Bellringing Loughborough and light show Nottingham

Well, this week has been a bit of a funny one, well, maybe 'funny' isn't quite the right word to describe the incapacitation that comes with a migraine. Recovery was aided somewhat by an interesting diversion when I found myself offering to be friendly, helpful and knowledgable down at the parish church on Saturday, when a visiting band of bellringers from across the country came to ring a specific, rather challenging peel. Friendly and helpful I can do, but I wasn't so sure about the knowledgeable, however, armed with the few snippets of info I did know, and the information that was available on the sheets provided for visitors to use written by more knowledgeable people than me, was very helpful and seemed to do the trick.

Anyway, we had a few visitors who were really impressed with our relatively big church, and I had some good conversations with a wide variety of people. We were also treated to a bit of an impromptu organ recital from one of the visiting bellringers!!

Entering the parish church

Open for visitors!

Some of the beautiful stained glass within

An impromptu organ recital!

About to ascend the tower

The bellringing challenge!

Church information sheets

Church information sheets

When I'd finished at the parish church I went off to Nottingham to see the lighting show they were putting on across the city. Luckily, by the time we got to Nottingham it was after 4pm so we didn't have long to wait for the darkness to fall and the light show to begin. I must admit, the show reminded me of the similar event we had in Loughborough, when in celebration of the inaugural Loogabarooga Festival, characters from children's books were projected onto the carillon. At the time I simply enjoyed the event, but in hindsight, it would have been great to have projected onto the Town Hall, like they did at the Nottingham event. Here's some photos of the Nottingham event:

And here are some photos I took at the Loughborough event. I have changed my camera a number of times since these were taken, hence the better quality of the Nottingham photos is down to the photographer, not the lighting show! 

The other thing I've done this week, probably because I was feeling unwell, was doing a bit of phisolophical thinking about Loughborough. I've done this before, but this time I was thinking about something someone had said about not knowing where you're going until you know where you've been. The statement was being applied to individuals, but as I see it, it can also apply to places. A knowledge of the past history of the town - the difficulties encountered, the successes, the makeup of the population, the wider societal context, and a whole range of other things - all help us to understand where we, as a town, are today, and perhaps to show where we could be in years to come. The problem for me comes with how far back in history do you need to go in order to understand how Loughborough became the town it is today? More particularly, why am I so fascinated by the Victorian era, and less so by the life of the town and its people in the Mediaeval period? I feel I should be interested, but find it quite hard to get over-excited, I suppose because I feel closer to the Victorian era, because my great-great-grandmother, who was born in 1871, was still alive when I was 2, so was very much alive in the minds of my great-grandmother, grandmother and mother for many years after this, and thus I felt a connection to her. That and the fact that I actually knew numerous of my great-great aunts and uncles who had been born in the late 1800s, many of whom lived into the last quarter of the twentieth century.

The other thing that I was thinking about was how Loughborough means different things to different people: there is no one Loughborough. I'm sure I've said this before on here, but if pop into the town centre on a Tuesday, you'd be forgiven for thinking Loughborough was a quiet, sleepy little place, whereas if you go into town on a Thursday or a Saturday, you'll think Loughborough is a bustling little market town. Of course, everyone is right! 

Finally, I convalesced yet further by watching the episode of Antiques Road Trip (1) where they came to Loughborough and visited Taylors Bellfoundry and the beautiful Carillon in Queen's Park. Staff of the bellfoundry and the Borough Carilloneur all seemed to really enjoy the visit!!    

Anyway, this blogpost is rather short because I've been out of action for a few days, but, here's the good news - next week, you wonderful readers will be treated to an absolute corker of a blog post!! Watch this space, and be sure to pop back next week!!

(1) Only available until 7 March 2020.

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

Dyer, Lynne (2020). Bellringing Loughborough and light show Nottingham. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/02/bellringing-loughborough-and-light-show.html  [Accessed 9 February 2020]

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Lynne