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Grandborough – a short background.
Grandborough is a relatively small community with 176 households, but it has a long history, and its Church spire and the two Wellingtonia trees alongside it are a well known landmark in the Leam valley.
The Domesday Book records that Raneberge (today’s Grandborough) was an established settlement with 1000 acres of land, 27 villagers, and 11 smallholders. In early days the main centre of settlement was at Woolscott, but over the centuries a larger centre has developed in the valley bottom around the Church. Calcott was a separate Domesday village but its site is long deserted and the land now forms part of Grandborough Parish. Over the years other extensions of the Parish boundary mean that at 4494 acres, Grandborough is now one of the largest of England’s Civil Parishes.
The population has not changed dramatically over the centuries. In 1086 it was 200 and the 2011 electoral register shows 332 electors. In addition, it is estimated that there are about 80 children currently living in the Parish.
Today’s community still has strong agricultural links, but there are also many who commute to local towns and cities, or even further afield, to work. As befits a technological age there has been an increase in home working in recent years.
A strong sense of community has been retained, and despite the loss of such centres as the Village School and the Village Shop, there are regular social events centred around the Church, Chapel, Village Hall and The Shoulder of Mutton (the one surviving pub of three).
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