Sunday, 24 August 2025

Christie and Cook

On the blog last week mention was made of Thomas Cook, and his first package tour from Leicester to Loughborough in 1841. If I remember rightly, the company was taken over by Hays, and it was around that time (2018??) that the Thomas Cook archive was deposited at the Record Office for Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland. I believe Thomas Cook is now part of eSky. Anyway, I think I also mentioned Agatha Christie last week? So now seems like a good time to combine Cook and Christie!!!

While I was reading all the Agatha Christie novels last year, I was struck by the number of times ‘Cook’s’ was mentioned – and I may have missed some of them! Seems to me, that throughout the appearance of Cook’s in the books, starting in 1924 in The Man in the Brown Suit, to Cat Among the Pigeons in 1959, the company must have been very well known, since in no instances does Christie expand upon what exactly the business was about. Admittedly, such information is usually obvious from the context in which the reference to Cook’s appears, so that makes it rather interesting, and not unlike passing references to shops of the period, maybe like Harrods, or Fortnum and Masons. The Mystery of the Blue Train contains the most references, while most of the others contain only one.

So, here are some extracts from the mentions I’ve found of Thomas Cook’s travel agency business in Agatha Christie’s novels. The page numbers are taken from the editions I read, which were published by Heron Books, c. 1976. 

Today, you can follow a heritage trail linked to places connected with Thomas Cook - e.g. Loughborough railway station; on the entrance to Southfields Park; his birthplace in Melbourne; Leicester railway station, and a building on King Street and Welford Place, Leicester. The Loughborough ones are on the plaque trail on this blog. A new plaque was unveiled at Loughborough railway station a few years ago, too.

Thomas Cook at Leicester Railway Station

 
New plaque at Loughborough Railway Station

The Man in the Brown Suit, 1924, Chapter 1, page 9

An anthropologist and his daughter are planning to travel to see a newly discovered antique skull:

“There is not time to be lost. We must be on the spot – there are doubtless incalculable finds to be found in the neighbourhood. I shall be interested to note whether the implements are typical of the Mousterian period – there will be the remains of the primitive ox. I should say, but not those of the woolly rhinoceros. Yes, a little army will be starting soon. We must get ahead of them. You will write to Cook’s today, Anne?’

‘What about money, Papa?’ I hinted delicately.

He turned a reproachful eye upon me.

‘Your point of view always depresses me, my child. We must not be sordid. No, no, in the cause of science one must not be sordid.’

‘I feel Cook’s might be sordid, Papa.’

Papa looked pained.

‘My dear Anne, you will pay them in ready money.’

‘I haven’t got any ready money.’

Papa looked thoroughly exasperated.

‘My child, I really cannot be bothered with these vulgar money details …’”

 

The Mystery of the Blue Train, 1928, Chapter 8, pg 59

Lady Tamplin has invited her cousin, Katherine Grey, to visit her:

“[Katherine] drew out from her handbag the letter she had received that morning from Lady Tamplin. Katherine was no fool. She understood the nuances of that letter as well as anybody and the reason of Lady Tamplin’s sudden show of affection towards a long-forgotten cousin was not lost upon her. It was for profit and not for pleasure that lady Tamplin was so anxious for the company of her dear cousin. Well, why not? There would be profit on both sides.

‘I will go,’ said Katherine.

She was walking down Piccadilly at the moment, and turned into Cook’s to clinch the matter then and there. She had to wait a few minutes, The man with whom the clerk was engaged was also going to the Riviera…”

Ditto, Chapter 9, page 60

“Derek Kettering … strolled along deep in thought … He walked up St James’s Street, across Picadilly, and strolled along it in the direction of Piccadilly Circus. As he passed the offices of Messrs. Thomas Cook & Sons his footsteps slackened. He walked on, however, still turning the matter over in his mind. Finally, he gave a brief nod of his head, turned sharply, so sharply as to collide with a couple of pedestrians who were following in his footsteps, and went back the way he had come. This time he did not pass Cook’s, but went in. The office was comparatively empty, and he got attended to at once.

‘I want to go to Nice next week. Will you give me particulars?’

‘What date, sir?’

‘The fourteenth. What is the best train?’

‘Well, of course, the best train is what they call ‘The Blue Train.’ You avoid the tiresome Customs business at Calais.’

Derek nodded. He knew all this, none better.

‘The fourteenth’ murmured the clerk; ‘that is rather soon. The Blue Train is nearly always all booked up.’

‘See if there is a berth left,’ said Derek. ‘If there is not –‘ He left the sentence unfinished, with a curious smile on his face.

The clerk disappeared for a few minutes and presently returned. ‘That is all right, sir; still three berths left. I will book you one of them. What name?’

‘Pavett,’ said Derek. He gave the address of his rooms in Jermyn Street.

The clerk nodded, finished writing it down, wished Derek good morning politely, and turned his attention to the next client.”

Ditto, chapter 10, page 77

Katherine Grey awoke during the middle of the night on the train, so decided to walk along the carriage

“She looked down the long, dim line of the corridor and saw, to her surprise, that a man was standing with his hand on the door of the compartment occupied by the lady in the mink coat. That is to say, she thought it was the compartment. Probably, however, she was mistaken. He stood there for a moment or two with his back to her, seeming uncertain and hesitating in his attitude. Then he slowly turned, and with an odd feeling of fatality, Katherine recognised him as the same man whom she had noticed twice before – once in the corridor of the Savoy Hotel and once in Cook’s offices. Then he opened the door of the compartment and passed in, drawing it to behind him.”

Ditto, Chapter 12, page 96

Following the murder of one of the passengers, Katherine remembers her nocturnal wander:

“But suddenly Katherine remembered a small fact … She had certainly thought that she had seen a man going into that particular compartment, but she realised that she might easily have been mistaken. It might have been the compartment next door, and certainly the man in question could be no train robber. She recalled him very clearly as she had seen him on those two previous occasions – once at The Savoy and once at Cook’s office. No, doubtless she had been mistaken, He had not gone into the dead woman’s compartment, and it was perhaps as well that she had said nothing to the police. She might have done incalculable harm by doing so.”

 

Evil Under the Sun, 1941, Chapter 1, part 2, pg 3:

“Mrs Gardener was saying: … all I want now is to get to some quiet spot by the seaside and just relax. That’s what I said, wasn’t it Odell? Just relax. I feel I must relax, I said. That’s so, isn’t it Odell?

Mr Gardener, from behind his hat murmured:

“Yes darling.”

Mrs Gardener pursued the theme.

“And so when I mentioned it to Mr Kelso, at Cook’s – He’s arranged all our itinerary for us and been most helpful in every way. I don’t really know what we’d have done without him! – well, as I say when I mentioned it to him, Mr Kelso said that we couldn’t do better than come here [Leathercombe Bay]. A most picturesque spot, he said, quite out of the world, and at the same time very comfortable and most exclusive in every way.”

 

Destination Unknown, 1954, Chapter 2, page 46:

“[Hilary Craven, in disguise as Mrs Olive Betterton] had already inquired at the desk [in the hotel], but there had been no messages or letters for her there. The first steps in her new role had to be taken very much in the dark. Olive Betterton might perhaps have been told to ring a certain number or contact a certain person at Casablanca. As to that, there was no clue. All the knowledge she had to go on was Olive Betterton’s passport, her letter of credit, and her book of cooks’ tickets and reservations. These provided for two days in Casablanca, six days in Fez, and five days in Marrakesh. These reservations were now, of course, out of date, and would have to be dealt with accordingly. The passport, the Letter of Credit and the accompanying Letter of Identification had been suitably dealt with. The photograph on the passport was not that of Hilary, the signatures on the Letter of Credit was Olive Betterton in Hilary’s handwriting. Her credentials were all in order. Her task was to play her part adequately and to wait. Her master card must be the plane accident and its resultant loss of memory and general haziness.”  

Ditto page 48:

“The evening so far had been quite indecisive. The two women who had talked to [Hilary] had been such well-known travelling types that she could hardly believe that they were other than they seemed. Tomorrow, she decided, if she had received no word or communication of any kind, she would go to Cooks, and raise the question of fresh reservations at Fez and Marrakesh.”

 

4.50 from Paddington, 1957, Chapter 18, pt 2, page 177

Inspector Craddock is questioning Cedric Crackenthorpe about his arrival in England from Iviza:

“… ‘You told me, Mr Crackenthorpe, that you left Iviza on 21st December and arrived in England the same day?’

‘So I did. Em! Hi, Em!’

Emma Crackenthorpe came through the adjoining door from the small morning-room. She looked inquiringly from Cedric to the inspector.

‘Look here, Em. I arrived for Christmas on the Sunday before, didn’t I? Came straight from the airport?’

‘Yes,’ said Emma wonderingly. ‘You got here about lunch time.’

‘There you are,’ said Cedric to the inspector.

‘You must think us very foolish, Mr Crackenthorpe,’ said Craddock pleasantly. ’We can check on these things, you know. I think, if you’ll show me your passport –‘

He paused expectantly.

‘Can’t find the damned thing,’ said Cedric. ‘Was looking for it this morning. Wanted to send it to Cook’s.’”

 

Cat Among the Pigeons, 1959, Chapter 19, pt 2

Inspector Kelsey is trying to trace a woman called Mrs Upjohn.

“Easier said than done,’ said Kelsey. ‘We’ve been trying to get in contact with Mrs Upjohn, but the whole thing’s a headache! When the child said a bus, I thought she meant a proper coach tour, running to schedule, and a party all booked together. But that’s not it at all. Seems she’s just taking local buses to any place she happens to fancy! She’s not done it through Cook’s or a recognised travel agency. She’s all on her own, wandering about. What can you do with a woman like that? She might be anywhere!” 

 

____________________________________

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 (2025). Christie and Cook. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/08/christie-and-cook.html  [Accessed 24 August 2025]

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

Friday, 22 August 2025

Carillon museum opens, leisure centre opened!

Over the past few summer months I’ve managed to miss several events taking place in our lovely town – like the dedication ceremony for the Hope Bell in Queen’s Park, the VJ Day Commemorations, also in the park, the Pride event which also happened in the park, and I’m sure there are other events that I’m not aware of!

This morning, I was lucky enough to be in Queen’s Park for the (re-)opening ceremony of the Loughborough Carillon Tower and War Memorial. This was a very emotional event for me as I have previously been a volunteer in the museum when all floors were open to the public, so I was keen to see the new ground floor space. I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed.



After a short speech by Mel, who looks after the people who volunteer to staff the Carillon, and whom you might have seen recently lighting the beacon in the park at the VJ Day commemoration, and from the mayor, the ground floor was declared open, and the doors thrown wide!






My first glance, and I could feel the atmosphere in there! Although the space is still small, and many artefacts are no longer on display, the designers had done a wonderful job of creating an interesting, engaging, and informative display, a tribute to all those who are commemorated. There was not a single space that had not been used to good effect: look up, look down, look all around as I always say!! I must admit though, even I struggled to read the caption to a photograph that was at floor level, and had to kneel on the floor!




There were many people in attendance, and the room was a little crowded, so I didn’t have a chance to read any of the information in detail, nor look closely at the artefacts on display, so I shall make a return visit – or two! If you’d like to visit, you can find the opening hours – and much more information – on the Carillon Tower and War Memorial website. https://carillontower.org.uk/

While I was chatting at the opening of the museum in the Carillon, I was alerted to the fact that it was 50 years ago today that the town leisure centre was opened. This was built on the Brown’s Lane football ground, which had also been the venue for the Grand Bazaar and Fete that was held in 1922 to raise money towards the building of the Carillon, which included the competition to win the Alexandra Bedspread. By the same token, of course, it must be 50 years since the swimming baths in Queen’s Park, now the Charnwood Museum, closed, when the pool(s) opened in the new Brown’s Lane leisure centre.



And, don't forget to visit the Carillon in our beautiful park!


____________________________________

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 (2025). Carillon museum opens, leisure centre opened!

Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/08/carillon-museum-opens-leisure-centre.html  [Accessed 22 August 2025]

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

Sunday, 10 August 2025

All the fun of the seaside!

Since completing my challenge of reading all the Agatha Christie novels, I’ve had a chance to read a few more books, including some more crime novels, and other books like The Observant Walker, Postal Paths, and Newark-on-Trent

I’ve just started To the Sea by Train which seems an appropriate book to read, given that it’s summer, so holidays are on the cards, and that there’s an exhibition at the public library about the Leicester Fortnight – so the time when all the local factories closed down for two weeks so workers could go on holiday, but probably more likely was because it meant that the company could completely shut down for a period and save some money on overheads, like lighting, heating, and general energy consumption.



Of course, it wasn’t just Leicester and Leicestershire that closed down for a short period. Other towns and cities did too, Coventry, for example. According to this article, while Leicester and Leicestershire folk made their way by train to Skegness, people from Coventry went by bus to Great Yarmouth.

Anyway, back to “To the Sea by Train”. Only 39 pages in and I did a bit of a double-take! I wasn’t expecting to find our lovely town mentioned, but there it was, in black and white! The author was considering a trip to the seaside town of Brighton, that had taken place in August 1844, and which was organised by Rowland Hill, who is perhaps better known for beginning the Penny Post. On this particular trip people were going to Brighton races, and the author presumes that these groups of racegoers were not members of the Temperance Society!

He says:

“Surely it was almost impossible to go to Brighton races and not drink, and this early excursion was presumably a rowdier affair than the landmark event organised by the temperance campaigner and holiday entrepreneur Thomas Cook.”

Hmmm … Our author continues:

“He [Cook] is taken to be the originator of the railway excursion, having laid on a jaunt from Leicester to Loughborough on 5 July 1841, which, given the absence of sea, doesn’t like it would have been much fun even had alcohol been involved.”

Hmmm, again …

If I’ve tracked down the right newspaper report of the event, either the reporter wasn’t a member of the Temperance Society, or people really did actually have a fun time! The Nottingham Review of 9 July 1841 had this to say:

“Tee-total Festival at Loughborough

A number of delegates from different parts of the midland counties, having had to meet at Loughborough this week, for the transaction of the general business of the societies, it was agreed upon to take advantage of the occasion and have a festival, which the tee-totallers of Nottingham, Derby, Leicester, Harborough, and other places should be invited to attend: William Pagett [sic.] Esq., although not, we believe, a tee-totaller himself, kindly granted them the use of his park [Southfields] for the occasion.

The morning dawned rather inauspiciously, but as the day advanced the weather became fine, and dissipated the fears of those who took an interest in the holiday. Engagements had been made with the railway directors, for the persons coming from Leicester and Derby, at half the usual prices; and at about eleven o’clock, crowds of people were seen wending their way towards the railway station to witness the arrival of the train from Leicester. The committee of the Loughborough Tee-Total Society were in attendance with a flag to receive them. About half past eleven the train arrived, consisting of one second class carriage, and nine third-class carriages, each crowded with respectably dressed and apparently happy tee-totallers.



We understand there were about five hundred in all. They had with them the Leicester Independent Band dressed in uniform, and two flags. Having joined the Loughborough friends, they proceeded in procession towards the Market Place, and were met by a number of the members of the Catholic Society with a banner, near the Barracks. [1] The number of spectators was immense, the Nottingham Road from the Canal Bridge to the Barracks being one mass of human beings.

A number of the Dragoons at the Barracks, had got astride the roof, and being stripped to their shirts, and wide white trousers, their fine proportions were swelled to those of Patagonians. The windows were also crowded with fierce moustachioed faces, one of which in particular attracted our attention. This soldier, like those on the roof, was stripped, his head was covered with a red woollen night-cap, his moustaches were black and of great size, and he regarded the moving, joyful crowd with the imperturbable gravity of a Turk. The procession having arrived at the park, more from Leicester partook of ham and other refreshments, which had been provided at the general expense.

At two, the procession was again formed, and they then proceeded to the station house, to meet the Derby and Nottingham friends. In consequence of the late excited state of Nottingham [2], but few came over from that place, but from Derby above one hundred had arrived. After they had joined the procession, the whole then paraded the town. On arriving in the Market Place, they formed into a circle, and sung the National Anthem accompanied by the band. They then went to the park and dispersed themselves into separate parties to amuse themselves with dancing, “drop handkerchief” [3] and other games.

Owing to the large number, more than was expected, attending, the preparations for tea were hardly so complete as would have been wished. After tea, addresses were delivered to those who could be prevailed on to leave their amusement to listen. The Rev. Mr Babbington, took the chair; Mr Forth, from Nottingham, Mr Robinson from Leicester, Mr Cook from Harborough, editor of the Temperance Messenger, Mr Burne from Wolverhampton, the Rev. Mr Jones, Unitarian minister, from Derby, Mr Vaughan, from Mountsorrel, and others delivered addresses. About nine, the procession again formed and proceeded to the station house, but a considerable number remained in the park until darkness had ended the day and their innocent sports.”      

Sounds to me like people actually did have fun on their visit to Loughborough, and I cannot imagine why one would think otherwise!

Now, what had I intended to write about … Thomas Cook … Agatha Christie … ah, yes connections!! Next week maybe!!

_______________________________________________

NOTES

[1] All that remains of the barracks is a little road called Barrack Row, which runs beside the Post Office sorting office on Nottingham Road, and leads out onto Duke Street.

[2] I’m not sure if that might have been Chartist riots, perhaps?

[3] Here’s some information about the game:

https://www.ludozofi.com/home/games/drop-the-handkerchief/

____________________________________

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 (2025). All the fun of the seaside. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/08/all-fun-of-seaside.html  [Accessed 10 August 2025]

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

Wednesday, 6 August 2025

Celebrating 12 years of the blog!

So, a couple of days ago saw the 12th anniversary of the beginning of this blog! In previous years, I’ve invited people to write a post related to some of Loughborough’s history, to be hosted on the blog, but this year I thought I’d write a series of posts myself, a couple before the actual anniversary day, and a couple afterwards. However, I’ve missed both the before and the on the day opportunity, and I’m only here today because I couldn’t let the occasion go by without some kind of post!

I am rather staggered that the viewing figures for the blog are now nearing one million! It had never occurred to me that my ramblings about our lovely town would ever have much longevity, and the idea that the blog has been read so many times is, well as I said, simply staggering. As I write this post, views are 988,086, and this year (August 2024 - August 2025) alone there have been over 270,000 views!

The past year has flown by, too, and I have been kept busy, not only with the blog, but with lots of volunteering activities, attending heritage events and meetings, giving presentations, and leading guided walks. Oh, and a new book coming out in late September!

I have a bit of a penchant for sharing stories of people, some well-known, others less so, but I see this year I’ve reined that in a bit and kept it down to five posts [1]! Unless you count the others, like Robert Bakewell anniversary post [2]; a couple of posts about the Coltman family and Burleigh Hall [3], and three posts about Shelthorpe House and the people who used to live there [4].

With the 100th anniversary of the exhibition in Paris that led to the naming of the Art Deco movement and the April A-Z blogging challenge coming along at the same time, I wrote 26 posts related to Art Deco, which took up almost the whole of April! A full list of these articles was posted around the beginning of May. [5]

In September 2024 I presented quite a number of posts related to the Heritage Open Days events which were taking place as part of Loughborough’s contribution to this programme. Many heritage-related places took part and were open during the final weekend of the Open Days, and overall lots of visitors came and enjoyed their visit.

The Hope Bell and the beacon in Queen's Park


I try very hard to keep up with what’s going on in our town, but have really struggled this year! I presented the customary review of buildings that had been demolished, or disappeared during the previous calendar year [6], and managed to cover things like the installation of the Hope Bell (although I was away for the opening ceremony) [7], the re-dedication of the gates of the parish church [8], the parish church Christmas Tree Festival [9], an exhibition of research into Nanpantan [10], and a celebration of 120 years of our beautiful public library [11].

