The Whalebone Arch, which spanned Whalebone Lane between Somerby Hill and Little Ponton, has been destroyed after two trees blew down on it during a gale. The structure stood 18ft high and was believed to have been brought from Grimsby by seafarer William Daye of Little Ponton Hall, who died in 1741.
Daye was said to have installed three such arches in the grounds of his home. By the 1950s, only two stumps of the original arches remained visible. Those too have now been lost.
First Aeroplane Landing in 1914
Whalebone Lane holds another place in local history. On 15 April 1914, two aircraft made an emergency landing in a field off Whalebone Lane after becoming lost while flying from Hendon in London to Blankney Hall near Lincoln for a charity exhibition. A Blériot monoplane and a Grahame-White biplane came down close to what would later become RAF Spitalgate.
The incident drew massive crowds of excited Grantham residents, as it marked the first time many had seen an aeroplane in person.