Lynne About Loughborough: December 2019

Sunday, 29 December 2019

Review of 2019

So, here we are saying goodbye not only to 2019, but also to a decade, and welcoming in a new year. This past year has been so eventful, both in Loughborough, and for the blog: what follows is a review of 2019 through the blog posts, including a note of your favourite posts from the year, and from the life of the blog.

The blog began 2019 with a number of posts in January featuring buildings that had been demolished in 2018 - The Royal George pub, the goods shed associated with the Charnwood Forest Railway, and the former bed shop on Granby Street.

In February, the Local Studies department of Loughborough public library re-launched as the Local and Family History Centre, hosted an exhibition of the work of William Railton, and released a book about Robert Bakewell.

There was much excitement in Market Street in March as a Leicestershire green plaque was unveiled in honour of John Heathcoat who had a factory on the spot now occupied by Iceland.

The Garendon estate was opened up at the beginning of April for the annual Loughborough half marathon - an opportunity for lynneaboutloughborough to take some photos of one of the lodges, designed by Railton, from a different angle! This was also the month of the bluebells!

The Victoria County History project landed in Loughborough in May 2019, and research has been on-going ever since, with a view to producing a 'red book' of the history of the town, since the last Leicestershire volume was produced in the late 1890s.

June 2019 was a very busy month, with Picnic in the Park (taking place indoors, because of the waterlogged park), the Armed Forces Day in the town centre, and the unveiling fo the Songster armature in Queen's Park.

I'm not sure what happened in Loughborough in July as I spent two weeks on holiday, but while I was away I was constantly reminded of Loughborough - through bells, milestones, pubs, workhouses, clocks, war memorials, and the Civil War.

The same was true of my visit to Blenheim Palace in August, where I saw so many things that reminded me of Loughborough, including mention of Baron Muncaster. August was also the month when the Ladybird Books exhibition was held at the New Walk Museum in Leicester.

September was a great month when lynneaboutloughborough went on a guided walk of the Civil War on the edge of Loughborough at Cotes. They also led a walk from the Carillon to the Bellfoundry as part of the Heritage Open Days events, and took a BBC podcaster on a walk to discover some local secret places.

The Great Central Railway had one of their murder mystery evenings during October, which was great fun and came with some wonderful food!! The Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society hosted a brilliant talk in October, on houses on the Paget and Storer estates.

November saw the return of the annual street fair, the poignant Remembrance Day service, the parish church Christmas tree festival, the Christmas lights switch-on, street festival and craft fair, and the unveiling of a Leicestershire green plaque honouring two suffragettes from Loughborough.

Although during December, as one might expect, the focus has been on Christmas, there was a book launch event at the Carillon. The blog also covered the journey made, 200 years ago, by Mr Samuel Yates, of Loughborough, who walked daily from Loughborough to Nottingham and back for a bet - which he won!

And so to your favourite posts of 2019!

10th place - Old Railway and Woods - 359 views
9th place - Picnic in Queen's Park and more - 371 views
8th place - Garendon and the marathon - 380 views
7th place - Knocking on the door to the past - 382 views
6th place - Loughborough and Shughborough - 395 views
5th place - Lost buildings of 2018 Charnwood Forest Railway Goods Shed - 455 views
4th place - Loughborough is the best town in the world! - 510 views
3rd place - Lost buildings of 2018 the Royal George - 776 views
2nd place - Lost buildings of 2018 Granby Street - 801 views
1st place - Loughborough in Nottingham: pubs and stuff! - 841 views

The blog has now been going since August 2013, and was in response to lynneaboutloughborough training to be a tour guide and looking for another way to share the history of Loughborough more widely, and to promote the town, which had been in danger of being labelled a 'crap town'.

Here are your favourite all-time posts:

10th place - Loughborough is the best town in the world eva! - 1607 views
9th place - 40 years in Loughborough - 1650 views
8th place - Loughborough snow today! - 1662 views
7th place - Disasters in Loughborough - 1720 views
6th place - Weddings - 1767 views
5th place - Snowy Loughborough - 1773 views
4th place - Ghost signs of Loughborough - 1910 views
3rd place - Spotlight on Ashby Road - 1993 views
2nd place - Plague and Dead Lane - 2062 views
1st place - Disasters and plague houses - 2108 views

The blog posts are a bit like diary entries, but the pages are more static. Here are your all-time favourites:

6th place - Books & Bibliography - 1551 views
5th place - Loughborough Zeppelin Trail - 1760 views
4th place - 100 days about Loughborough - 1886 views
3rd place - Loughborough Luddites and Lace Trail - 2027 views
2nd place - About Me - 2451 views
1st place - Loughborough Sculpture, Art & Architecture Trail - 2558 views

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). Review of 2019. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/12/review-of-2019.html [Accessed 29 December 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

Sunday, 22 December 2019

The Carillon - a perfect setting

Well, there's nothing quite like a good book launch, and this weekend I've been lucky enough to go along to a really exciting one!

