Thursday, 22 May 2025

Robert Bakewell, agriculturalist: commemorating 300 years since his birth

I have been reminded that Friday 23 May marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Robert Bakewell of Dishley. Last week I went to an excellent talk about Bakewell, his work, and his times, and remembered that a long time ago, when this blog was in its infancy, I wrote a couple of posts, after being taken on a walk around the disused church at Dishley, and the estate, one about the estate itself, and one about Robert BakewellI’ve also posted previously about the plaque on Warner’s Lane, Loughborough, that mentions him in connection with the Unitarian church of which he was a part.

The mosaic restored in 2023 by Dishley Residents' Association and Artisans at Dishley Grange. Funded by LCC Member's Highway Fund

Dishley Grange, a private farm, and home to some of the artisans mentioned above

So, for the forthcoming anniversary, I thought I’d take a different look at Robert Bakewell … well, a different look at Robert Bakewell the agriculturist, not any other Robert Bakewell! However, I was initially thwarted, when looking through one of the books in my collection [1], I found references in the index to Bakewell, the Derbyshire town, but also to Robert Bakewell – one a piece of text, the other a black and white photograph. Excitedly I leafed through to find the relevant pages, but they turned out to be about that other famous Robert Bakewell, he from Staffordshire, who created fancy ironwork, of which I have seen the gates in Derby cathedral, and the railings and birdcage at Melbourne Hall (which I’ve previously written about.)  




But what of Dishley’s Robert Bakewell? He wasn’t named in the book’s index, but I did manage to find a couple of paragraphs which the author had written about him. The first appeared in the section on The Shires, in chapter 1:

“The Wold country pastures were long famed for the excellent wool they produced; it was known as the best in England and laid the foundations of the county’s woollen industry. In the eighteenth century Robert Bakewell of Loughborough introduced the new Leicester type of sheep, and the county’s reputation for high-grade wool was still further enhanced. Today this breed is found wherever wool is extensively produced.”

The next quotation comes from the section entitled Lowland and Wold, which appears in Chapter 3 [with my paragraph breaks]:

On his virtual tour along the River Soar, Ingram moves south from Bunny, “to Dishley Grange where lived an eighteenth-century worthy who did as much for England as any of the great engineers or explorers. 

Here lived Robert Bakewell whose genius as a breeder of sheep and cattle provided the food for the rapidly expanding populations of the new industrial centres and without which the work of the great inventors and engineers could never have materialised. 

He started the new-fangled idea of irrigation, and surrounded the fields of his model farm with canals, and spent a great portion of his seventy years travelling round the country, examining stock, evolving new breeds out of old nondescript types. 

He established the science of pedigree stock-breeding, becoming the greatest pioneer of agricultural science in the world. The sixteen shillings stud-fee which he charged for hiring out his first rams for the season increased until it rose to 800 and then 1,200 guineas. Now most of the stock in England shows the effects of his years of effort. 

To Dishley Grange came visitors of high and low degree from all over Europe, to learn about his discoveries. Yet his country appreciated him so little that twice he nearly went bankrupt, and had to be helped by his friends.”

These two quoted sections on Robert Bakewell, the agriculturist, together run to nearly 300 words, compared with the text on Robert Bakewell the ironwork maker which runs to just over 50 words. Clearly “… his country appreciated him so little …” that he didn’t even appear in the book’s index! I mustn’t grumble too much – after all, I found the Robert Bakewell I was looking for, and the book did actually have an index!

We learned from the above entry that Robert Bakewell was concerned with the breeding of sheep and cattle, and irrigation. In addition, he also improved the Leicester cart horse, to become the forerunner of the Shire horse, and he also tried his hand at pig-breeding. However, whether or not he was involved with Hugo Meynell of the Quorn Hunt in selectively breeding fox hounds is unclear.

