Sunday 28 August 2022

Walls around Loughborough

Yes! You did read that right! It does say 'walls about Loughborough' even though one might have expected it to read 'walks around Loughborough', given that I'm a tour guide!

The term brick wall could refer to a number of things! For example, it could be used in the phrase 'like banging your head against a brick wall' which means that despite repeatedly asking something, doing something, or saying something, a situation can't be changed. A similar usage is when you are doing your family tree and you 'hit a brick wall', which just means you can't find some vital piece of information - as basic as a date of birth, or marriage date, or date of death - so you can't trace any more information about that part of your family.

In the case of this blog, I'm actually talking about walls made of brick, so house walls, garage walls, garden walls etc.. I've written extensively about local brickmakers in previous posts (1), but I don't think I've shared pictures of brick walls before! We have quite a variety in Loughborough, which use many different kinds of bond, and which are quite different in style. 

So, we've got walls with what look like an inset panel, which seem to have been popular around the late-nineteenth, early twentieth century, like those close to the Great Central Railway, by Herbert Morris, and on Park Road. We've got what look like reconstructed walls that have the imprint of the brick type showing. We've got red brick walls, practically everywhere you look, and we've got blue brick walls, especially on some of the GCR bridges. We've got houses constructed of red bricks, white bricks, and a mixture of the two!

We've got walls made with English Garden Wall Bond; Flemish Garden Wall, or Sussex Bond; English Bond; English Cross Bond; Common, or American Bond and Flemish Bond (either single or double). There's probably a whole load of others, too!

Anyway, here's some photos to show what I mean:

English Garden Wall Bond, Middleton Place

Not a wall, but a bridge. Other GCR bridge walls are also of blue brick

Tuckers, English Cross Bond on the former Prudential Building, Market Place

English Bond on the former Victoria Street School

Flemish Garden Wall, or Sussex Bond, Gray Street

Stretcher Bond, Gray Street. There's also a name for that little inserted row, but it escapes me!

The hidden door, Burton Street

Insert panels with hidden door, in Stretcher Bond, Park Road

Inserts on Mayfield Drive

Inserts, Stretcher Bond, Park Road

English Cross Bond

Flemish Bond at the Great Central Railway, with GR post box

New housing estate boundary Wall in Flemish Bond on Great Central Road

There's a name for this bond, but I don't know what it is! Corner of Wharncliffe Ave and GCRoad

Then we have walls with OS marks - Convent on Park Road


Close-up of the OS mark

We have doors that are now walls

We have bricks of red clay and white clay, used together

We have buildings made completely from white clay bricks

We have brick walls, painted, with sentiment

We have houses of Flemish Bond, mixing white clay and red clay bricks

We have patterns of white clay bricks in red clay bricks

And there we must leave it as it is now dark outside, and my photos are becoming grainy!!

Notes

(1) Posts on the Tucker family; Part 1 about Tucker's bricks; Part 2, and Part 3 . Buildings constructed with Tucker's brick.     

____________________________________

posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

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

Dyer, Lynne (2022). Walls around Loughborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/08/walls-around-loughborough.html [Accessed 28 August 2022]

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.

Blog archive and tags:
If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.  
 
Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne            

Sunday 21 August 2022

So who was Edith Annie Toogood

While Edith Annie Toogood was neither born in Loughborough nor lived in Loughborough, she was nevertheless a frequent visitor to the town.

Edith was born on 12 April 1878 in Leicester, to parents Charles Toogood and his wife Matilda (neé Lowe). Charles Toogood had been born in Horninglow, in Staffordshire, in 1849, to parents Edward, a 32-year-old sailmaker, and his wife Selina (neé Soars) aged 30, who had both been born in Nottingham around 1815, and who married in 1840 at St Modwen in Burton on Trent.

By 1869, Charles Toogood was employed by a railway company, and in 1871 he was lodging in Leicester, and working at the parcels desk, presumably at the Campbell Street Station. In 1874, in Barrow-on-Soar, Charles married Matilda Lowe who was born in 1845, in Queniborough, to parents John and Ann: John was born in Cossington, Ann in Barrow, both in the mid-1790s.