This particular book has been a long time in the making - and there's nowt wrong with that! I'm a great believer in things happening for a reason and that every experience leads to the next, so perhaps without completing an MA in Creative Writing at Loughborough University in 2011, and without following that up with a PhD, this book might not have happened.

Karen signing copies of her new book

For her PhD, the author, Dr Karen Ette, studied and investigated modern English creative writing, and her research focused particularly on literature of the 'Great War', so is it really surprising that the novel she has now published is based on original and unpublished letters and diaries of David Adcock, a soldier in the Leicestershire Regiment (later the Royal Leicestershire Regiment), members of whom were called The Tigers.

Of course, I haven't yet had time to read this lovely book, but the synopsis hints at everything a good read should do, and the cover is beautifully designed, and evocative of the period.

The appealing front cover of Karen's book ...

... continues onto the back cover!

There's a queue building ...

Loughborough's Carillon in Queen's Park

So, the carillon was the perfect setting in which to launch this book, surrounded by artifacts from the First World War, and to the melodious sound of the carillon being played by the Borough Carilloneur, Caroline Sharpe.

Memories of Loughborough's war horse, Songster, were evoked as the original marker for his grave was on display (a new one was made by a member of staff at the university, and placed at his grave at a memorial service in June 2018). This also reminded me about another writer friend, Alison Mott, whose children's book called 'Songster Loughborough's own war horse' was released in October 2018, and was beautifully illustrated by Liz Waddell.

Also on display in the carillon was a model of a Zeppelin, rather like the one which dropped its bombs on Loughborough during the evening of 31st January 1916. Hmm, and that reminds me that another writer friend, Ian Castle, has written several books about the Zeppelin raids, and I'm pretty confident that 'The First Blitz in 100 Objects', which will be published in February 2020, will contain something of interest to the people of Loughborough!

A model Zeppelin

Display case containing information on the Zeppelin raid (1)

Display case containing information on the Zeppelin raid (2)

Display case containing information on the Zeppelin raid (3)

Many of my other friends have written books related to Loughborough too, including Bill Wells ('Billy's Book of Loughborough Boozers', to name but one of the many pub books he's written!), whom I first met in 2013; Ian Porter, who wrote 'Last of the Luddites'; Dennis Powdrill who wrote about his experience of working at Cottons for many years ('Cotton's of Loughborough') and Derrick Hewitt, who has now completed the second book in his series about the Cartwright and Warner, hosiers, called 'Cartwright and Warner'. I do hope no-one is offended if they've written a book about Loughborough, but I haven't mentioned them above

Just in case you are interested in yet more books about Loughborough, 'Loughborough in 50 Buildings' and 'Secret Loughborough' are both available in Loughborough's Waterstones and W H Smith, and online from Amazon, and other good booksellers, including the publishers. Copies will also soon be available from the Local and Family History Centre in the public library.

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). The Carillon - a perfect setting. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-carillon-perfect-setting.html

[Accessed 22 December 2019]

Take down policy:

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Sunday, 15 December 2019

Mr Yates completes his journey 200 years ago

Having read last week's blogpost about Mr Yates who was traveling to Nottingham each day from Loughborough as part of a bet, you might be interested to read about this progress over the week.

