About Loughborough in 2014

It's Sunday evening, almost exactly half way between Christmas Day and New Year's Day, and I'm sitting here wondering what to write! Of course, I've had little time to research any specific topic, and although there have been plenty of opportunities to take photos, I haven't! Truth to tell, I've not been aboutloughborough much lately, either, and when I have I've been frantically last-minute shopping, or entertaining.

So, as we're approaching New Year's Day here's my review of the year 2014, through my blog posts.

lynneaboutloughborough blogposts are posted each Sunday, around 8pm. This year I have managed to publish 44 out of a possible 52 weekly articles. Some of these have been rather popular, but as I'd have expected, others have drawn fewer readers, and those posts that appeal to me, aren't necessarily the ones that appeal to you! Sometimes I've had time to do some in-depth research and have presented this to you, other times I've not had a chance to look into anything in detail, so I have either presented a photoblog of something I've done, or somewhere I've been, or I've described some of my latest shenanigans around and about town.

Let's count down to your number one favourite post, starting from 13!!

• At 13, with 225: Spotlight on: 54 Baxter Gate was a post prompted by a conversation on facebook and described Baxter Gate, and specifically number 54 which was once the home of auction mart Garton and Annatt, before becoming a nurses' home, a doctor's surgery and a medical information centre. Plans are afoot to create a Pizza Express in this Grade II listed building.
• At 12, with 226 views: Loughborough fair, 2014. A few pictures and lots of news from fairs gone by!
• At 11, with 233 views: Loughborough and the Temperance Movement. Descriptions of various Temperance marches in the town.
• At 10, with 255 views: Ghost signs of Loughborough, Pt 2! A selection of pictures of ghost signs in town, at least one of which is now no longer there.
• At 9, with 284 views: Magistrate's Court, Police Station and the Wheatsheaf Pub. A post about the old police station, the now demolished one and the new one, as well as the yard at the Wheatsheaf Pub.
• At 8, with 298 views: Devonshire Square. I wasn't able to attend the unveiling of the mural in Devonshire Square, but I did get down to town and take some photos to show you.  
• At 7, with 302 views: The GCR, the diesel gala and electrification of the mainline. Title says it all really!!
• At 6, with 313 views: The Empire Cinema, WW2 and Sir Malcolm Sargent. Did he or didn't he visit our local cinema (now The Odeon)?
• At 5, with 372 views: Handel's Messiah, Snibston Discovery Museum, Jennens and an international supermarket. An excuse to tell you all about the Sparrow Hill Theatre, and the visit of Master B Grossmith! 
• At 4, with 400 views: Spotlight on Radmoor House. Again, does what it says on the post!! This one generated lots of comments from people who were born there, or whose children were born there!
• At 3, with 444 views: Dishley Grange in photographs. A rare visit to Dishley Grange resulted in this set of pictures.  
• At 2, with 455 views: WW1 and the Zeppelin raids on Loughborough. An illustrated description of the Zeppelin raids of 1916.
• At 1, with 1008 views: Ghost signs of Loughborough! What more can I say?!

Now, let's look at my favourites, by month!

• January 2014: Baubles. In which I tell you about spar ornament makers in Loughborough.
• February 2014: Spotlight on: Unity House
• March 2014: Afternoon at Pilling's Lock. You would not believe the controversy these pictures of a few birds caused over on the Canal World forum!!
• April 2014: The Empire Cinema, WW2 and Sir Malcolm Sargent.
• May 2014: So who was Robert Bakewell? Read the post to find out!!
• June 2014: If you go down to the park today, you're in for a big surprise! The unveiling of the WW1-related sculptures outside the museum in Queen's Park.
• July 2014: Carillons! In which I discover that my uncle plays the carillon in the States!
• August 2014: Spotlight on Middleton Place. One of my favourite posts.
• September 2014: Spotlight on Ancient Loughborough, part 1, The Windmill Inn.
• October 2014: Spotlight on Radmoor House.
• November 2014: A November walk through Queen's Park. In which I also visit the Charnwood Museum and the public library's WW1 exhibition.
• December 2014: Children's book illustrator exhibits at Charnwood Museum. Local book illustrator, Andy Everitt-Stewart, the illustrator of Spot the Dog books exhibits his paintings for the first time.

Hope you've had a good 2014, a good festive season, and I wish you well for 2015.

lynneaboutloughborough

Children's book illustrator exhibits at Charnwood Museum!

