Heritage Open Days in Loughborough

So, tomorrow is the last day to see the sculpture trail up at Beacon Hill, that I mentioned last week.

This week I’ve been out leading loads of guided walks for Heritage Open Days. The theme this year is architecture, and the sub-theme is buildings, bridges, and bees! Lots of scope there to do some imaginative walks – so I hope I managed it! Over the week I’ve shown people from Loughborough, the local villages, Leicester, and Nottingham, amongst other places, around our lovely town.

Of course, I couldn’t resist doing the Art Deco walk, which is a favourite of mine, and was really pleased to have a person from Napier on the walk, especially as I mention Napier in the walk! I also led a couple of walks around Queen’s Park. So often when we’re walking we’re in a hurry, or focussed on something specific, we don’t really see what’s around us, so it was great to be able to wander slowly around the park, and consider some of the things that are in it. The aviaries, the Hardy and Padmore lamppost, the old swimming pool, the bandstand, the swan maze, the Hope Bell, the Carillon, Songster, the little bridges, the watercourses, the new benches – the list just keeps on going! I was so pleased that someone likened our beautiful park to a small version of Regent’s Park!

A couple of my other walks were new, especially for the event. One saw us walk from Queen’s Park, along Woodbrook Way, onto Forest Road and the Forest Green belt, returning via Forest Road, into Wood Gate to see the former Co-op building, and a trip up the beehive car park for a bird’s eye view of the town and its surroundings. 

The other was a walk around town looking at the architects behind some of the town centre’s buildings.

I am leading another walk tomorrow, going into the old town, which I’m doing on behalf of the Loughborough Library Local Studies Volunteers.

Today, my original plans didn’t come to fruition, so I found myself visiting some of the sites in Loughborough that were open for the Heritage Open Days weekend. First was the parish church, who had already had several visitors by the time I got there. Then came the Old Rectory Museum, which had a couple of talks and a walk planned for the day. A visit to the Generator building was next: I hadn’t been in for a while, and was so pleased to see the results of all the hard work that’s gone into the planning and development of the space. Hopefully it’ll be opening in January next year, and will be a wonderful addition to the social life of the town, offering exhibition and performance spaces.

View from The Generator

Next I went along to the Carillon, and had a better look at the museum than I had had a chance to do on the re-opening day. Such a lot of information and objects in such a small space, but it was still exciting and didn’t feel at all crowded.

For my final trip of the day, having already done my 10K steps, I felt justified in jumping in the car and driving over to Thorpe Acre, to take in some of Garendon Park. I couldn’t go on the guided walks, as I hadn’t booked, and I really didn’t have time anyway, so I picked up a leaflet, which had a map of the grounds on one side, and had some interesting chats with some lovely folk, before heading back home!

Phew! Looking forward to a bit of a rest next week!

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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