W is for Walking

Back in 2015 I was on a mission to walk more, and I certainly managed to achieve that!! In the process, I discovered just how beautiful our area was and still is, and how lucky we are to have such a variety of countryside surrounding us. Also, of course, as an accredited Leicestershire Tour Guide, I lead groups on guided walks, so walking is fairly central to my life!

Wherever I walk to I usually have my trusty camera to hand, and often stop briefly to take a photo of something interesting – and often the same thing on more than one occasion as the seasons can have a dramatic effect on nature, and on the view! I now find that my pc file directory is full of folders called things like ‘Walk to Beaumanor and back’, or ‘Walk via Woodthorpe to GCR Quorn and back’. Of course, that doesn’t mean I can find the photo I want at the time I want it though!!

While I love walking in the countryside – to the Outwoods, or Beacon Hill – I also love walking along the canal – to Barrow, or to Hathern – and I also love walking the streets of Loughborough, seeing the changes to buildings happening, seeing interesting things I might not have noticed before. Oh, and I love bumping into friends and people when I’m out on a walk.

As for my guided walks, I have put a few of these on this blog – the Luddites and Lace Trail, the Zeppelin Trail, the Three Towers Trail, the Sculpture, Art, and Architecture Trail, and the Walking the Plaques Trail, although I admit at least one of these does need to be updated.

Some of my real life walks include a general walk around Loughborough town centre, an Art Deco walk, and a pubs walk, as well as bespoke walks covering something specific. In September for the Heritage Open Days I shall be leading an Art Deco walk, and a general walk for the Loughborough Library local Studies Volunteers, and two others from the group will be leading a Suffragette walk and a Zeppelin walk. Keep an eye on the HODs website for more details of these walks!

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This post is one in a series of posts for the 'April A-Z Blogging Challenge'

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). W is for Walking. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/back-in-2015-i-was-on-mission-to-walk.html [Accessed 26 April 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

V is for Victorians and what they did for us

So, whatever did the Victorians do for us in Loughborough?

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 until 1901, a period of 63 years, and a time which saw huge changes in the lives and fortunes of not only the well-to-do, but also the poor, across the country.

New research suggests that the industrial revolution was beginning to happen almost a hundred years earlier than was initially thought, so around 1650, but surely, until the nineteenth century, Loughborough was still essentially a farming and agricultural economy? True, we also had butchers, bakers, and tallow chandler makers, and a wide variety of other trades that were essential to life.

However, factory working began to be introduced, and industry began to come to Loughborough in the mid-late seventeen hundreds particularly. I’m thinking here of framework knitting factories, dyeworks like Atherstones, and other trades allied to the hosiery industry. In the early nineteenth century, we see lacemaking, more dyeworks (like Clarke’s, Calverts, Heafford, Hepworth, Rossell, and Toone), brickmakers like the Tuckers, and George Hodson, and the Taylors bellfounders all finding their way to Loughborough. Later in the century, these were joined by hosiers Morley, and Cartwright and Warner, dyers like Godkin & Sons, Claypoole, Diggle and Hardy, and more. And by now there were no less than eight needle-making factories in town, and Messengers were producing glasshouses and conservatories for places across the country. We also saw the rise of ironmakers like Edwin Cooke, and John Jones, and boiler makers like the Coltman family. Towards the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, we also saw the Falcon Works become The Brush, and Herbert Morris moved their factory to Loughborough, and the last new railway in the UK was opened.

So, the Victorian era gave us a lot of engineering and heavy industry in Loughborough, and many were family firms that grew, and remained in the same family for generations. Owners of the family business needed somewhere to live, as did the workers in those factories. Thus, the Victorian era saw a huge increase in the housing available in Loughborough, ranging from the large impressive, country-house-like properties, like Field House, the Grove and so on, to detached residences like those on Ashby Road, and semi-detached properties, for example on Forest Road. Housing for the Victorian workers came in the form of redbrick, terraced properties, like those on Station Street, Paget Street, Leopold Street, and Oxford Street, and on Ratcliffe Road, Queen’s Road, and so on. Houses for the group of people in between the wealthy owners and the workers are probably like those found on Storer Road, Herrick Road, Middleton Place, and similar areas. Many streets bear names that remind us of this Victorian era, from the obvious Victoria Street, Albert Street, and streets named after Victoria and Albert’s offspring. And many houses, and groups of houses include name stones that indicate a connection to the era.  

The Victorian era also gave us things designed to keep us healthy in both body and spirit. So, Queen’s Park was created, with the swimming baths in the park providing a cleaner environment than the baths on Moor Lane near the canal.