So, the beginning of the paragraph which follows the above extract about Bakewell is a statement which makes me cross!! And reminds me of why I write this blog, write books about Loughborough, lead guided walks around the town, and share my love of Loughborough through presentations. Here it is:

“Loughborough is the second biggest town in the county, but it is not a particularly interesting place …”

I beg to differ!! Ok, so Ingram does continue that sentence with “apart from its bellfoundry.” But this still doesn’t do our wonderful town justice!!

However, to give Ingram his due, while he might have had an intimate knowledge of the hamlets, villages, towns, and cities in the counties of the north Midlands, he would not have been able to share this in much detail in just 116 pages!

Here’s hoping that the expectations of the writer of the book’s flyleaf came to fruition:

“Text and pictures together should win many new friends for a part of England which is less visited or appreciated than its riches, both of landscape and architecture, deserve.”

As part of the commemoration of Bakewell’s birth, 300 years ago, members of the New Dishley Society have written and released a new book, Robert Bakewell Britain’s Foremost Livestock Breeder which will be available from mid-May 2025, for £25, plus £4 post & packing inland UK. The book contains, inter alia, much newly researched material on the Bakewell family, their farming provenance, the distribution of his famous animals and his bankruptcy. It is an illustrated, hardback book running to 341 pages. To obtain a copy of the book please apply to ndssecretaryatgmaildotcom (making the usual substitutions) and include your name, address with postcode, and email address.

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Notes

[1] Ingram, J. H. (1947). North Midland Country: a survey of Cheshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire. Series: The Face of Britain. London: Batsford, pgs. 13, 15, 26, 29, 93 & 94

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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 (2025). Robert Bakewell, agriculturalist: commemorating 300 years since his birth. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/05/robert-bakewell-agriculturalist.html  [Accessed 22 May 2025]

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

Sunday, 18 May 2025

Bell Sunday

Well, today I learned that there is such a thing as Bell Sunday, which, according to the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers falls on the Sunday closest to St Dunstan’s Day, the latter, this year being 19th May. St Dunstan was a 10th century Archbishop of Canterbury, is the patron saint of bellringers, and as a skilled metalworker, was an early experimenter with bell casting. The celebration on Bell Sunday serves to recognise that bellringers add to the national soundscape, and contribute to the life of the church – summoning people to church for regular services, or for christenings, weddings, and funerals, or simply reminding people by their regular bellringing practice, of what day it is! Oh, and taking part in ringing contests!

A bellringer's essential

The ringing chamber at All Saints

At one time more or less in the centre of Loughborough, there were four Anglican churches, the Church of All Saints; Emmanuel; Holy Trinity, and St Peter’s. The bells of All Saints are well-documented, and there can be few who don’t know that the very reason we have the country’s last remaining dedicated bellfoundry is because the Taylor family came to Loughborough specifically to refurbish the bells of All Saints, in 1839. Indeed, it was actually part of the contract between the bellfounder and the church that the bells be cast in Loughborough, hence the Taylors setting up their bellfoundry initially on Pack Horse Lane, on land leased for 20 years. Things must have worked well for the bellfounders, because when that lease was up they set up a permanent factory on Chapman Street/Freehold Street, and have remained there ever since, making new bells, and repairing old ones.





I haven’t done too much digging around looking for information about our churches, so I have only found scant details about the bells in some of our town’s other Anglican churches. The statutory listing for Emmanuel church simply says: “[The] Tower has 3 light bell openings …”


A report of the consecration of the Holy Trinity church mentions everything from the Minton floor tiles to the ceilings of pitch pine; from the varnished pitch pine seating, to the Devonshire marble altar, but says nothing of the bells other than “A pretty turret contains three bells.” Ironically, the first incumbent at Holy Trinity was the former curate of All Saints, the Rev. E. Bell!




The bellcote at St Mary's Nanpantan

The description in the statutory listing for the church of St Peter’s, on Storer Road and Fearon Street is extensive! However, no mention of the actual bells, other than the sentence “Organ chamber to south has 2-light window and ashlar gabled bell-cote to side over vestry which has flat arched windows and curving parapet.”

Slightly further afield, is the church of All Saints at Thorpe Acre with Dishley, a church which was built in 1849 to replace the mediaeval church at Dishley. Sadly, on my brief search I’ve only found scant information, again in the statutory listing, which simply mentions the “Western bellcote.”

 


I’ve mentioned the mediaeval church at Dishley, but the summary one would expect to find in the statutory listing for this as an ancient monument says, “Not currently available for this entry.” Which is a little odd … It would appear, however, that while Dishley church might once have been a scheduled ancient monument, it appears it is now a Grade II listed building, which was listed on Monday 15th March 1965. The description associated with the entry makes for interesting reading, particularly the final sentence:

“East, north and south walls of ruined aisle less church, C12/C13; rubble stone with ashlar dressings. Triple lancet east window. North wall: round headed doorway with semi circular hoodmould, plank door. South wall (from east to west) lancet, blocked round headed doorway, ogee-headed lancet, base of porch. Interior has remains of piscina, sedilia, aumbry. Slate grave slabs including those to the Bakewell family C20 slate slab commemorating Robert Bakewell on north wall. Scheduled ancient monument.”



Today as I was walking through Queen’s Park, I was lucky enough to hear a different kind of bellringing – the sonorous sounds of our spectacular carillon played so beautifully by our wonderful carilloneure!! 



I also walked close to another bell that will hopefully soon be ringing (or will it be chiming?) – where there’s a bell, there’s hope!!

Hope Bell in Queen's Park


In the meantime, I mentioned Robert Bakewell above, which has prompted me to commemorate his life and work – but that’s a blogpost for another day!!   

____________________________________

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 (2025). Bell Sunday. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/05/bell-sunday.html  [Accessed 18 May 2025]

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

Sunday, 11 May 2025

A trip around Loughborough in early May

So, the blog has been a little wordy of late, so here are some photos I've taken around Loughborough during the first weeks of May 2025. Enjoy! First, some beautiful flowers in Queen's Park




A visit to the ceramics market



Looking out over Loughborough town centre







I think this one is the back of what used to be the Art Deco building of Marsden's the grocers, and is now Caffe Nero




Lloyds Bank


I found this view intriguing, as it shows the Art Deco decorations (on the right) from a different angle!




This is the top of the former Prudential building, part of which is now occupied by Max Spielmann and Subway



Building flats where Ellwoods garage used to be on Pinfold Gate



The new canopy on Southfields Park is now open, and the footpath around the park perimeter is now re-opened!



____________________________________

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 (2025). A trip around Loughborough in early May. Available from:  https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/05/a-trip-around-loughborough-in-early-may.html [Accessed 11 May 2025]

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”

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne     

Thursday, 1 May 2025

Art Deco A-Z Blogging Challenge

As you may know, over the month of April I took part in the A-Z Blogging Challenge, which meant writing a blogpost for each letter of the alphabet in order. I did this challenge last year, too, and focussed on anything Loughborough related that I hadn’t already written about in 'A-Z of Loughborough' (which is a book of snippets about Loughborough in alphabetical order, not a map!!).


This year, as it is the centenary of the exhibition in Paris from which the Art Deco style took its name, I challenged myself to blog about Loughborough’s Art Deco buildings. For most of these alphabetical posts the decision on what to write about was quite easy, although in some cases there were so many choices it was sometimes difficult to focus on just one! In other cases, I admit I did have to stretch the bounds a bit, so, for example, for Letter X we ended up with an eXercise book!




In case you missed any of the posts, here’s a complete list of them, which should make them easy to find. They are also included on the page with the complete list of blogposts, which now runs to over 630. Quite some time ago, I also created an Art Deco Glossary, again with a focus on Loughborough, although this is still a work in progress!  


Thank you for joining me in my alphabetical journey around Loughborough’s Art Deco!

____________________________________

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 (2025). Art Deco A-Z Blogging Challenge. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/05/art-deco-z-blogging-challenge.html [Accessed 1 May 2025]

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