Lynne About Loughborough

Tuesday 30 April 2024

Z is for ?

So, for letter ‘Z’ in the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’ I really am spoilt for choice!! In ‘A-Z of Loughborough’ I wrote about one of our twin towns, Zamosc, about our Zenobia perfume factory, and the Zoo Spartans fish and chip shop, which, of course, is really the 300 Spartans! Should I simply repeat these here?

For this blog post, I also considered writing about Zodiac Toys which used to be in the shopping centre, or turning things round a bit and writing about local man, Zachariah Onions!

However, in the end, I’ve decided to go with Zeppelins, as there is always something to say on the topic, despite over the past few years, me thinking I’ve written everything I ever thought I could about the Zeppelin raid on Loughborough – and I’ve even had a guest blogger contributing on the topic! And I’ve been to several talks about the raids further afield, and I even managed to mention Zeppelins in one of my posts about Loughborough’s letter boxes! There are some links to previous posts towards the end of this post.

So, for a slightly different angle, today I’ve chosen to transcribe word-for-word a few newspaper reports – from just before the raid on Loughborough, a couple of months after the raid, and about 6 months afterwards. Please note that these are articles of their time, and I have not analysed them, nor tried to put them into any context other than as newspaper reports, contemporaneous with the Zeppelin raids.

Just a few weeks before the Zeppelin raid that took place over Loughborough on 31st January 1916, the following report appeared in the ‘Western Evening Herald’, Plymouth, on January 3rd 1916:

“THE WAR WILL NOT LAST TWO YEARS.”

COUNT ZEPPELIN SAYS VICTORY IS IN SIGHT.

Paris. Saturday – Count Zeppelin, in a speech which he delivered recently at Dusseldorf, is reported by the local newspapers as saying:

“This cruel war, which has been forced on us by Britain’s duplicity and avarice, has now lasted nearly seventeen months. The flower of our manhood has been called on to make bitter sacrifices, and our womenfolk mourn the loss of their dear ones.

“Our consolidation is that victory is in sight, and I can promise you now – speaking for myself and expressing the view of your imperial master – that the war will not last two years. The next few months will see Hermans arms march rapidly from triumph to triumph, and the final destruction of our enemies will be swift and sudden.

“Our Zeppelin fleets will play an important part in future operations, and will demonstrate more than ever their power as a factor in modern warfare. – Central News."

Just a few months after the Zeppelin raid on Loughborough, the ‘Loughborough Echo’ reported the following in its issue of 7th April 1916:

“Three German officers, captured from the Zeppelin in the Thames Estuary, have been interned at Donington Hall, and also those taken from the raider in the North Sea”

The newspaper also reported:

“The commandant of the Zeppelin which was captured passed through Loughborough as a prisoner of war at 5pm yesterday with a guard en route for Donington Hall.”

Donington Hall is in North West Leicestershire, near Castle Donnington, and had been built around 1790 for Francis Rawdon-Hastings, the second Earl of Moira, he of the famous sale of Loughborough in 1809-10. More recently it has been home to the Norton motorcycle works, until their demise, and Donnington racetrack is still there, and is home to the annual Monsters of Rock concert.

On 27th September 1916, the ‘Nottingham Evening Post’ carried the following article:

“COUNT ZEPPELIN’S DREAM.

TO DESTROY LONDON OR DIE.

The Paris Excelsior, discussing the Zeppelin raids on Great Britain, says: Information we have received from Switzerland, where one of our correspondents has once more come into possession of information of a serious character, enables us to state that the unrelenting animosity in Germany against Great Britain shows no sign of abating. Count Zeppelin is at Stuttgart. He is no longer young, is overworked, and above all is very much affected by the lively campaign being carried on against him by his opponents.

It may be pointed out that the raids carried out by his fleets are costing Germany several millions each time without any great result being achieved, and he is being reproached for proceeding by small instalments.

People ask why when he has 80 machines ready does he not despatch them together against London. It is true that Count Zeppelin has his defenders, who say that if the camarilla which surround the Kaiser were not tying the hands of the Chief of the Empire’s Aerial Forces, Great Britain long ago would have been brought to her knees, and would have asked for peace.