"Mr Yates, the Loughborough pedestrian, (of whose engagement, mention was made last week) completed his task, in grand style, on Saturday evening. The concourse of people who met him a short distance from the town, and attended him to the Bull's Head [on High Street], his "winning post" was so great, that it was with the utmost difficulty an avenue could be preserved for him to hobble along with his two sticks! The enlivening sounds of band music - the magnitude of the light shed upon the company by the large flambeau, and lanterns, carried before him - the ringing of bells, and the welcome shouts of his friends, rendered hist entry altogether, a truly exhilarating scene. Paradoxically speaking, the worst leg, about which such apprehensions had been entertained, ultimately "weathered the storm" the best; this however was accounted for by his having walked a good deal with one stick, and pressed considerably on the well let, with a view of saving the other, in the early part of his toil; but both of the were ar last, nevertheless much inflammed. He did not eat an ounce of animal food during the whole six days, subsisting chiefly on gingerbread, biscuits, brandy, gin and tea, with now and then a little soup, and small portions of bread and butter.

Underneath is a tabular view of the time occupied in each day's performance.

Monday, December 6th, 10 hours 25 minutes

Tuesday, December 7th, 11 hours 7 minutes

Wednesday, December 8th, 11 hours 39 minutes

Thursday, December 9th, 11 hours 18 minutes

Friday, December 10th, 11 hours 24 minutes

Saturday, December 11th 10 hours 26 minutes"

So, in total Mr Yates walked 183 miles over 6 days, and for a total of 66 hours and 19 minutes!

All for a bet, and with poorly legs!!

From: Nottingham Review and General Advertiser for the Midland Counties, 17th December 1819, pg 3

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). Mr Yates complete his journey 200 years ago in Loughborough. Available from:https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/12/mr-yates-completes-his-journey-200.html [Accessed 15 December 2019]

Take down policy:

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Sunday, 8 December 2019

Two hundred years ago in Loughborough

Again, this week I've been busy attending events, like the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society talk delivered by James Wright, FSA, on Mediaeval fireplaces, a trip to Nottingham Royal Concert Hall, a visit to Market Bosworth and attendance at an election hustings. I feel the need to go back in time a bit and see what was going on in Loughborough in December 1819 ...

The hustings were focussed particularly on the future of the NHS, and one of the things mentioned was health promotion and prevention of illness. Set me thinking about walking, as this is what I do to keep myself relatively fit, which suits me as I have no interest nor ability in sport. I'm not sure though that I could even begin to contemplate what Mr Samuel Yates of Loughborough did in December 1819:

"Mr Samuel Yates, of Loughborough, has undertaken for a wager, to walk from the Bull's Head Inn, in that town [High Street, most recently Browns beauty salon], to the Black's Head [1] in Nottingham, and back again each day for six successive days between the hours of eight in the morning and eight in the evening. He commenced his task on Monday morning last [Monday 7 December 1819], and there is now (Thursday morning) every probability of his succeeding, unless the leg, which he accidentally broke in going down Bunny Hill, about eighteen months ago, and from which misfortune he is but imperfectively recovered, should be incapable of sustaining the exertion till the end of the appointed term. Mr Yates sometimes walks with one, and sometimes with two sticks, is in his 53rd year, and his diurnal trip thirty miles and a half. The bets are two to one in his favour: indeed, he himself, so confident of winning, sacrificed the like odds in making the wager."

From:
Nottingham Review and General Advertiser for the Midland Counties, 10 December, 1819, pg 3

Mr Joseph Barnsdall, was a builder and timber surveyor, based at Loughborough Dock, and

it was from him that further details of an amazing private contract sale could be obtained:

"An entire new packet boat, partly decked over and fitted up for the convenience of passengers, and is well calculated for the conveyance of goods and merchandize [sic] on the River Trent and adjoining canals, to all parts of the kingdom. A good opportunity is now offered to persons who may be desirous of embarking in the conveying of goods etc. on the River Trent, the above packet being remarkably well built, and calculated to be worked by steam, and will be sold at half the original cost of steam packets in general."

From:
Nottingham Review and General Advertiser for the Midland Counties, 10 December, 1819, pg 1

[1] The only Black's Head in Nottingham that I have so far managed to find is one that is on Burton Road, Carlton, which via today's roads is just about 17 miles.

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). Two hundred years ago in Loughborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/12/two-hundred-years-ago-in-loughborough.html [Accessed 8 December 2019]

Take down policy:

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Sunday, 1 December 2019

Christmas trees abound!

So last week we had the Christmas lights switch on in the town centre. This week we've had the parish church alight with Christmas trees! The Christmas tree festival now seems to be a regular event in the church calendar, and what great event it is too! This year, like last, there has been huge display of trees on display - this year, over 120 - from all manner of Loughborough groups.

Here's a few photos of the ones that really caught my eye.