Lynne About Loughborough

Friday, 31 October 2025

Some ghosts for halloween!

So for this year’s celebration of Halloween, I thought I’d feature a few ghosts on the blog! Not real ghosts – ummm, not that I believe ghosts are real!! – but ghost signs! I’ve covered some of these in some very early blogposts, and I contributed quite a number to the Historic England ghost signs project back in 2023.

Of course, the usual definition of a ghost sign is that it is a painted sign on the side of a building, that has been left after the business or service it was advertising has gone. In my earlier posts, I extended this to cover other kinds of signs that remained on a building after the business associated with it had gone, so for example, the Messenger offices on Cumberland Road where the embossed terractotta name can still be seen; the former names of pubs like the current Organ Grinder (the Packe Horse), the Black Lion (the Tap and Clapper), and the Corporation Hotel (the Carpenters Arms); or even sandstone plaques on a building indicating the business that used to take place on the premises, like Parks Millwrights, or monograms of previous owners, for example PJM in Market Place.

Some of the ghost signs from those early blogposts are now gone, and some which weren’t really ghost signs at the time have now become such, like Putts.

So, in the last couple of weeks we have lost two of our iconic ghost signs, both of which were a long part of Loughborough’s history. The first is the sign on the Shepshed Lace Manufacturing, which was on the former factory on Great Central Road, the sign on the side facing onto the railway track. Loughborough has a long history of hosiery and lacemaking, but there are few buildings left in which this trade was worked. Shepshed Lace began in 1906, in the Bullring in Shepshed, moved to Sullington Road in 1909, opened a mill in Duffield in 1917, and eventually moved the warehouse and the manufacturing to Loughborough in 1927.

The Herbert Morris factory on Empress Road that we have seen today until very recently, was but a shadow of the former factory, which also had premises close to the Midland railway. The company were in the business of lifting gear, but in addition to the products they made, the factory on Empress Road was also known as a site which suffered from the dropping of a Zeppelin bomb on 31st January 1916. The frontage onto Empress Road was for some time a car repair garage, but lately, the original Herbert Morris sign has been revealed, and can still be seen.

Some new signs which I didn’t cover in those early blogposts include one on Biggin Street, which is on the side of the building which is now the LOROS shop. This one reads “Harry Grayson complete house furnishers”. The property looks to have been built around 1900, so I’m assuming that Harry Grayson was based there before C. E. Goodliffe, who, in the 1960s, when they moved to Church Gate (where the picture framers is now, not the restaurant), then passed the building to Pickworths. I have yet to discover if Goodliffe is related to Gascoyne and Goodliffe who were hosiery makers on Mill Street (possibly in the old Heathcoat Building).

Another new sign for this post is the one between the old India Association building and Topic hairdressers. Actually, there’s two ghost signs – or three if you count the gate!! One can be seen if heading in the direction of Tylers, the other if heading in the direction of Swancar. The first of these is a sign advertising ‘Studio 13’ which was a ladies hair salon at the back of Topic. The other sign is much older, but is in a pretty poor state, which makes it difficult to read. It even almost looks as though it’s two signs, one painted over the other. So, if the numbering on Swan Street hasn’t changed, these are the occupants of no.13 over time (although the 1901 census return seems to record 13 as 13A, and 13A as 13):

1877 – Joseph Cooper, hatter and Samuel Marsh, hatter

1881 – Charles D. Marriott, tinner and brazier and metal work master

1892 – Mrs Mary Marriott, tinner and brazier

1901 – Walter Caldwell, house furnisher, while 13A was Arthur Marriott, locksmith

1908 – Thomas C. Towell, confectioner

1911 – William Chadbourne, confectioner (sweets etc.), while 13A was John Caldwell, furniture dealer

1939 – Florence Chadbourne, confectioner (master)

1952 – still the Chadbourne family of confectioners

1962 – John Sarson and son, wine and spirit merchants. Also listed as 13, John Caldwell second-hand furniture dealer

So, my opinion is that the final line on this advert says “Made to order” and the line above that mentions “Stove”. Above that is “…ping”, and the top line seems to say “…runks”. Maybe, “Trunks”, “Piping”, “Stove …”, “Made to order” – so either associated with Charles D. Marriott, the tinner, brazier, and metal work master, or possibly Arthur Marriott the locksmith.

The final ghost sign I’d like to share is the one on Wood Gate, close to Bedford Square. Now, I do seem to remember that there might have been an Indian takeaway shop there at one time – or am I imagining that? So would the ghost sign really be saying “Balti”?

And here I must leave Halloween as the night is drawing in and ghostly happenings are beginning to, ummm, happen!!

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Here are some of my earlier posts about ghost signs:

Ghost signs of Loughborough Part 1 https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2014/03/ghost-signs-of-loughborough.html

Ghost signs of Loughborough Part 2 https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2014/03/ghost-signs-of-loughborough-part-2.html

Loughborough building demolished – about the ghost sign on the old labour exchange on Cradock Street https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/04/loughborough-building-demolished.html

Ever-changing Loughborough – Shepshed Lace https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/10/ever-changing-loughborough.html

The Old Art College and The Generator https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-old-art-college-and-generator.html

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). Some ghosts for Halloween! Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/10/some-ghosts-for-halloween.html [Accessed 31 October 2025]

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Lynne

Sunday, 26 October 2025

An Autumn Walk in The Outwoods

Sometimes it’s hard to keep me away from The Outwoods, but never before have I been on a guided nature walk! I was a bit apprehensive about finding my way from Loughborough up to The Outwoods on my own, as I usually go with family, but I made it!! I actually parked at the car park on Watermead Lane, and walked up the footpath towards the gate into The Outwoods. At this point, there was a map, but it was a map, and I’m not good at reading them, so I trudged along in the pouring rain, heading, I hoped, in the right direction for the car park, which was the meeting point for the walk.