To be honest, there is a huge deal more we could say about what the Victorians did for us, but that’s enough for one blogpost! Besides, a very kind person has just given me a copy of BBC History Today which seems to include some interesting stories from Victorian times, and, as if that weren't enough, an article about Muncaster Castle - (Part 2 of Alan's story is also worth a read!)

 

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This blogpost is one in a series of posts in the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). V is for Victorians and what they did for us. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/v-is-for-victorians-and-what-they-did.html [Accessed 25 April 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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.

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NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

U is for Ursula

Looking back through the blog, I can see I’ve already written about Unity House and some of the people and things associated with it (like Gertrude Mary Hutton, Dr Corcoran, and the British Restaurant) many posts about the university, and some posts about Unitarians, which also made an appearance in one of my virtual walks. I also noticed that two of my guest bloggers have been named Ursula!!

Ursula Ackrill is a librarian at the University of Nottingham, working in the Manuscripts and Special Collections area, which is based on the Kings Meadow campus. Ursula’s guest post focused on John Cleveland, a Loughborough poet who was born in 1613. 

My own work with Ursula was on the Loughborough parish library, a collection of books used by the Reverend James Bickham, and left by him to the parish. This was an interesting project which led to me writing many blogposts about the Reverend Bickham, his home, and his library!!

Ursula has given talks on Reverend Bickham’s library, and on parish libraries in our areas, and is currently a committee member of the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society, and can sometimes be found down at the Old Rectory on a Saturday during the building’s open season. 

The guest post which Ursula Davis wrote for this blog, was back in the early days of the lockdown in 2020. Ursula was a student at Loughborough University at the time, so it was very interesting to read about what strategies she had for keeping well – both physically and mentally – during that unprecedented situation. Absolutely fascinating to see how the chance to slow down, to stay local really helped with an appreciation of all that Loughborough and its surroundings have to offer – like Burleigh Woods, the old railway lines, Charnwood Water, Queen’s Park and so much more!

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This post is one in a series of posts for the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). U is for Ursula. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/u-is-for-ursula.html  [Accessed 24 April 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

T is for Trees

Well, who’d have thought I’d struggle so much to find you a suitable entry for letter ‘T’?!

So, I’ve plumped for trees! I love trees! I love to photograph trees! I don’t like that tree pollen sets off my hayfever!

Last year I was lucky enough to visit Woolsthorpe Manor, which is where Isaac Newton used to live, and see his apple tree! Even more thrilling was seeing the little cutting off that tree growing on the Loughborough University campus!

Always having known the Cedar of Lebanon outside the old library on the university campus, it’s only relatively recently that I’ve started to notice trees of the same type in the estate of stately homes, but also around Loughborough. Of course, now I’m trying to remember where I’ve seen them, I can’t!! Except the one in the garden of 55 Park Road, and, of course, outside the Cedars at the end of Cedar Road!

 

There are lots of other places in Loughborough to see trees, like in Queen's Park, along Granby Street and Albert Promenade, along Burton Walks, or maybe if you like water too, down at Charnwood Water?

Going out of Loughborough just a little way – why not walk there? – there are plenty of trees to be seen in The Outwoods, or in the Jubilee Woods, or even on Beacon Hill, and if you’re lucky, there might be a willow sculpture event on!

In my book ‘A-Z of Loughborough’ I did manage to talk about trees – oak trees specifically – under the letter ‘Q’ for Quercus! I see I’ve already shared this entry on the blog, only put it under ‘A’ for Acorns! 

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This post is one in a series of posts for the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). T is for Trees. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/t-is-for-trees.html  [Accessed 23 April 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

S is for Swan

Talking to someone the other day, they wondered why there were a lot of swans in Melton Mowbray. I must admit, I wasn’t sure if they were talking about real, live swans, or some other kind of swan, but whichever it was, it got me to thinking about swans in Loughborough!

A couple of really obvious ones, are the real ones that can be seen on the canal, or down at Charnwood Water, or the little pond adjacent to the Tuckers clay pit off Forest Road, called Swan Lake.

Then there’s the swans that give their name to something. So, Swanns Funeral Services on Bridge Street was established in 1892. Then, we’ve got Swan Street, which joins High Street and runs towards Derby Road, via The Rushes. On one of the maps I’ve seen, The Rushes was identified as being called West Street. I can only assume that these street names came from the knowledge that the area was frequently flooded?

Of course, along The Rushes, we also have a pub called the Swan-in-The-Rushes, but it hasn’t always been called this. Previously the pub was known as the Charnwood Forest Railway Inn, then became the Charnwood Inn when the old building was demolished and the new one built in 1931-2. It wasn’t until 1986 that the name changed again, to the Swan-in-The-Rushes.

