W is for Walking

Back in 2015 I was on a mission to walk more, and I certainly managed to achieve that!! In the process, I discovered just how beautiful our area was and still is, and how lucky we are to have such a variety of countryside surrounding us. Also, of course, as an accredited Leicestershire Tour Guide, I lead groups on guided walks, so walking is fairly central to my life!

Wherever I walk to I usually have my trusty camera to hand, and often stop briefly to take a photo of something interesting – and often the same thing on more than one occasion as the seasons can have a dramatic effect on nature, and on the view! I now find that my pc file directory is full of folders called things like ‘Walk to Beaumanor and back’, or ‘Walk via Woodthorpe to GCR Quorn and back’. Of course, that doesn’t mean I can find the photo I want at the time I want it though!!

While I love walking in the countryside – to the Outwoods, or Beacon Hill – I also love walking along the canal – to Barrow, or to Hathern – and I also love walking the streets of Loughborough, seeing the changes to buildings happening, seeing interesting things I might not have noticed before. Oh, and I love bumping into friends and people when I’m out on a walk.

As for my guided walks, I have put a few of these on this blog – the Luddites and Lace Trail, the Zeppelin Trail, the Three Towers Trail, the Sculpture, Art, and Architecture Trail, and the Walking the Plaques Trail, although I admit at least one of these does need to be updated.

Some of my real life walks include a general walk around Loughborough town centre, an Art Deco walk, and a pubs walk, as well as bespoke walks covering something specific. In September for the Heritage Open Days I shall be leading an Art Deco walk, and a general walk for the Loughborough Library local Studies Volunteers, and two others from the group will be leading a Suffragette walk and a Zeppelin walk. Keep an eye on the HODs website for more details of these walks!

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This post is one in a series of posts for the 'April A-Z Blogging Challenge'

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). W is for Walking. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/back-in-2015-i-was-on-mission-to-walk.html [Accessed 26 April 2024]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

V is for Victorians and what they did for us

So, whatever did the Victorians do for us in Loughborough?

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 until 1901, a period of 63 years, and a time which saw huge changes in the lives and fortunes of not only the well-to-do, but also the poor, across the country.

New research suggests that the industrial revolution was beginning to happen almost a hundred years earlier than was initially thought, so around 1650, but surely, until the nineteenth century, Loughborough was still essentially a farming and agricultural economy? True, we also had butchers, bakers, and tallow chandler makers, and a wide variety of other trades that were essential to life.

However, factory working began to be introduced, and industry began to come to Loughborough in the mid-late seventeen hundreds particularly. I’m thinking here of framework knitting factories, dyeworks like Atherstones, and other trades allied to the hosiery industry. In the early nineteenth century, we see lacemaking, more dyeworks (like Clarke’s, Calverts, Heafford, Hepworth, Rossell, and Toone), brickmakers like the Tuckers, and George Hodson, and the Taylors bellfounders all finding their way to Loughborough. Later in the century, these were joined by hosiers Morley, and Cartwright and Warner, dyers like Godkin & Sons, Claypoole, Diggle and Hardy, and more. And by now there were no less than eight needle-making factories in town, and Messengers were producing glasshouses and conservatories for places across the country. We also saw the rise of ironmakers like Edwin Cooke, and John Jones, and boiler makers like the Coltman family. Towards the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, we also saw the Falcon Works become The Brush, and Herbert Morris moved their factory to Loughborough, and the last new railway in the UK was opened.

So, the Victorian era gave us a lot of engineering and heavy industry in Loughborough, and many were family firms that grew, and remained in the same family for generations. Owners of the family business needed somewhere to live, as did the workers in those factories. Thus, the Victorian era saw a huge increase in the housing available in Loughborough, ranging from the large impressive, country-house-like properties, like Field House, the Grove and so on, to detached residences like those on Ashby Road, and semi-detached properties, for example on Forest Road. Housing for the Victorian workers came in the form of redbrick, terraced properties, like those on Station Street, Paget Street, Leopold Street, and Oxford Street, and on Ratcliffe Road, Queen’s Road, and so on. Houses for the group of people in between the wealthy owners and the workers are probably like those found on Storer Road, Herrick Road, Middleton Place, and similar areas. Many streets bear names that remind us of this Victorian era, from the obvious Victoria Street, Albert Street, and streets named after Victoria and Albert’s offspring. And many houses, and groups of houses include name stones that indicate a connection to the era.  

The Victorian era also gave us things designed to keep us healthy in both body and spirit. So, Queen’s Park was created, with the swimming baths in the park providing a cleaner environment than the baths on Moor Lane near the canal.

To be honest, there is a huge deal more we could say about what the Victorians did for us, but that’s enough for one blogpost! Besides, a very kind person has just given me a copy of BBC History Today which seems to include some interesting stories from Victorian times, and, as if that weren't enough, an article about Muncaster Castle - (Part 2 of Alan's story is also worth a read!)

 

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This blogpost is one in a series of posts in the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). V is for Victorians and what they did for us. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/v-is-for-victorians-and-what-they-did.html [Accessed 25 April 2024]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

U is for Ursula

Looking back through the blog, I can see I’ve already written about Unity House and some of the people and things associated with it (like Gertrude Mary Hutton, Dr Corcoran, and the British Restaurant) many posts about the university, and some posts about Unitarians, which also made an appearance in one of my virtual walks. I also noticed that two of my guest bloggers have been named Ursula!!

Ursula Ackrill is a librarian at the University of Nottingham, working in the Manuscripts and Special Collections area, which is based on the Kings Meadow campus. Ursula’s guest post focused on John Cleveland, a Loughborough poet who was born in 1613. 

My own work with Ursula was on the Loughborough parish library, a collection of books used by the Reverend James Bickham, and left by him to the parish. This was an interesting project which led to me writing many blogposts about the Reverend Bickham, his home, and his library!!

Ursula has given talks on Reverend Bickham’s library, and on parish libraries in our areas, and is currently a committee member of the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society, and can sometimes be found down at the Old Rectory on a Saturday during the building’s open season. 

The guest post which Ursula Davis wrote for this blog, was back in the early days of the lockdown in 2020. Ursula was a student at Loughborough University at the time, so it was very interesting to read about what strategies she had for keeping well – both physically and mentally – during that unprecedented situation. Absolutely fascinating to see how the chance to slow down, to stay local really helped with an appreciation of all that Loughborough and its surroundings have to offer – like Burleigh Woods, the old railway lines, Charnwood Water, Queen’s Park and so much more!

____________________________________

This post is one in a series of posts for the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). U is for Ursula. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/u-is-for-ursula.html  [Accessed 24 April 2024]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

T is for Trees

Well, who’d have thought I’d struggle so much to find you a suitable entry for letter ‘T’?!

So, I’ve plumped for trees! I love trees! I love to photograph trees! I don’t like that tree pollen sets off my hayfever!

Last year I was lucky enough to visit Woolsthorpe Manor, which is where Isaac Newton used to live, and see his apple tree! Even more thrilling was seeing the little cutting off that tree growing on the Loughborough University campus!

Always having known the Cedar of Lebanon outside the old library on the university campus, it’s only relatively recently that I’ve started to notice trees of the same type in the estate of stately homes, but also around Loughborough. Of course, now I’m trying to remember where I’ve seen them, I can’t!! Except the one in the garden of 55 Park Road, and, of course, outside the Cedars at the end of Cedar Road!

 

There are lots of other places in Loughborough to see trees, like in Queen's Park, along Granby Street and Albert Promenade, along Burton Walks, or maybe if you like water too, down at Charnwood Water?

Going out of Loughborough just a little way – why not walk there? – there are plenty of trees to be seen in The Outwoods, or in the Jubilee Woods, or even on Beacon Hill, and if you’re lucky, there might be a willow sculpture event on!

In my book ‘A-Z of Loughborough’ I did manage to talk about trees – oak trees specifically – under the letter ‘Q’ for Quercus! I see I’ve already shared this entry on the blog, only put it under ‘A’ for Acorns! 

____________________________________

This post is one in a series of posts for the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). T is for Trees. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/t-is-for-trees.html  [Accessed 23 April 2024]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne