Leicestershire County Show

This weekend we've popped along to the Leicestershire County Show. Well, we didn't exactly pop: we walked to Loughborough railway station, caught a train to Market Harborough, and walked to the new Leicestershire County Showground. We were going to walk along the canal at Harborough, but sadly part of the footpath was closed so we ended up walking along the roadside.

I've always been a bit of a fan of county shows, and very well remember as a child going along to the Abergavenny and Border Counties Show. To a small child, it seemed enormous: a huge arena with all sorts of displays going on (I particularly liked the scrambling bike displays), vast fields to walk through, various side arenas, loads of little stalls selling all sort of things, a huge marquee housing the entries for the handicraft competitions, an equally huge one for the entries in the flowers, fruit and veg competitions, and a smaller one for the baking entries. And not forgetting the humungous food and drinks tent! 

So when the Leicestershire County Show came to Loughborough - well, Dishley, to be precise - I just had to go along. I remember one time we went we drove, and queued for what seemed like hours along Warwick Way! Anyway, this was quite some years ago now, and the show has since been to Melton Mowbray, before moving to its current place. Some of the things I loved about the show when it was at Dishley, was the variety of events, stalls, and demonstrations, the animals ...

Photos from the May 2005 event at Dishley:

Photos from the May 2003 event at Dishley:

In its new location at Market Harborough, there was certainly plenty of space for the arenas, for the stalls, for food outlets, the craft tent, a fairground, vintage vehicles and pens for the animals. Considering the weather that we've had for most of the summer, it was a little overcast and a tad chilly, but it was a good day out. 

Sadly, I missed these as sheep day was predominantly on Sunday.

But I did manage to spot the longwools, and the New Dishley Society in a marquee.

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2018). Leicestershire County Show. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2018/08/leicestershire-county-show.html [Accessed 26 August 2018]

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.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne

            

Whitechapel and Taylors bell foundries

So, are you bored of bells yet?? Sorry, but I don't think I could ever be!!

This past week I've been to Woodhouse Eaves church again, and admired the Taylor's bell in the porch! I was actually there to listen to a friend present some of the research done on the architect of the church, and was reminded of my recent visit to London, by mention of the Whitechapel Bellfoundry.

When I went to London for my son's graduation, we popped into the local medical museum, The Royal London Hospital Museum, as we were aware they had some significant material. On entering the crypt of the former church the first display we came across was a bell. According to the information board: 

"Operation bell of the London Hospital. Date: 1791.This bell, together with the bell of 1757 that hangs in the Hospital entrance, was made at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Before the introduction of anaesthetics in 1846, it is reputed to have summoned attendants to hold surgical patients still." 

Further into the museum we saw the replica skeleton of Joseph Herrick, otherwise known as the Elephant Man. This was here because the hospital had done much investigation of his condition during his lifetime.

Once we'd been around all the museum, we headed off down the length of Whitechapel Road to get into Central London. 

Along the way we spotted various things of interest, but none of greater interest than the Whitechapel Bell Foundry buildings! Founded in 1570, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry moved to its buildings on Whitechapel Road in 1739, has the honour of being the oldest British manufacturing business. Since 1904 the business has been owned by the Hughes family, but in 2016 they sold the Grade II listed buildings and the foundry finally closed for business in May 2017. 

Some of the most well-known bells that were cast at Whitechapel include the Liberty Bell, cast in 1752, and in 1856 Big Ben, although this had to be re-cast in 1858 because it developed a crack during the testing process. More recently, Whitechapel designed the bell which was used to start the 2012 Olympics, although because it was too big to be cast in their foundry, it was actually cast in The Netherlands. They did, however, cast the bell for the leading barge on the Thames for the Queen's Jubilee Pageant in 2012. From the markings on the photo below, Whitechapel did not just cast bells: this is the base of a lamppost in the vicinity.

When we walked past the foundry buildings - well, ok, we didn't just walk past, we lingered for quite some time - the buildings did not appear to be in use, but nonetheless seemed well-kept. I do wonder what will happen to them. Of course, this does mean that Taylors Bell Foundry, at one time financially vulnerable, and its buildings still in need of a degree of renovation, is now the sole remaining bell foundry in the UK. As we've already read, its bells can be found across the globe, and can its renovation work on bells that may have been cast in different foundries. 