Count Zeppelin does not perhaps share these vain illusions of his enthusiastic supporters, but an obsession and a dream of his is the destruction of London.

A well-informed German recently said to one of our correspondents: I assure you that shortly you will all be talking of a gigantic raid on London. The King’s palace, the principal structures, all will be destroyed. This I promise you, the count has sworn to achieve thus result or die. – Press Association.”

In the same issue, Loughborough’s special constables were praised:

“LOUGHBOROUGH’S ‘SPECIALS’

APPRECIATION BY THE CHIEF CONSTABLE

At Loughborough today, the Chief Constable of the county (Mr E. Holmes) asked permission of the magistrates to express for the county and himself their appreciation of the persistent and most useful services which the special constables in Loughboro’ and the neighbourhood had continued to discharge for many months. For him, as executive officer, it had been a source of very great comfort to see the manner in which the special constables there, as in all parts of the county, had responded night after night. They were up most of the night and yet they untiringly and loyally discharged their duties as fellow citizens and Englishmen. He was personally obliged to them and the public were most grateful to them for their services. It was abundantly proved that the greatest protection we could provide against Zeppelin assaults was to produce conditions of darkness and quietness, and it was in these directions particularly that the special constables there and throughout the county were helping to minimise the dangerous effects of these visits.

The Chairman (Captain Heygate) remarked that it was very gratifying to them all to have heard what the Chief Constable had said. The magistrates and everyone in the division appreciated very heartily the excellent work that had been done by the special constables – men of all ages who were out all hours – and he thought they owed them a very great debt of gratitude. They were all glad to hear that the police appreciated their work so much.

The Chief Constable said his remarks applied not only to the duties discharged in populous parts, but in every village and hamlet in the county.”

I hope you have enjoyed reading these excerpts from newspapers of the day. Here are some links to previous posts that I mentioned:

In relation to walks:

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/p/loughborough-zeppelin-trail.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/p/walkingthe-plaques-trail-walking.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-commemorative-walk.html

In relation to talks:

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2017/01/zeppelins-loughborough-heanor-and-led.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2018/08/zeppelins-lincoln-taylor-loughborough.html

Lots of posts about one of the casualties:

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2021/01/so-who-was-josiah-gilbert-pt-1.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2021/01/so-who-was-josiah-gilbert-pt-2.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/01/zeppelins-charnwood-museum-and-gilberts.html

Commemorative events:

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-zeppelin-raid-of-1916.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2021/01/loughborough-zeppelin-attack-anniversary.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2015/01/99-years-since-zeppelin-raids-on.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2014/02/ww1-and-zeppelin-raids.html

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2016/05/night-of-zeppelin.html

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

As this is the last post in this series, I would like to thank all my readers immensely for joining me on this alphabetical journey!

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Z is for ... Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/z-is-for.html [Accessed 30 April 2024]

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Monday 29 April 2024

Y is for Yates

According to the ‘Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland’, the surname Yates (or Yate, Yeates, Yeats, and Yetts) is:

“... a locative name, occupational name for someone who lived by a gate … in some cases because they acted as the gatekeeper or porter to a hall, monastery, or some other important building.”

The gates to Burleigh Hall, off Ashby Road

In 1881 there were just under 21,000 people bearing the surname in England, many of whom were resident in Lancashire, the West riding of Yorkshire, and the West Midlands, with some in Kent and Surrey. Not a name to be found very regularly in Loughborough then, but, of course, we weren’t without some members of a Yates family.

In ‘A-Z of Loughborough’ I introduced readers to William Yates (1792-1845), who was the son of a local shoemaker. William was educated at the Loughborough Grammar School, and became a Baptist missionary. He gives his name to one of the competitive houses of the grammar school.

I also shared the story of Samuel Yates (1766-1831), a local insurance agent for Hope Insurance. For a wager, Samuel walked to Nottingham and back every day for six days, from the Bull’s Head (now Esquires coffee shop) on High Street, to the Black’s Head, probably in Carlton, Nottingham, a roundtrip of about 30.5 miles. Despite having broken his leg 18 months before, and walking with a stick, Samuel won the bet. He walked 183 miles in a period of 66 hours and 9 minutes – restricted to the hours of 8am and 8pm - although by the time he returned to Loughborough for the final time, he was using two walking sticks.