Andy Everitt-Stewart: First solo exhibition at Charnwood Museum

It Started with a Cat

A couple of weeks ago I created a page on my blog for listing musical groups and other artistic people and groups, and as this was limited by my own knowledge, I didn’t include many artists and groups other than musical. So, today I became aware of the illustrator of Eric Hill’s Spot the Dog, Andy Everitt-Stewart, a local artist who was trained at Loughborough College of Art and Design and is currently exhibiting his work at Charnwood Museum. I popped along, and I can honestly say the exhibition is well worth a visit if you have time to between now and the beginning of January. If you do go before Christmas, you may even be able to pick up that last-minute present!

On his webpage Andy describes himself as a “freelance illustrator and paper engineer”, and his exhibition doesn’t disappoint! Illustrations from books, including Spot the Dog, some Ladybird books, and an updated Peter Rabbit, adorn the walls of the exhibition room, and some examples of some very elaborate pop-up books, sit in the display cabinets, almost coming to life in the mind’s eye.

Against the white backdrop, everything is so colourful and each picture stands out, and because they are mostly illustrations for children’s books, they look so appealing – even, or is that, especially to adults! Several of the works were produced for Ladybird Books, some for Spot the Dog, others for books in the Beatrix Potter series, and others for a variety of publishers.

The pop-up books on display in the cases deserve a special mention for being so intricate and elaborate. You can see the planning stage too, where models are made with plain white paper before being transferred to the real thing. I’m sure we’ve all enjoyed pop-up books when we were children, but the planning involved in producing one would probably have passed us by!

Anyway, my pictures of the exhibition are not as good as the one’s on Andy’s website, but here are a few to whet your appetite:

 

Christmas in Leicestershire!

This time of year is always busy with lots of Christmas concerts and a variety of other things.

Last Sunday evening I was at St Mary's Church in Melton Mowbray to celebrate their Christmas tree festival, and to listen to the Hathern Senior Band playing pieces before and after the service and carols during the service. As ever, they were brilliant, and all in all it was a lovely evening. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the Loughborough parish church tree festival, so here's some pics from Melton's (with apologies for focusing on the trombone section!):

The day before I had been to a Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society meeting at which we had a talk on local alabaster: This included a description of alabaster from the area, its uses and its history. A number of local churches contain, amongst other things, alabaster statues, and the church at Tutbury (a place I go to fairly often) was started to be built in about 1086 by Henry de Ferrers and uses alabaster in one of the door arches, has an alabaster coffin inside, as well as an alabaster altar-piece. You can read about the use of alabaster in Loughborough in an earlier post of mine, and if I ever get to see any for real, I'll be sure to take some pics to post on the blog. In the meantime, here's a photograph of some alabaster we saw at the LAHS meeting:

Last evening saw me in the Hodson Hall at the Grammar School, again listening to Hathern Band, this time in their traditional Christmas concerts, featuring lots of exciting Christmas pieces, and a couple of carols. This concerts also features the Training Band and the Concert Brass, all of whom played exceptionally well. If you weren't able to come along to any of the band's concerts, you can find the band's Christmas CD as well as their most recent release on the Hathern Band webpages.

Devonshire Square

This week sees the unveiling of the mural by Wei Ong, in Devonshire Square. Wei Ong, who is probably better known by the moniker Silent Hobo, was chosen from a number of different artists, to produce a mural to liven up Devonshire, above the shops where the car park used to be!

He has been working on this for a few months, and some of his work was on display in the town for a little while, including his interpretation of Lady Jane Grey. Members of the public were quizzed in the town centre about what they would like to see appear on the mural, there was a public meeting in Charnwood Museum café, and many other opportunities for people to have their say.

Although the unveiling is on Sunday 6 December, 2014, the mural is already up and brightening up the area. My pics don't do it justice, and I really can't remember the order of the panels, but, if you can't get down to see it, perhaps this will give you an idea of what it looks like. The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that these pics were taken on market day, and you might spot the new brightly coloured market stalls. And, if you have moved away from town, it might help you to place Devonshire Square if you remember that some of the shops in this area in the 1980s like Tesco, the Lotus House Chinese Restaurant and the Motorists' Discount Centre!

So far on the mural I've spotted Taylor's Bellfoundry, The Carillon, Ladybird Books, the fair, the library, the Charnwood fox, the markets, the "parish church", Towers (possibly!), a steam train, a canal boat, the Bastard Gates, and possibly Archdeacon Fearon, Robert Bakewell and Songster.

A November walk through Queen's Park

Walking through Queen's Park today, I was impressed by several things:

The lovely, working fountains

The memorial near New Gates

The Carillon

And inside Charnwood Museum, I managed to see the latest exhibition before it was dismantled. If you didn't catch it, here's a few pictures:





Images of Charnwood