Loughborough and Shugborough

Another exciting week goes by and this time I'm out at the Shugborough Estate, a National Trust property that was once home of the Anson family, and one of their most notable descendants, photographer Patrick Lichfield.

I've never been to Shugborough before, so I was quite looking forward to the trip, and on the journey there I realised how similar were the names Shugborough and Loughborough! Apparently, I'm not the only person who has thought about this, as back in 2011 after her visit to Shugborough, a lady called Katy considered the sometimes bizarre pronunciation associated with English place-names, and quoted Loughborough and Shugborough as examples.  

Idly wandering around the grounds of this magnificent estate, I did actually wonder if I was going to find any connections at all with Loughborough ... but I did, and almost as soon as I entered the grounds, for there were a couple of beautiful long-horned cows, reminding me of the work of Robert Bakewell on the Dishley estate between Loughborough and Hathern. The sheep, however, were most definitely not the Leicester Longwool descendants! Just a quick reminder at this point that Loughborough public library has a Bakewell display on until the end of April!

The house itself was rather splendid, and the servants quarters reminded me of visits I'd made a while ago to Belton House in Lincolnshire, Belvoir Castle and also to the Workhouse at Southwell.

A further connection between Loughborough and Shugborough, which I found after I returned home, in a book called "Follies of Leicestershire & Rutland" are the follies on the Garendon Estate and those at Shugborough. Sir Ambrose Phillipps owned the Garendon Estate, between Loughborough and Shepshed, from 1829-1837. As a direct result of his 'grand tour' of Italy he became a member of the Society of Dilettanti. The author, Gwyn Headley, compares the monuments at Shugborough, created by James "Athenian" Stuart, a fellow member of the Society who was sponsored by the Society to study the remains of classical Greek civilisation in Athens, with those by Phillipps. Shugborough has a shepherd's monument with columns by Stuart, a Doric temple made of coade stone, also by Stuart, a triumphal arch and a structure called the Tower of the Winds, both by Stuart, and a Lanthorn of Demosthenes. As we know, Garendon has the Temple of Venus, modeled on the Temple of Sybil in Tivoli and the triumphal arch emulating the Roman arch of Titus. 

   
Interestingly, in another book, one called "Divergent paths: family histories of Irish emigrants in Britain, 1820-1920" there is an interesting story of the Giltrap family. Henry Giltrap, born in 1827, came to England in about 1846-7, where he and his brother John joined the Staffordshire police and Henry became a railway policeman. He lived about 3/4s mile from the Shugborough Estate, until moving to work at a signal box the other end of the Shugborough Tunnel in Milford, where he stayed for about 12 years. Here he operated the signal box and the level crossing on what was a busy stretch of railway. One of Henry and his wife Ann's sons, also called Henry (born 1850) worked his way up the railway from being a goods clerk to station master, which involved a move first to Llanberis, than to Abergele, but later left the railways to work for the Singer Sewing Machine Company in London. One of the other sons, William, born in 1851, became a footman at Shugborough Hall, where he married a nursery maid and was promoted to butler. After his death, his wife became a dresser to Queen Alexandra at the Sandringham Estate. 

Back to Henry the elder. By 1880 the signal work was getting a bit too much for Henry, so the LNWR moved him to a quieter location, where on 16 April 1883 Henry signalled the first trains into the new Charnwood Forest Railway, Loughborough. After his wife died in 1888, Henry moved to 145 Paget Street where he lodged with the family of a fellow railway worker, clerk Charles Atkinson. Retiring in 1895, Henry moved to live with another of his sons, Thomas in Lancashire, where he died in 1902.

And, back in Shugborough, at the far end of the grounds was a stunning stone bridge which led to another bridge, the latter which went over the canal. Just beyond this was the railway line, which, unlike Loughborough's, was electrified.

What I also hadn't realised until I actually went into the apartments was that Patrick Lichfield had lived here. And what a set of apartments they were too! Dressed in 1950s-1970s style and with his photographs adorning the walls, his personality was plain to see. Now, I've always known this photographer as Patrick Lichfield, but on this visit to Shugborough I discovered that he was actually Thomas Patrick John Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield, and was a descendant of the Anson family of Shugborough. A distant relative was George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, a former First Lord of the Admiralty. Apparently, there have been 7 ships named after Anson, and Horatio Nelson wrote the following letter to William Marsden of the Admiralty:

"Victory in Gibraltar Bay, July 21st 1805 Sir, I herewith transmit you, for the information of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, a copy of an Acting-Order, which I have given to Mr. John Chrystie, Midshipman of the Victory. to act as Lieutenant of his Majesty's Ship Guerrier, in the room of Lieutenant William Tiller, invalided. Mr. Chrystie is an Admiralty recommendation, and received a severe wound in his left cheek in an action between Anson [the ship] and La Loire [a ship], by having a musket-ball shot thorugh it. He is also a very deserving young man. I am, Sir, &c. Nelson and Bronte"

I think the connection here is that the memorial to Nelson in Trafalgar Square was created by WIlliam Railton who was also responsible for some of the lodges to the Garendon Estates, as well as for Beaumanor Hall. 

Further connections to Loughborough include the jewellery maker, Jane Moore, who studied at Loughborough College of Art and Design and has exhibited her work at Shugborough. A couple of artists from Staffordshire, or who have displayed in Staffordshire, who studied at Loughborough also include Sally Matthews and Jonathan Mulvaney.

Older connections include some entries in The Monthly Magazine on 1st August 1817 (Vol.44, No.301) all appearing on page 90, where it is reported that "At Loughborough, Lieut. Land, late of the Devonshire-militia married Miss Susannah Harley; Mrs Spittlehouse of Loughborough, aged 39, died; and Mr Kent of Shugborough married Mrs Allen of Radford-bridge, Berkswich."

If I think of any more connections, I'll be sure to let you know!!!

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

Dyer, Lynne (2019). Loughborough and Shugborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/03/loughborough-and-shugborough.html

[Accessed 31 March 2019]

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

Loughborough Lichfield and Southampton

Well, what a varied week this has been! After a weekend in Birmingham, I was out 'Loughborough-connecting' in a few other places, including Lichfield and Southampton. In both places I found plenty of things to remind me of home - as well as many differences, of course, like a distinct dearth of yachts in Loughborough!

Lichfield public library has undergone a staggering change, moving from an expansive Victorian building on the site of a former friary, to a small church in the centre of the Market Square. In order to fit, they had to withdraw quite a lot of bookstock, and some of the seating is now in a most odd place. However, they haven't gone smart, yet. Loughborough library goes smart at the beginning of April, I believe, so at certain times access will be by library card only, and there will be no staff within to help. 

Study tables in the former altar area

Stained glass in Loughborough library

Upstairs in St Mary's church in Lichfield, now part of the library, used to house the heritage centre. Some of the information boards had been retained, and I was rather interested in this one, and whether or not there was any connection with the various branches of the family with that name in Loughborough.

The view out onto the market below in some ways reminded me of Loughborough!

Stained glass above, bustling market through the clear glass

Looking down on Loughborough market

I have a feeling that all Burtons stores are closing, or already have. There's been a lot of disgruntlement about the Abergavenny store which still had its original 1930s signs, as during the re-purposing of the building, there was a degree of lack of care over the valuable heritage. The Burtons store in Lichfield has been long gone: like Woolworths stores and Co-op stores, Burtons shops are quite distinctive, but the Lichfield one also has definitive evidence of its former life.

Lichfield Burtons

Foundation stone in Lichfield

Best I could do for the moment!

And finally in Lichfield, I spotted trams - ok, toy trams!!! Wonder if they are models of those connected with The Brush?

Trams in the Toy Museum, Lichfield

Meanwhile, down in Southampton, markers on the roadside that I think were to do with water, reminded me of the milestones in Loughborough.

Milestone on Leicester Road

Down towards the Ocean Village we happened upon the former railway station and the former offices for the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). The station has been transformed into a casino, while what was the hotel, Southwestern House, to its right is now luxurious flats. It was in a small upstairs room that Churchill and Eisenhower planned the D-Day invasions of WW2.  The building was once extensively used by the rich and those travelling on cruises. Apparently, the staircase was influential in the design of the stairs in the Titanic. The dining room was known as the Wedgewood, Ballroom and, as the name suggests, was painted in those iconic Wedgewood colours of powder blue and white. The building is still joined to its neighbour by the original steel structure. Inside the building there is an original document relating to George III. I haven't been able to ascertain what exactly this pertains to, but in my quest for information did discover that a statue of George III was presented to the borough of Southampton in 1809, and placed in a niche on the Bargate: some of my readers will be interested to note this statue was made of coade stone. Not entirely sure what the LSWR offices are now, but probably housing. 

The former railway station with the Imperial flats to the right

The inspiration for the stairs on the Titanic

The former LSWR offices

Along the same road there was a branch of the Wilts and Dorset bank, whose construction reminded me of the lodge to Aingarth, on Leicester Road, which was originally a lodge to The Elms. I might be wrong but the construction looks similar - Aingarth is ashlar (although I can't find my photo at the moment).

Wilts and Dorst Bank

The final thing that reminded me of Loughborough was a pub called the London Hotel. Nothing to do with the name, more to do with the construction material again. The upper storeys look like Hathern tiles, but further investigation reveals that both the upper and lower floors are constructed of tiles made by Carter and Co. of Dorset. 

The London Hotel, Southampton

Detail of the London Hotel, Southampton

Hathernware on Loughborough's Lloyds Bank

And there I must stop, otherwise I'd go on all night! 