Of course, there were many other people in Loughborough with the surname of Yates, down the ages. We have Samuel Yates, a baker in 1892. Then there’s John Yates, a boot and shoemaker on High Street in 1822. In 1828 we find a plasterer on Ashby Road, called Samuel Yates, and a builder named Joseph Yates, also on Ashby Road.

In 1846 a William Yates is the licensed victualler at the Black Horse public house on Wood Gate, who by 1854 had moved to the Pack Horse, also on Wood Gate, where he – or possibly his descendants, also named William - remained until at least 1876. John Yates was a cowkeeper living at 10 Cobden Street in 1892, and John Joseph Yates was a clerk, living at 113 Park Road also in 1892, where he remained until at least 1908. The final Yates to mention, is J.H., who in 1928 was a fried fish dealer at 28 King Street, a building probably now replaced by the Crown apartments.

The former Pack Horse, now the Organ Grinder

Unlike William Yates’ walk, this has been a whistle-stop tour of some of the Yates people found in Loughborough – taken from street and trade directories, so by no means all of the families!

____________________________________

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:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Y is for Yates. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/y-is-for-yates.html [Accessed 29 April 2024]

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 28 April 2024

Brush trams at Crich

After living in the area for oh so many years, I finally got a chance to visit the tramway museum at Crich. True, I’ve previously visited the Black Country Living Museum, Blists Hill, and Beamish, and even ridden the trams in San Francisco, but I’d never made it to Crich! Goodness me, what a lot I’ve missed over the years!!

Now, I’d heard talk about, and seen photographic proof that an iconic part of the Brush was held in the Crich museum collection, but boy was I shocked when I saw it!

Before this, we’d wandered down to Town End, taking note of the interesting street furniture, oohing and ahhing over the Red Lion, and we’d managed to bypass the ice cream stall (the weather was far too cold!), but did pop into the sweet shop for a quarter of dolly mixtures. We stepped into the Eagle Press works, stopped to admire the police box (a Mark II, designed by Gilbert Mackenzie), and the bundy clock, then crossed over to see the K1 telephone kiosk (I’ve never seen one before!), touched the slate tiles on the roof of a low building, and admired the Belliss and Morcom reciprocating engine and generator.

My first sighting of a K1! (1)

Police box

A Lucy Box for trams (2)

We had a look at the exhibitions in the original Derby Assembly Rooms, and then sauntered back to the tram stop, and joined a queue for a tram ride. Well, there was a very big group of people who were having their photograph taken, posing in front of a tram, so we thought we’d have to wait for the next one, but for some reason they didn’t get on themselves, so there was plenty of room for us up top! We got talking to a chap who lived locally, and visited regularly, and he was thrilled to be on this particular tram, as, apparently it doesn’t come out very often!

We stayed on the tram all the way up as far as it went that day (the Sherwood Foresters Regiment Memorial was not accessible on the day we visited), and then took it back as far as the woodland walk stop, where we alighted and examined the exhibits like the mine entrances, and then took the woodland walk back towards Town End. On the woodland walk we saw lots of wood carvings, and many sculptures, and had a wonderful view out over Derbyshire.

View over Derbyshire

The monument

The woodland walk library!

The request stop

We passed the wonderful bandstand that had originally been in Longford Park, Stretford, Manchester, a lovely drinking fountain, a VR wall box, and then popped into the café for lunch – one of the few places left that serves a baked potato with coronation chicken!! Refreshed, we crossed over the tracks to the long row of tram sheds, most of which were open! We spent ages walking up and down in between the rows of trams in each shed, admiring the livery, the lovely colours, the beautiful shapes, and seeing just so many different features. Wow, I thought this was great, and then we went into the big exhibition hall …

Water fountain (3)

The VR wall box (4)

The Penfold letter box

I was reminded of my recent trip to the Transport Museum in London, but actually, having been able to ride on the tram, and not just walk around reading information boards, and stepping into static train carriages, made Crich really rather exciting!

Anyway, back to the big hall … I’d asked my partner to let me know if he spotted a falcon anywhere, which I believed might be somewhere in the hall. We split up and I was immediately attracted to the rows of trams on my left, and did my usual organised circular walk around the exhibits around the outside. Then I bumped into the hubby, who asked if I’d seen ‘the eagle’ yet, and was surprised I hadn’t and said ‘You can hardly miss it!’ And I turned to look into the middle of the room, there it was, this flippin’ enormous goldy-brown falcon, with its wings outstretched, perched on a box, as if guarding the machinery which stretched out in a big circle around it!! The ‘Brush budgie’ was hardly a budgie, it was huge!! Nor was it blue!!

Railings outside the new housing on the site of the original Falcon Works, Derby Road

To be honest, walking around the exhibition hall, and previously around the tram sheds, I was truly amazed at the number of things that the Brush had been involved with, and so pleased that we could still see them today. Some of the model trams that people had made were pretty spectacular, too, and some of them were of Brush trams. On the way out we spotted the book sale, so of course, came away with a handful of short reads – not all for us, I hasten to add!!

Our last stop was into the workshop viewing gallery, where they were working on repairing and renovating tram bodies, and where we learned more about the Brush who supplied Chesterfield with some of its trams. The smell in the workshops was amazingly evocative of childhood days! Then we passed into the Stephenson Discovery Centre, where, amazingly, we saw mention of the Leicester and Swannington railway!

After all this excitement, we again boarded the tram, and travelled all the way from Town End, to the end of the line and back again, just for the fun of it! We finished off our visit with another cup of tea in the Red Lion pub!

What a day!!

When we got home, I had a look to see which trams we'd actually travelled on, and was so pleased to find that the museum had listed them on their Facebook page, and describes them in detail on the website!

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Notes

(1) A little bit more about telephone kiosks on an earlier blogpost

(2) More on Lucy boxes on an earlier blogpost

(3) More about Loughborough's drinking fountain on an earlier blogpost

(4) More on wall boxes on an earlier blogpost

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Brush trams at Crich. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/brush-trams-at-crich.html [Accessed 28 April 2024]

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

Saturday 27 April 2024

X is for X26/27, XPS, and X-Rays

X26/X27

Based on Royal Way, on the Belton Road West industrial estate, the Paul S Winson family-owned coach company was created in 1980, and has been running bus services in the area for most of that time.

Winson’s X26 service is a popular Monday through Saturday service that connects Loughborough to three nearby villages which fall within the Borough of Charnwood, namely, Quorn, Mountsorrel and Rothley. These villages lie in the Soar Valley and are on the west side of the River Soar: villages on the other side of the river include Barrow-upon-Soar, Sileby and Cossington. In addition to the X26 service, Winson’s also operate the X27 service which runs Monday through Friday, during the Leicestershire school terms only, and is dedicated to delivering children to school.

XPS and X-rays

Loughborough University has researched and taught all types of engineering since its inception as a Technical Institute in 1909. Chemistry and physics also feature on the curriculum, and today, the Loughborough Materials Characterisation Centre (LMCC) uses X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), sometimes known as Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis (ESCA) to analyse the top 3-10 nanometres of a material. Using XPS it is possible to study thin films like those used to coat spectacles, corrosion like oxidation, and adhesion, as well as changes in the state and composition of a wide range of materials, from powders to solids, like metal, ceramics and manmade polymers.

X-rays were discovered in 1895, and Loughborough College used the new techniques, which by the end of the First World War could help inform about the condition of various materials. The principal of the college, Herbert Schofield, had the foresight to invest in X-ray equipment for the college in 1919, which was used to check welds and castings. These early machines lasted until the 1930s when they were replaced by new equipment. The university continues to benefit from all the latest in X-ray technology, like the XPS.

____________________________________

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:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). X is for X26/27, XPS, and X-rays. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/x-if-for-x2627-xps-and-x-rays.html [Accessed 27 April 2024]

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

Lynne About Loughborough

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Tuesday 30 April 2024

Z is for ?

Monday 29 April 2024

Y is for Yates

Sunday 28 April 2024

Brush trams at Crich

Saturday 27 April 2024

X is for X26/27, XPS, and X-Rays

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