Then and now: Horse riding stone created by Edmund Boulter moved from Spittlegate Level, Grantham, in 1855
In 1702 Edmund Boulter paid to assist the less agile riders of Lincolnshire by funding the instalment of ‘a great number of horsing-stones, each of three steps, inscribed ‘E. B. 1703’ on the road to Stamford.
Seven or eight are known to have existed in all; five complete blocks and one broken one survive. The remaining blocks are on the old Great North Road, except one at Castor.
Stilton is the most southerly, followed by Water Newton, Stamford and then Gonerby Hill Foot. There are the remains of another at South Witham, just north of the Fox Inn.
There was also another mounting block on Spittlegate level, mentioned a few times in the local paper, and it was moved in 1855 by the then owner of the George Inn, Mr Burbidge, who served several times as mayor of Grantham.
The stone remained in the George Inn yard until the building was re-modelled as a shopping centre, and subsequently cannot be accounted for.