I’d seen details of the walk somewhere on social media, and was intrigued to know what idVerde Ranger, Sam, might be able to show us. As it happened, the ‘us’ turned into just me, as despite four folk having booked to go on the walk, I was the only one who attended. In some ways this was great as it meant Sam and I could look at things that interested either her or me, and we could chat about all sorts of things in general. So, as I suggested, we started from the car park, and walked down a path towards the charcoal burning area.

Along the way we spotted jays, and muntjac deer, as well as numerous different species of trees. At one point I exclaimed “What a lot of ferns, or is it bracken?” It had intended to be a rhetorical question, as I had thought the word ‘fern’ was interchangeable with the word ‘bracken’, but I was wrong!! What we saw first were bracken, and further along the walk we spotted some ferns, so now I know the difference!

The Outwoods is full of commemorative things, like plaques and benches, and one of the first plaques we came to honoured VE-Day.

Of course, as it’s called The Outwoods, one expects to see lots of different trees, and we really did spot oh so many different species. These are looked after in several ways: non-native trees are sometimes removed to give native trees, and other things that live in the woods, space to grow and thrive. Trees are often coppiced, having their tops chopped off to encourage better growth.

There was also a small square of metal in the ground at one point, but I really didn't know what it was for, until we came across a post, which had obviously once been part of a tree! It had the letter 'T' engraved on it, and it was anchored by a small square piece of metal like the one we had previously seen. I'm still not sure what it was? Some kind of directional post, perhaps?

Along the way, and often growing on the trees, we also spotted lots of lichen – different types and different colours!

And there were literally dozens of different sorts of mushrooms, of all shapes, sizes, and hues!! Lovely to look at but potentially hazardous, so I wouldn’t advise picking any of these beautiful specimens, as you might select something poisonous, and besides, as The Outwoods is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (a triple SI as Sam would say), it is a criminal offence to pick them.

Having made our way around the perimeter of the woods, we headed back to the car park. Although the rain had stopped and it wasn’t particularly cold, my hands were a feeling a bit chilly, so I admit I did pop into the café in the car park for a nice warm cuppa! After all, I did have a bit of a trek back to the car ahead of me!! Anyway, I made it back safe and sound, and was pleased to see some of the fantastic rock formations in the woods, and I had some beautiful views of our lovely town on the way down.

Thank you to Sam for a very interesting walk!

Ranger Sam will be walking again in the springtime, and I'd highly recommend joining her! In the meantime, if you want to know more about how idVerde look after our natural and open spaces, you can find more details on their website.

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I’ve written extensively about The Outwoods on this blog, so if you want to follow some of my earlier journeys, here are some links:

Here are some of my earlier posts about The Outwoods:

O is for Outwoods

Walking from Loughborough to The Outwoods and Back - guest post

Outwoods Sculpture Trail 2022

Outwoods Sculptures in town

Memorial benches

Walk to Oaks in Charnwood via The Outwoods

New Year walk to The Outwoods 2016

Life in locked down Loughborough

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). An Autumn Walk in The Outwoods. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/10/an-autumn-walk-in-outwoods.html [Accessed 26 October 2025]

Take down policy:

External Links:

Blog archive and tags:

Searching the blog:

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

Sunday, 19 October 2025

Ever-Changing Loughborough

I’m pleased to say that my latest book has now been published. Having an article published in a journal or magazine, particularly if they are online, tends to be a fairly quick turnaround time. I’ve sent articles about Loughborough to various journals, and they have appeared in the publication within a month! Book publishing, however, has always been quite a long, protracted process, although I admit I was very pleasantly surprised when my publisher was able to publish my earlier Loughborough titles only a few months after I’d provided the text. That all changed during and following the pandemic, which rather brings me to the point of this post … since I wrote ‘Loughborough At Work’ rather a lot has changed in our lovely town!

Although I wrote about lacemaking and hosiery in Loughborough, I didn’t write specifically about the Shepshed Lace Manufactury, on Great Central Road. The building had last been used as Merlin Archery, I think, but planning permission has recently been approved to demolish the building and create housing on the site. The recent fire that happened towards the rear of the properties probably hastened the demolition, which has now begun in earnest, and is moving quickly. On Monday this week, when I walked past the buildings I could see the work going on at the rear, but the ghost sign on the side of the building facing the track of the GCR was still standing … by Friday evening even this had gone.

Monday pics

Friday pics

A couple of other things that might have changed since I wrote the book, are the idea that working from home is happening a lot since the pandemic. New reports now say that many firms are stipulating that workers must go back on site. Also, when I was writing the book I used to walk along Trinity Street, past the former school hall, and noted that it was home to Affixxius Films, and it was just possible to see people through the windows, working inside. Now when I walk past, it seems deserted in there: is the company still based in Loughborough, or have they moved away? Perhaps I should get in touch with them and find out once and for all?!

Trinity Church in the foreground, redbrick church hall to the right

The final change is that the splendiferous cover shot for the book will never again be subject of a photoshoot. Gone! That glorious ghost sign, canal-side, is no more that a pile of bricks in a reclamation yard somewhere. The rest of the site has changed dramatically as well, although it appears the middle portion is staying.