805 (Stamford Mercury, 29 November 1805, 3). Around this time, the local landowning Manners family acquired a number of pubs, inns and hotels within Grantham and added the epithet ‘Blue’ to their names in reference to their allegiance to the Whig party. Sometime between the 1970s and 1990s, the pub’s name changed to The Malt Shovel, taking the historic name of a former public house a few doors away to the north along Westgate. The building remained in use as a pub until 2008. Shortly thereafter it was converted to a restaurant.

The two easternmost bays of the range alongside Welby Street have been separate properties numbered 1-2 Welby Street since at least the 1880s. It is currently (2021) operating as a takeaway restaurant.

Details

Inn, constructed during the early-C18, extended during the mid-C19, converted to a restaurant in around 2008.

MATERIALS: the building is fronted in painted render, probably over brick, with a roof covering of concrete tiles.

PLAN: the building is arranged on a C-shaped plan, with the principal, earliest range fronting Westgate to the west, and the two ancillary ranges running eastward along the northern and southern boundaries of the plot. There is an additional single-storey extension adjoining the northernmost bay of the front range

EXTERIOR: all three ranges are of two storeys plus attics under pitched roofs. The principal, west range is four bays wide onto Westgate with a gable end onto Welby Street. the main entrance is within the third bay, and comprises a simply-moulded timber door frame and C20, six-panelled door. The southernmost bay contains a large, square window with a moulded timber surround, while to the north of the doorway is a tripartite, fixed window with a segmental-arched head. On the first floor are three, equally-sized window openings containing two-over-two sashes and a fourth, blocked window over the doorway. There are three dormers with pitched roofs supported on moulded timber brackets, each containing a three-over-three sash window. Ridge chimney stacks rise from the two gable end walls and in line with the northern jamb of the main entrance. Projecting from the northernmost bay is a three-sided, single-storey extension under a hipped roof, abutting the gable end of the building to the north. Its windows are all C20 timber or steel casements. The south elevation of the front range (on Welby Street) contains a plain doorway in its western bay and a timber sash window on the ground and first floors of the eastern bay. The mid-C19 range fronting Welby Street is four bays wide and slightly taller than the earlier, western range. The ground floor contains a blocked window opening, two C20 fixed windows with vents and a late-C20 timber and glazed shopfront. The first floor contains four, evenly-spaced windows under segmental-arched heads, the two western windows containing renewed timber sashes, and a fifth, flat-headed opening containing a small, late-C20 casement window. On the attic level are four small, late-C20 casement windows, which break through the corbelled eaves brickwork. Two rendered chimney stacks rise through the roof ridge. The rear gable of this range is much altered and contains a series of late-C20 windows, plain doorway and large extraction chimney associated with the take-away use.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 11 October 2023 to upload the correct description and amendment date.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

193054

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Harris, J, Antram, N, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, (1989), 315-316 and 322

Other
OS 1:500 Town Plan of Grantham (surveyed 1887), accessed 11 February 2021 at [https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/491277/335801/13/100254]
OS 25” Lincolnshire CXIII.16 (Grantham) (revised 1903, published 1904), accessed 11 February2021 at [https://maps.nls.uk/view/114652314]
OS 25” Lincolnshire CXIII.16 (Grantham) (revised 1929, published 1931), accessed 11 February 2021 at [https://maps.nls.uk/view/114652317]
OS 1:1250 Map of Grantham (surveyed 1965), accessed 11 February2021 at [https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/491277/335801/13/101329]
OS 1:1250 Map of Grantham (surveyed 1975-76), accessed 11 February 2021 at [https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/491277/335801/13/100765]
Stamford Mercury, 29 November 1805, 3 Historic England Archive, 2810_258,
Photograph of the Blue Man Public House, 23 Westgate, c.1972

End of official list entry

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