Other than to keep on blogging, I have no firm plans for the blog into its thirteenth year, but I know I still have a few series to finish for you, which includes Goadby’s History of Loughborough, a whole load of Agatha Christie connections to Loughborough, and maybe some connections I discovered on a recent trip to London.

In the meantime, you might spot me out and about leading guided walks, especially during this year’s Heritage Open Days, when I will be extending beyond the weekend of 20-21 September, and walking beyond the confines of the town centre streets!

Thank you for reading the blog!    

 

_______________________________________________

NOTES

[1] A.E. King pt 1, and A.E. King pt 2

Thomas Barker; William Thomas Cartwright; John Thomas Judges

[2] Robert Bakewell 

[3] Coltmans and Burleigh Hall pt 1, and pt 2

[4] Shelthorpe House the early years; the middle years, and the final years

[5] The full list of Art Deco A-Z posts

[6] Changes pt 1, and Changes pt 2, and Ones to Watch out for in 2025!

[7] Hope Bell installation

[8] Re-dedication of the parish church gates

[9] Christmas Tree Festival

[10] Nanpantan exhibition

[11] 120 years of the public library

____________________________________

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 (2025). Celebrating 12 years of the blog! Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/08/celebrating-12-years-of-blog.html  [Accessed 6 August 2025]

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

Sunday, 27 July 2025

Carillon recitals

There’s been lots happening in Loughborough lately, but sadly, I seem to have missed quite a lot of it!



So, although I was invited to the ceremony to hear the first sounding of the Hope Bell, I wasn’t able to attend. Of course, I’ve been taking photos for a while now, so I’ve probably got enough over a period of time to write a decent account of the bell from start to finish.



I almost missed the demolition of the Herbert Morris factory on Empress Road, but just managed to catch the tail end of it. Again, I’ve taken plenty of photos over the past couple of years, so I’ll post them in a blog sometime.



What else did I miss? Oh yes, the opening of the new exhibition at the Old Rectory, which showcases the work done by the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society, and in particular Brian Williams, in uncovering the building which you see today, trying to understand it, and trying to present it to the public. Oh, and I missed the art exhibition down at the parish church, when, amongst other things, they had a VR flythrough high up in the ceiling! And I missed the Old Rectory Community Day!



As if that weren’t enough, although I heard the Carillon playing yesterday, and I knew it was Saturday, it wasn’t until this morning that I realised yesterday was the anniversary of the opening of the Carillon – in 1923! It’s always lovely to hear the Carillon being played – and played so well!!

I must admit, sadly I didn’t linger long enough to take in what the carillonneur was playing, but I have recently come across the programme for a recital, which was performed by Eric Jordan (I’ve previously written about him on this blog), on Saturday April 12th, 1924, at 5.30 in the afternoon.

The programme was billed as being “Toll for the brave that are no more.” and included

1. Softly awakes my heart, by Saint Saens

2. i. Smilin’ through, by A. W. Penn and ii. Love sends a little gift roses, by Openshaw

3. Andante, by Couperin

4. March van Hartopp, by Degruytter (18th century)

5. Le cygnet (The Swan), by Saint Saens

6. Tempo di Gavotta, by Fesch

7. i. Come back to Erin, ii. Blue bells of Scotland, and iii. Drink to me only with thine eye

8. Berceuse de Jocelyn, by Godard

9. Song without words no.9, by Mendelssohn

Such a worthy concert could not be concluded without a rendition of God Save The King.

Interestingly, there were to be recitals throughout the Easter period, which were given by M. Robert Dierick, who was the Carillonneur in the city of Ghent, in Belgium.   

 

____________________________________

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 (2025). [Post title]. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/07/carillon-recitals.html  [Accessed 27 July 2025]

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

Wednesday, 23 July 2025

Seeing the Old Rectory in a new light

I recently stopped off down at the Old Rectory and had a good look round. I’ve talked about this in a previous post, but here’s what I saw this time:

 































 

____________________________________

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 (2025). Seeing the Old Rectory in a new light. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/07/seeing-old-rectory-in-new-light.html [Accessed 23 July 2025]

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