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