Charles and Matilda’s son, George, was born in 1876, followed by Edith Annie in 1878, but the following year, Charles’s mother, Selina died in Sawley, and Edward, Charles’s father, continued to live on Church Street, Sawley. In 1881, Charles and his family were living at 109 Tachbrook Road, Leamington Spa, where Charles was the stationmaster. In 1883, another daughter, Florence, was born, and the following year, Charles’s father, Edward died.

By 1901, the Toogoods had moved to Ambleside, near Lake Windemere, where they were living at Station House (between Church Street and High Street) as Charles was the railway station master. Edith is the only offspring to be listed with her parents on the 1901 census, but it wasn’t long before she left home for good. In September 1901, Edith Annie Toogood married Walter Herbert Folwell in St Mary’s Church, Kendal. Edith wore a silver-grey silk poplin dress, trimmed with white crepe de chine and point lave, with a grey tucked chiffon picture hat. She carried a bouquet of white flowers, and she wore a pearl necklace. Her sister Florence was a bridesmaid, and Janet Pass from Coventry was the other. Mr and Mrs Folwell caught the 4.35pm steamer at Bowness en route to the Port of Erin on the Isle of Man, where they were to honeymoon.

Walter Herbert Folwell was born on 7 September 1877, the birth being registered in Leicester. He was the son of George Folwell, and his wife Kezia (neé Muggleton). George had been born on 17 May 1836, in Great Glen, and was the son of Samuel Folwell and Ann (neé Ellingwood). Kezia had been born in Newton Harcourt in 1838, to parents Thomas and Ester, both born around 1800, Thomas in Leicestershire, Ester in Naseby, Northants. Thomas died sometime between the 1841 and 1851 census returns, because on the latter, Ester is recorded as a widow, living with her children, Charles 25, James 22, Elizabeth 17, and Keziah 12, in Newton Harcourt. The boys are farmers labourers, and the girls seamsters.


Walter’s parents, George, a pork butcher, and Keziah, married in 1858 in Leicester, and by 1871 they had seven children. When Walter was born in 1877, a further two children had been born, and he was tenth and the youngest. Sadly, Keziah died on 22 November 1877, and in 1881, George and six of his children, including the three-year-old Walter, were living at 114 Cranbourne Street, Leicester. In 1883, Walter’s father, George, marries Harriet Bell, and George’s daughter, Lizzie also married at the same time. In 1891, Walter, now aged 13, was living at home with father George, and
  George’s second wife, Harriet, and four siblings – William (28), Ada (22), Mary (20), and Louisa (18) – along with Harry, George’s grandson, home being 29 St Alban’s Road, Leicester. In 1901, just before his marriage to Edith Annie Toogood, Walter is living at home in St Alban’s Road, and working as his father’s assistant in the butchers.

Walter and Edith may well have begun married life together living at 13 Kimberley Road in Leicester, as this is where they appear to have lived between 1903 and 1907. In 1905, their son, Charles Denis Folwell, was born and registered in Leicester. By 1908, the family had moved to 74 Stretton Road, Leicester. On the 1911 census return, Walter is listed as a pork butcher, working with his father in Market Place, Leicester, where they were ham and bacon curers, and lard refiners, and sold pies, sausages and polonies. Edith and son Denis were also listed, as was companion help, Lillian Garner. From 1912 to at least 1916, pork butcher, Walter, with Edith and Denis were living in a house called Cairene, on Guilford Road, Leicester. Also in 1911, George and family were still living at 29 St Alban’s Road, and Charles Toogood and family had moved to ‘Orrest’, on Brassey Avenue Hampden Park, near Eastbourne.



Both Walter’s and Edith’s fathers died in 1919, George Folwell on 2 July, and Charles Toogood on 13 November. George’s second wife, Harriet had died in 1907, but Matilda, wife of Charles, continued to live in Eastbourne until her death in 1935.

In 1920 Walter Herbert Folwell was initiated into the John of Gaunt Lodge of Freemasons in Leicester. He was recorded in the register as being a provisions merchant. By 1928, Walter and Edith had again moved home, and were now living at 144 Knighton Church Road, Leicester, but for how long is not clear. However, by the time the 1939 register was taken, Edith Annie Folwell and Walter Herbert Folwell were living at 24 Victoria Park Road. His occupation was given as an assistant to a pork butcher, hers a Consultant Practical Psychologist. Florence Toogood, Edith’s sister, is also listed with them as a companion help.

After suffering poor health for some time, Edith Annie Folwell (neé Toogood) died on 11 October 1960, at the age of 82. Walter Herbert Folwell, whose family home address was given as 24 Victoria Park Road, Leicester, died at Hillcrest on Swain Street, a former workhouse, which had been converted to a hospital for the elderly. Edith and Walter’s only offspring, Denis, took over the Victoria Park Road property, but he died soon after, on 24 April 1971.  

So what is the Loughborough connection?

Well, apart from the fact that Denis Folwell played Jack Archer in the BBC Radio programme ‘The Archers’, which is probably familiar to Loughborough folk, Edith was also a regular visitor to the town, in her official capacity. We’ve seen from the 1939 register, that her occupation was listed as ‘Consultant Practical Psychologist’, but what exactly did that entail? In previous blogposts, we’ve also looked at practical psychology in some detail, and seen that a wide variety of talks were given, delivered by people like Mr Milton Powell, Rev. Wall, Derek Neville, and Dr Edith Annie Folwell!

Again, it’s not clear how Edith got into psychology, except that her father-in-law, George certainly delivered talks to various groups around the Midlands on a variety of topics particularly pertaining to religion. So, by 1926, Edith Folwell was the organising secretary for the Leicester Psychology Club, which opened new rooms at 38 Humberstone Road (a beautiful property that now has a Lidl opposite it), in October that year. In May 1930 she was lecturing on ‘Psychology and the child’ at the meeting of the Derby Club of Practical Psychology, and in June 1930, the 8th annual convention of the Federation of Practical Psychology Clubs of Great Britain was held at the King’s Hall in Leicester. An exhibition of dancing was given by the Children’s Health Class of the Practical Psychological Club of Leicester, the class having been founded by Edith. A demonstration of ballroom dancing was given by Marjorie Arculus and Edith’s son, Denis Folwell, who was about 25 at the time.

During the 1930s, Edith gave more and more talks – at Derby in the Cavendish Café in the Corn Market and Gilbert’s Café; at the Leicester Club meetings now being held at the Turkey Café and at the Oriental Café; at Long Eaton in the Oxford Café; at the Savoy Café and the Mikado Café in Nottingham; at Coventry in the Geisha Café; as well as slightly further afield in Regan’s Assembly rooms in Nelson, and at the Marlborough Hall and the Victoria Hall in Halifax. As well as giving talks to the practical psychology clubs, Edith also addressed groups like the Blaby Baptist Church Women’s Group; the Healing Class of Mrs Stabler at the Leeds YMCA; and to the Personal Health Association of Leicester.

1939 was a particularly busy year for Edith, and she found herself described as being a well-known lecturer. In the January she visited Scotland, where she lectured to the Dundee Practical Psychology Club, and the Fife Club. Later that year she attended a rally in Bedford, was president of the Leicester Practical Psychology Fellowship, lectured at Preston, and talked to the Adult School at Market Harborough on the occasion of their anniversary. Nearer to home, she gave a talk to the Cropston and Thurcaston WI at the memorial hall in Thurcaston, and lectured to the ARP on how to keep ‘in poise’ during difficult times. She also talked at Halifax, and attended the annual conference of the British Union of Practical Psychologists, which was held at the Grand Hotel in Leicester.

Sometime around 1939, adverts begin to appear for Edith’s talks, stating that she had gained the qualification Doctor of Psychology, and is now referred to as Dr Edith Folwell, sometimes with the postnominals, Ps.D., Ms.D, and PhD. Edith’s lectures in the early 1940s seem to take place closer to home, either in Leicester itself or in Nottingham, until in the later 1940s she again visits Scotland and Halifax. However, as well as lecturing abroad, Edith also runs psychology classes at her home, 24 Victoria Park Road, Leicester.

In January 1950,  we eventually find evidence that Edith Folwell lectured at a series of practical psychology events, when she lectured to the Loughborough Practical Psychology Group on the ‘art of resolution’, at the Lecture Room on Woodgate, which was likely to be the Wood Gate Baptist church hall. She also led what was described as a Ladies’ Class in the afternoon.  In February 1950, Edith, PsD, MsD, PhD, was again in Loughborough at the meeting of the Loughor0ugh Practical psychology Group, again in the Lecture Room on Wood Gate. This time the topic was ‘the body, psychologically and metaphysically considered’. Also in February, Edith talked to the Leicester Townswomen’s guild on ‘child psychology’ and in March to the Market Harborough Business and Professional Women’s Club. Also in March she was twice in Loughborough, talking on the topics of ‘the mind, psychologically and metaphysically considered’ and ‘the spirit, psychologically and metaphysically considered’. In May 1950, Edith’s lecture was on ‘the resolution of conflict in human experience’, and  ‘the law of compensation’. As well as talking at the June Loughborough meeting, on ‘great minds’, Edith also gave a talk to the Rothley WI, to Harby WI, and to Blaby WI.

In September 1950 Edith lectured in Loughborough on ‘hands psychologically considered’ and ‘our many selves’, and in October on ‘personal experiences’ and ‘nature as the great teacher’. Edith’s topics in November 1950 were ‘the mind of the child’, and ‘aspects of healing’, and in December the topic was ‘was mind – mature and immature’.



I’m not sure if Edith lectured in Loughborough during 1951, but she was certainly here again in 1952, for the year-long series of psychology lectures at the Wood Gate Lecture Room. January’s topic was ‘personal magnetism’; February’s ‘how to store your energy’ and ‘the psychological progress of science and religion’; April’s was ‘psychotherapy, and why’; June’s was ‘the scriptures and the human mind’; September’s was ‘people, their differences, and why’, and December’s lecture was on ‘the law of supply’.

Knowing who attended these series of lectures on practical psychology in Loughborough is not easy to find out, however, we do know from the letters of poet Philip Larkin (1), that Eva Emilie Larkin, his mother, lived in Loughborough, and certainly did go to some of the lectures, and Eva also went to Edith Folwell’s home in Leicester. Whether or not Eva went along to the talk delivered by Derek Neville in late October 1950, as had been suggested by Edith, we don’t know, but she most definitely visited Edith at her home in Leicester in July 1955.

As we know from the above biography, Edith died in 1960 after a period of ill-health. According to an obituary in the 'Leicester Evening Mail' Edith was an eminent doctor of psychology, metaphysics, and philosophy, who held degrees from various European universities, and was well-known throughout the Midlands, the north, and Scotland for her lecturing.

____________________________________

Notes

(1) Booth, James (ed.) 2018. Philip Larkin: letters home 1936-1977. London: Faber and Faber. 9780571335596

____________________________________

posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

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

Dyer, Lynne (2022). So who was Edith Annie Toogood? Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/08/so-who-was-edith-annie-toogood.html [Accessed 21 August 2022]

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.

Blog archive and tags:
If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.  
 
Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne                              

Sunday 14 August 2022

Practical psychology Part 2

Last week on the blog we looked at the origin of the practical psychology clubs that grew up in the UK, particularly in London, and mostly in the northeast and the northwest of England, in places like Leeds, Nelson in Lancashire, Halifax, and Preston. There were also a few clubs in the south of England, and some in Scotland, like Dundee, Fife, Perth and Kirkcaldy. In addition, there was a cluster of clubs in the Midlands, for example, in Leicester, Derby, Long Eaton, Nottingham, Coventry, and Loughborough.


Most clubs engaged a speaker for their regular meetings, the topics of the lectures either being part of a series based on the ‘practical psychology’ created and developed by Anna Maud Hallam, or they may have been on specific subjects of interest. If we look at the Loughborough club in the 1950s, we see that there were many talks, mostly given at the club’s monthly meetings. These are some of the topics that were covered in those meetings of the Loughborough club:

The art of resolution

Body, psychologically and metaphysically considered

The seven systems of psychological healing

Mind, psychologically and metaphysically considered

Spirit, psychologically and metaphysically considered

Inferiority

Resolution of conflict in human experience

The law of compensation

Great minds

Hands – psychologically considered

Our many selves

Personal experiences

Nature as the great teacher

The mind of the child

Aspects of healing

Mind – mature and immature

Personal magnetism

How to store your new energy

The psychological progress of science and religion

Psychotherapy

The scriptures of the human mind

People – their differences, and why

The law of supply

Like most societies, the practical psychology club had a committee and held an annual general meeting. At the AGM in July 1950, members who had borrowed books from the society’s library were encouraged to please return them!

Often, talks and lectures in Midlands towns and cities took place in cafes, for example in Coventry at the Geisha Cafe on Hertford Street, or the Savoy Cafe on South Parade in Nottingham. However, usually, the Loughborough club’s meetings were held in what was described as the Wood Gate Lecture Room. I believe this was a room attached to the Woodgate Baptist Chapel, which was situated next to Tudor Mansions. The chapel was built in 1878 and demolished in 1976, being replaced possibly by the NHS building which is to the left of the Beehive car park as you look across Wood Gate from the Wheeltapper pub. 

That the practical psychology club were able to use the Wood Gate Lecture Room in the 1950s is thanks to the Loughborough Fire Brigade, who in September 1930, sprang into action when flames were reported as coming out of the roof of the lecture room. The roof had to be completely demolished, but the rest of the buildings were saved, as was the piano, and an organ, which was valued at £2,000, and which was being played at the time the fire broke out. Thankfully, there are no reports of injuries to people, and the chapel building itself appears not to have been damaged, as is evident from the report that appeared in the ‘Nottingham Journal’ on 22nd September 1930:

There were a variety of speakers who came to lecture at the Loughborough club, and these included:

Mr Milton Powell, N.D., D.O., at one time Principal of the London School of Natural Therapeutics, Osteopathy, and Psychotherapy, and President of the Nature Cure Association

Rev. C.W. Wall, Ps.F., of Harrogate

Dr Elizabeth Collie-Radford, M.A., E.Ed., Ph.D., Nottingham

Derek Neville (certainly associated with a magazine called  “Here and Now”, and possibly associated with the Science of Thought review) – described as a poet and mystic

Dr Edith Annie Folwell – long-time president of the Leicester practical psychology club

I’m hoping we’ll be able to find out more about one of these speakers in the next blog post!

________________________________

posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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

Dyer, Lynne (2022). Practical psychology Part 2! Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/08/practical-psychology-part-2.html   [Accessed 14 August 2022]

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.

Blog archive and tags:
If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.  
 
Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne             

Tuesday 9 August 2022

Property alterations in Loughborough

I noticed recently that a house on York Road, no.21, was up for sale and the new owner has now applied for planning permission to convert this late-Victorian property into two, two-bedroomed flats. The last time I looked at this property, its quarry tiled entrance floor, and its ceramic tiled porch wall were still intact: I do so hope these original features can be retained.


This chance finding reminded me of several things.

This particular property, if the epigraph is to be believed, was constructed in 1900, and it is likely that Richard Marlow, a 32-year-old assistant superintendent at the Prudential Insurance company, his wife, Elizabeth, and their daughters Hilda and Nellie, were the first inhabitants. 

However, by 1911 it was Herbert Preston Hives, a 39-year-old builders foreman, who lived at 21 York Road, with his wife, Emma, and children Herbert William, Gladys Emmeline, Gerald Kemp, and Ronald Edwin, but by 1939 he had moved to Woodland Road in Leicester. 

In 1939, Albert Ernest Bowler, and his wife, Charlotte, were the residents, and Albert was listed as a 56-year-old wholesale smallware dealer. He was the eldest son of George Harry Bowler, and his wife, Lois. I believe it was Albert’s brother, also George Harry Bowler, who was mayor of Loughborough from 1924-1926, and who gifted the ancient Bluebell Woods to the people of Loughborough, around about the same time as Alan Moss gifted The Outwoods. Albert continued to live at the York Road property until the early 1950s.



Another inhabitant of 21 York Road was Eva Emilie Larkin, mother of the poet Philip Larkin, who lived here from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s. Eva’s daughter, Kitty, also lived on York Road, before moving to Forest Road in the mid-1960s. During the time his mother lived in Loughborough, Philip Larkin was a regular visitor, to York Road, and to Loughborough itself.

This in turn reminded me that today is the 100th anniversary of Philip Larkin’s birth. Briefly, his parents were Sydney Larkin and Eva Emilie Day, who married in 1911, and whose first child, Catherine, was born in 1912 while the family were living in Harborne, and Philip being born on 9 August 1922, in Coventry, when his father was the Deputy City Treasurer. 

Philip chose to become a librarian, and started his career at Wellington library in Shropshire, before taking up posts at the University of Leicester, Queen’s University, Belfast, and then spending nearly 30 years at Hull University. Of course, Larkin is more widely known for being a poet and this explains why there is a Larkin Lane in Loughborough.

You can read more about the man, and read some of his poetry on the Poetry Foundation website, and on the Poetry Archive website you can hear some of Larkin’s poems being read.

The Philip Larkin Society is an active organisation which aims to promote knowledge and appreciation of Larkin’s work, and unite those with an interest in the man. The Society is celebrating Larkin’s anniversary in a number of ways, and you can follow them and their activities on Twitter. Watch out also - there may well be a Larkin-themed event coming to a town very near you!

And this mention of Eva Emilie Larkin brings me full circle back to the practical psychology clubs I wrote about earlier this week ... and that there is much more to say about these ...

 _______________________________________________

posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

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

Dyer, Lynne (2022). Property alterations in Loughborough! Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/08/property-alterations-in-loughborough.html [Accessed 9 August 2022]

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.

Blog archive and tags:
If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.  
 
Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne    

Sunday 7 August 2022

Practical psychology clubs Part 1

The beauty of writing about Loughborough’s local history is that I find myself investigating and researching all sorts of different areas, many of which I admit to knowing nothing about until starting the research! So, for example, previously, I’ve blogged about chrysanthemum shows; about agricultural and horticultural showsabout Luddites; about Zeppelins, and much more. Today I find myself blogging about psychology, again, something I knew very little about.

To be more accurate, I’m writing about practical psychology, so the development of self-help via the practical psychology clubs that grew up across the UK, and, eventually I shall investigate specifically the Loughborough club.

Apparently, practical psychology made its way to the UK after the First World War, with practical clubs becoming established around 1922, based around the work and beliefs of Anna Maud Hallam, from the US. By 1925, there were many such clubs in Britain, and a dedicated journal, called “Practical Psychologist”, and it was in the first issue of this journal that Anna Maud Hallam set out her definition of practical psychology, aiming to appeal to both practising Christians and humanists. Practical psychology was described as:

‘a scientific effort to unfold and understand the laws operating in human life’ and that, ‘This great study of human life brings new enlightenment, new education, new and clearer understanding of the phenomena of every-day life.’ Further, ‘[practical psychology] is an effort based upon unbiased investigation, research, experiment and observation, with just one motive underlying it – to assist the individual in knowing himself.’ (1)

The journal was, however, rather short-lived and was replaced in 1936 by “Practical Psychology”. By the end of the 1930s, there were over 50 practical psychology clubs, and it seems that areas of the country where there were most clubs were London, the northeast and the northwest of England. There was, however, also a cluster of clubs in the Midlands, the south of England, and in Scotland.

Clubs presented regular lectures and hosted meetings of members, as well as providing dedicated libraries, as well as offering courses, and in some cases healing services. Nearby in Leicester, a class for children was specifically set up.

The ideas behind the practical psychology of the day – positive thinking, self-improvement, relaxation, conscious and sub-conscious thought, knowing yourself, amongst many others – meant that it had a broad appeal, and producers of commercial products, like tonics, advertised their goods alongside adverts for club meetings, and in club literature. One of these was, of course, Sanatogen, described as a nerve tonic, created and produced by a company in Germany, who also owned Genatosan, a brand that was created in 1906. The company soon became a limited company, and made medicines and chemicals in Loughborough. Around 1937, Fisons got involved and bought shares in Genatosan, before acquiring the whole of the company. After that, Fisons took over Whiffens and Bengers. The rest, as they say, is history!

Sanatogen is still available today, and Morrisons, the supermarket, describes it as “the original British ‘tonic’ wine”.

And so, I’ve run out of time to write more about the practical psychology clubs in and around Loughborough, but I will be back, next week!

_____________________________

Notes 

(1) Hallam, Anna Maud (1925). The threshold of practical psychology. The Practical Psychologist, Vol.1, No.1, January 1925, pg 1

________________________________

posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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

Dyer, Lynne (2022). Practical psychology Part 1! Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/08/practical-psychology-clubs-part-1.html [Accessed 7 August 2022]

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.

Blog archive and tags:
If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.  
 
Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne