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]

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Lynne