Regarded as a relative newbie, the company has a direct link from the Leicester bell founder, Johannes de Stafford who seems to have been casting bells earlier than 1338, although the Taylor family didn't become involved until 1784, first coming to Loughborough in 1839, moving to the present site in 1859. One of Taylors most notable bells is the Great Paul bell which was cast for St Paul's Cathedral in London. Anyway, long may Taylors continue!

And here I feel I must stop! 

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2018). Whitechapel and Taylors bell foundries. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2018/08/whitechapel-and-taylors-bell-foundries.html  [Accessed 19 August 2018]

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.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne

         

Zeppelins Lincoln Taylor Loughborough

Before last week's post I think we were on the topic of Taylors, and bells of theirs that I'd found on my recent travels. So, let's leave the continuation of that one for next week (but do please remind me!), and let's talk Zeppelins instead!!!

I've blogged quite a bit about Zeppelins over the years, but today I want to tell you about a fantastic talk I went to last week on the subject of these airships, especially in relation to their raids on Lincoln.

Over the last couple of months I've been lucky enough to be in communication with the country's leading expert on Zeppelins of the First World War, the aviation historian and writer Ian Castle. Now, Ian lives many miles from Loughborough, but when I heard he was coming to Lincoln museum to do a talk, I was there like a shot! 

Actually, we spent the day doing a few other things first. A trip to Kelham Hall was revelatory! A beautiful Victorian Gothic Hall in a country park, designed by George Gilbert Scott, the very same architect you renovated our own church of All Saints with Holy Trinity. The hall is used as a wedding venue, but if there are no weddings going on, people are welcome to walk around the whole place! At one time the hall was home to an  Anglican order of monks, and there is still evidence of this to be seen. The grounds seem to contain a small caravan park, a maze rather like the one at Wistow, and the church and churchyard of the parish of Kelham, St Wilfred's. 

After spending a glorious couple of hours here, we went off to Upton Hall, now home to the Museum of Timekeeping. Fascinating place! Full of ticking and chiming clocks! I think it would drive me mad to stay there for long!!! But, the setting was charming, and some of the clocks, especially the long case clocks, were really beautiful. Interestingly, there were quite a few Gent (of Leicester) clocks, so it was good to see those. What I hadn't expected to see was a medium-sized bell. I suppose I should have really. And - you know what's coming - it was a Taylor's bell!!!! 

After a quick visit to the tearooms, we made our way into Lincoln city. We parked down by the canal and walked up past the cathedral before popping into a Pizza Express for tea. I'm not normally one for eating in national chains, but I wholeheartedly support PE who always seem to choose old buildings and renovate them to a great standard, like our former nurses' home, which not only did they renovate, but actually brought back into use. 

Fed and watered we then made our way to the Lincoln Museum, called The Collection where we had a guided tour around the Bastion in the Air exhibition, which focussed on the rising threat to Britain from aerial attacks by airships. The tour was led by Brian Riley, a former officer in the RAF, who really made the exhibition come alive.

And then, we excitedly made our way to the auditorium to hear all about airship attacks on Lincoln and Lincolnshire. This was absolutely fascinating! So many things chimed with me, when I compared what I was hearing to what I knew about the Zeppelin attacks on our own town. The attacks on Lincoln were many and through an interesting story, and some animated slides Ian showed us all the location of every attack on the area, named every airship and every captain, shared with us details of the killed and the injured - and told us about every sheep or cow that died in the attacks. 

It was on the night of 31st January 1916 that Zeppelin L20 dropped bombs on Loughborough, and that same night Lincolnshire was also being attacked.

To end the intensity and solemnity of the events, the speaker showed us examples of the humour adopted by the people of Britain, through postcards of the time.

All-in-all, a very exciting day!!

As if that weren't enough, the following day I was lucky to be able to attend the family event at The Grove, one of my favourite houses in Loughborough, now a student hall, but previously home to many familiar Loughborough names included Edward Chatterton Middleton. 

These visits were sandwiched between a couple of organ concerts given by visiting organists at All Saints with Holy Trinity. Tonight's concert started with a lively Bach Prelude and Fugue and finished with a contemplative piece, played by David Cowen, Associate Organist at Leicester Cathedral. 

Well, I think that's about it for tonight!! I've got a busy week next week - did I tell you about the new book launch? Do come along if you can!

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2018). Zeppelins Lincoln Taylor Loughborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2018/08/zeppelins-lincoln-taylor-loughborough.html  [Accessed 12 August 2018]

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.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne