Magistrates, police and spar ornaments
Yesterday morning I had an early start for a Saturday as I
had to be at Heathrow Airport to pick up number one son, whose flight from
Central America arrived at 9.40. Worried that the Bank Holiday traffic queues
would be enormous, and that the world and his wife would be travelling to
Heathrow, and the airport would be really busy, I set off at 7am, with some
trepidation. Luckily, I arrived at about the same time as the flight and
managed to find a space in the short stay car park reasonably easily. The airport
was fairly quiet and I had no trouble finding said son in amongst the other
disembarkees.
Number one son playing bowls |
As a result of this speedy operation, we were on our way home by about 11am and finally arrived about 1.15. He had some lunch and then I whisked him off to the bowls club to take part in a doubles match, which left me with a free afternoon, having not scheduled anything because I hadn’t been sure what time I’d actually get home.
What's left of the police station |
Hubby wanted to nip into town, and I also needed a few things, so we walked in together. Usually, we walk along Albert Street, but today we went via Southfields Park, where we passed the new police station. I’d forgotten they were demolishing the old one, but we had a good view of the pile of rubble that is now the former police station.
Which set me thinking …
The Magistrate's Court on Woodgate |
Police cell on the right |
Now, I know I should know the answer to this, and I have
read it somewhere, but, I think the police station which is currently being
demolished was built in the late 60s / early 70s. This new building replaced
the former police station, which was situated within the Magistrate’s Court on
Woodgate. If you walk down Town Hall Passage from Woodgate, you can see 3
windows at ground level on your right, but there is also a window at waist
height, which is the old police cell, where prisoners were kept.
The police department left this building to move into
dedicated premises, but the Magistrate’s Court continued in this capacity until
about 2007 when the new Magistrate’s Court was built on a plot facing the NHS
Walk-In Centre, being at right angles to Sparrow Hill. I must admit, the new
Magistrate’s Court looks nice, and even won the Building of the Year Award in
the Leicestershire and Rutland Society of Architects at the annual award
ceremony. Strangely, when, rather belatedly, I settled down to read this week’s
local paper, there was a letter in there about the court being underused, and a
comment about it now being on the inner relief road, and therefore being seen
as the architects intended. Ok, it’s great if the need to use the building is less
than expected, but a shame that such a new building has already lost its sense of
purpose.
The other thing that happened, because we chose to walk into
town a different way, was that I met an old friend in a shop I wouldn’t normally
go into because it’s not on my route into town, and how fortuitous that turned
out to be! She had recently been clearing out her parents’ home and had come across
loads of old photos of Loughborough: I love old photos, especially ones showing
people and buildings together, which help to piece together the history of the
town.
The Orange Tree (formerly The Wheatsheaf) |
My friend also told me about the shop next to the Orange Tree
(formerly the Wheatsheaf pub): Apparently, there were spirits in there, which explained
why no-one would stand near the till, and also an elderly lady in the back room
who didn’t like the constant comings and goings of people. She also told me that
long ago that if you went down the passage at the side of the shop and the pub there
were houses there, and that there had been a big fire, which burnt them down. This
was of great interest to me as this is where Henry Moore was a spar ornament maker.
I’d already worked out that the Wheatsheaf Yard contained lots of little houses
around a central courtyard, but it was so great to have it confirmed!
The Town Hall |
After this I visited the Town Hall to see the new exhibition
of local art and paintings. This was fantastic and there was some wonderful stuff
on display, which is well worth a look if you have time.
Finally, I walked past the site of the former hospital on Baxtergate and noticed that planning notices had been pinned to the mural: Applications have been submitted by Pizza Express, Bella Italia and Centro, so it looks as though we will be getting another cinema, along with at least two new restaurants.
That’s all for this week, folks! See ya next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you have found this post interesting or have any questions about any of the information in it do please leave a comment below. In order to answer your question, I must publish your query here, and then respond to it here. If your information is private or sensitive, and you don't wish to have it on public display, it might be a better idea to email me using the address which is on the About Me page, using the usual substitutions. Thanks for reading the blog.