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

Dyer, Lynne (2019). Loughborough, Lichfield and Southampton. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/03/loughborough-lichfield-and-southampton.html [Accessed 24 March 2019]

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

Victorian factories

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll probably have picked up that I'm a bit of a fan of our smaller towns and villages, rather than our big cities. Hence, I find Loughborough to be the perfect size, and only tend to visit cities on holiday - apart from Leicester, which I travel to regularly for work. Years ago I used to visit Nottingham, but rarely go these days.

Anyway, my point is that I have avoided trips to the capital as far as possible, and have also avoided trips to England's second biggest city, apart from around Christmas 2003 when I took the oldest child to see one of his schoolfriends dance in The Nutcracker ballet at the Hippodrome, and a couple of evening trips 2014/15 to see the youngest child perform with the Birmingham Junior Conservatoire Band. 

However, I've recently had the occasion to visit Birmingham for work, and specifically to visit the museums. I was quite surprised by what I found, and couldn't help but make some connections with Loughborough.

Ok, so we haven't got anything equivalent to Symphony Hall in Loughborough, unless you consider the interior, which looks very Art Deco to me and reminded me of our Beacon Bingo, which opened as an Odeon Cinema in 1936.

The auditorium at Symphony Hall

One of the doors into the auditorium at Symphony Hall

Beacon Bingo, once The Odeon, Loughborough

The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter involved a guided tour around the factory of Smith and Pepper. The business opened in 1899 and closed in 1981, but the factory was never cleared out and instead has been preserved, like a time capsule, affording a fascinating insight into what it would have been like to work in a Victorian factory. The similarity with framework knitting was obvious really, if I'd stopped to think about it, and then also with the Herbert Morris factory. The buildings had long narrow rooms with very large windows along the long side and having the opposite interior wall painted white - all to bring in and reflect as much light as possible so the workers could see the intricate work they were doing. When the original building was extended, another long, narrow building was erected with windows sloping up to the roof (not a good description, but you'll see what I mean when you see the photos). The walls of the building opposite were then clad in white tiles - were these possibly Hatherware? Buildings that were used by framework knitters in Loughborough would have had windows very close to the roof and there were likely to have been glass globes filled with water hanging in them, which would have spread the light on the work being done. The Morris factory had those sloping windows I mentioned above - maybe they are called skylights (of a sort), and it is believed that these lights attracted the attention of a passing Zeppelin on the night of 31st January 1916. 

White tiled wall and glass roof at the Jewellery Quarter Museum

White tiled wall and ground floor windows at the Jewellery Quarter Museum

Large side windows, roof windows and white tiled walls at the Jewellery Quarter Museum

Machinery at the Jewellery Quarter Museum

I think the slope of the roofs would originally have been glass at Herbert Morris

I also visited the Coffin Works, which was another Victorian factory, frozen in time, started in 1882 and closed in 1997. The guided tour was of the Newman Brothers factory, where they made handles and decorations for coffins, as well as satin interiors, and shrouds (but not the coffins themselves). What this factory had in common with Smith and Pepper factory was that they were both working with metal, and the smell of grease, the sound of the presses was also common to both. In both factories, the guides did some demonstrations of some of the work that the employees would have done. I couldn't help but think of our bellfoundry. It's a working Victorian factory: it's hot; it's noisy; it's smelly and it's blummin dangerous! 

The Coffin works 

Metalworking at Taylors 2017

My final museum visit (can't really count a cuppa in the Edwardian tearooms in the main museum and art gallery in Town Hall Square!) was to the Pen Museum. Well, that was fascinating! So many pen nibs!!! What did they say - 90% of the world's words at one time were written using a nib from Birmingham! Staggering! It was also in this museum that I read a little about the gun factories in Birmingham, which is interesting because Natahaniel Corah, who started Corah's in Leicester, in the mid-1800s, but not before he'd spent his early years as a framework knitter, then at 27 going to work in a gun factory in Birmingham! And, he used to do business in The Globe pub in Leicester, which is so-called in honour of those framework knitters! Two questions arise here, for further investigation sometime, the first of which is was Nathaniel Corah any relation to the builders, and printers of the same name in Loughborough?

Information about the Birmingham gun quarter

The other question concerns one of the Birmingham pen-making firms which was named after the owner - Joseph Gillott: is there any connection with the Gillott's of Loughborough who had the garage of that name?

Gillott's factory

Nibs at the Pen Museum

Joseph Gillott

Gillott's nibs

Picture of the interior of Gillett's factory

A couple of other incidental connections were that at the Coffin Works they had a machine produced by SamcoStrong in Leicester, which the other half used to work for, and all the museums I visited had typewriters, but it wasn't until I got to the last one (the Pen Museum) that I found an Imperial typewriter from Leicester. 

A SamcoStrong hydraulic cutting press

An Imperial typewriter from Leicester

Other connections to Loughborough - like the canal and terracotta buildings - will have to wait for another blogpost now, as I've run out of time.

Canal, lock and bridge in Birmingham

Terracotta building in the centre of Birmingham

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

Dyer, Lynne (2019). Plaques. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/03/victorian-factories.html  [Accessed 17 March 2019]

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