But this wasn’t the first pub in Loughborough to have the word Swan in its name. In 1831, there appears to have been a new building with a yard built on Wellington Street, which was being used as a public house called the White Swan, and had been recently occupied by George Slater. This advert appeared in the Leicester Journal and Midlands County Advertiser of 10th June 1831. This new building must have replaced an older building which was also used as a pub, but called the Black Swan. Apparently, the White Swan closed in 1959.

On my recent travels, I have seen both White Swan and a Black Swan in Melton Mowbray, and the Three Swans at Market Harborough, all of which had lovely 3D signs!

  

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This is one of a series of posts in the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

 

 

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). S is for Swan. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/s-is-for-swan.html  [Accessed 22 April 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Ladybird at the Museum

Today I’ve been out on the allotment helping to keep in good shape, and make sure it produces lots of lovely fruit and veg! While I was there, doing a bit of weeding, I spotted a ladybird – and that got me thinking about Ladybird Books!!

I remember going to an exhibition in Leicester Museum and Art Gallery a few years ago, and our own Charnwood Museum has a Ladybird Corner, and has hosted some dedicated exhibitions, as has the local public library. So, it seems like Leicestershire are showcasing Ladybird Books across several of its museums.

I believe Melton Carnegie Museum are also going to feature Ladybird Books in a forthcoming exhibition. This will run from 4th May to 14th September 2024, and will focus on the series Well-Loved Tales. This is s0sre to be an interesting exhibition, and Melton Museum is worth a visit to see its other exhibitions which tell the story of Melton and its surrounding area.

I think the Ladybird Books exhibition at Market Harborough Museum has been and gone, but there is to soon be an exhibition in the community showcase featuring books from the At Work series, and the People Who Help Us series, and the responses of people who live in Market Harborough and around about.

Both Charnwood Museum and Melton Carnegie Museum also have a community showcase: Charnwood’s is called the Spotlight Case, and is currently hosting an exhibition called m’Other Voices. Melton’s is currently about the Observer Corps., but from May will be focussed on the battalions of paratroopers who were stationed in and around Melton Mowbray ahead of Operation Market Garden, which took place in September 1944. Some units of the 82nd Airbourne Parachute Regiment were also billeted near Melton, and in Rutland, as well as being in Quorn.

Anyway I hope you get to have a look around the museums in other parts of the county as they are well worth the trip, especially as the themes are often cahnging!

From the Ladybird exhibition at Market Harborough

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Ladybird At the Museum. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/ladybird-at-museum.html [Accessed 21 April 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Railway Accident

Following on with the train theme ... Please do not read on if you are likely to be upset by details of a local accident ... 

Transcribed from a report in the 'Leicester Journal' of Friday March 8th, 1878. Paragraph breaks added for ease of reading.

LOUGHBOROUGH

FATAL ACCIDENT NEAR LOUGHBOROUGH

On Monday afternoon an elderly man, named John Hyde, about 70 years of age, residing at Cherry Orchard, Loughborough, was crossing the line on a level crossing, about half a mile in the direction of Barrow, from Loughborough, when the Midland Express, which leaves Derby at 2.5 [not sure what time this is actually meant to be], and passes through Loughborough about half-past one, came up without him perceiving it. He was caught by the engine and killed instantaneously.

His grandson, who was with him, saw the train in time, and so escaped un-injured, but he was unable to warn his grandfather in time. At the place where the accident happened there is a clear stretch of railway of about a mile, so that there was plenty of time to get out of the way of the approaching train.

An inquest was held before H. Deane, Esq., coroner, a the Duke of York Inn, on the 5th instant [of this month]. The deceased was 73 years of age. On Monday, he and a grandson, James Rumsby, 10 years of age, went on a walk to the Station on some business, and returned by the Old Cricket Ground, on Nottingham Road, leading to Moor Lane. When they got to the Railway, deceased wished the boy to go across the line; he hesitated, seeing a train coming, and said, they perhaps might get run over.

The deceased wanted to go, so the boy made the best of his way, and got safe across, then turning round he saw the engine of the up express train “strike him up in the air.”. Willaim Brookes, being a short distance from the spot, the went to him crying, and told him the circumstance. On going to the spot he found the body 47 yards from the crossing, with one leg cut off, and the body knocked to pieces.

James Pegg, the driver of the engine in question, said being behind time, they were going at the rate of about 45 miles an hour. He saw the boy cross the line in front of him, and shook his head at him for so doing, but he never saw the deceased.

The body was frightfully mangled. A verdict of ‘Accidental death’ was recorded.

Note: This unfortunate event took place on the Midland Mainline, as although the Great central Railway is in the vicinity of Moor Lane, the line wasn't built until 1899. 

 

____________________________________

This is one in a series of posts for the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’.

 

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Railway accident. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/railway-accident.html [Accessed 20 April 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Q is for Q 30541

In ‘Loughborough A-Z’ for the entry under letter ‘Q’ I chose to write about Charles Quastel, the head of the Spiritualist movement who came and opened Loughborough’s Spiritualist church on Steeple Row in the 1960s; the Queen’s Anniversary Prize, which our university has won numerous times; Quercus Petraea, because we in Loughborough are surrounded by these oak trees, and the Quorn Hunt, because so many of Loughborough’s gentry were part of this.

So, for today’s Q I contemplated writing about a local family going by the surname Quail, but eventually decided to appeal to the railway enthusiasts, by writing – very briefly – about the Q class locomotive, most especially Q 541, also known as Q 30541.

Apparently, the Q class was designed by Richard Maunsell, and was actually his last design. Q 541 was built in 1939 at Eastleigh for Southern Railway, and began its life at Guildford, but only stayed there for 8 years, before being moved to Three Bridges, which I believe is in Crawley. The railways were nationalised in 1948, following The Transport Act of 1947, and Q 541 was re-numbered to Q 30541.

In 1953 the loco moved briefly to Stewarts Lane in Battersea, before spending the next 10 years in Bournemouth. In 1963 it moved back to Guildford, after a few months in Basingstoke, but its life in it the place of its original home was short-lived as the engine was withdrawn in late 1964, and found itself at the scrapyard in Barry.

I don’t know what happened to it for 8 years, but in 1973 it was bought by a group of enthusiasts, and restoration took place at an engineering factory in Gloucestershire. Once some of the work was completed, the loco moved to the Bluebell line in Sussex, where restoration was continued, and finally completed in 1983. It was re-numbered with its original 541 number, and painted in Southern Railways black as it had been originally.

Sorry if I’m preaching to the converted, but railway locomotives have a kind of MOT test for engines, which once issued last for 10 years, after which the engine has to be fully overhauled, a process which can take some time, and indeed this is what happened next to Q 541. Withdrawn for its 10-year overhaul in 1992, it actually took 22 years until the engine was ready to run again, and in 2015, painted in BR black and numbered 30541, it returned to service on the Blubell Line.

So, what exactly does this have to do with Loughborough, other than the fact that we have the wonderful Great Central Railway in our town? Well, Q 30541 has paid many visits to other railways across the country, like Nene Valley, Severn Valley, and Mid-Hants, and on 4th and 5th February 2017 the engine visited Loughborough! As far as I know it was returned safely, but is now again subject to an overhaul.

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This post is one in a series of posts for the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Q is for Q 30541. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/q-is-for-q-30541.html [Accessed 19 April 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

P is for Pubs

Pubs! Well, a very small selection, and it would be remiss of me not to write about pubs for letter ‘P’, given the latest book!!

First of all, is our Phantom under threat? I have a feeling the Phantom, which was once the Cross Keys, is still owned by the Stonegate Group, which has in the past couple of days announced that it is re-financing.

Pubs we have lost since ‘Loughborough Pubs’ was written include the Moon and Bell, which closed in October 2023. It has since been re-roofed, but the windows – some of which are definitely 1930s Crittall windows – have been boarded up. For a while, the internal lights were left on, which afforded an interesting view of the deserted pub. However, Wetherspoons other pub in Loughborough, the Amber Rooms on The Rushes, is still trading.

The Windmill on Sparrow Hill, its frontage emblazoned with the words ‘Loughborough’s Oldest Pub’, has also closed, and the building sold. As far as I am aware it is to become (if it hasn’t already) a residential property.

The Plough over at Thorpe Acre has closed very recently, I believe. This is an interesting establishment, which has its back facing onto the road: you need to go round the back – to the front! – to really appreciate the building.

Champs was surrounded by scaffolding a few months ago. The Bellfoundry had another re-furb, and the Blacksmiths is currently being renovated. 

Blacksmiths before latest renovation

There are numerous other posts about Loughborough's pubs on this blog: use the web view rather than the mobile view to see an alphabetical list of topics covered, where pubs will be listed under their name.

I don't know if it still contains up-to-date information, but years ago I did a pub quiz with a difference for the blog!

____________________________________

This post is one in a series of posts for the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Pubs. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/p-is-for-pubs.html  [Accessed 18 April 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne