Lynne About Loughborough: October 2025

Sunday, 26 October 2025

An Autumn Walk in The Outwoods

Sometimes it’s hard to keep me away from The Outwoods, but never before have I been on a guided nature walk! I was a bit apprehensive about finding my way from Loughborough up to The Outwoods on my own, as I usually go with family, but I made it!! I actually parked at the car park on Watermead Lane, and walked up the footpath towards the gate into The Outwoods. At this point, there was a map, but it was a map, and I’m not good at reading them, so I trudged along in the pouring rain, heading, I hoped, in the right direction for the car park, which was the meeting point for the walk.

I’d seen details of the walk somewhere on social media, and was intrigued to know what IDVerde Ranger, Sam, might be able to show us. As it happened, the ‘us’ turned into just me, as despite four folk having booked to go on the walk, I was the only one who attended. In some ways this was great as it meant Sam and I could look at things that interested either her or me, and we could chat about all sorts of things in general. So, as I suggested, we started from the car park, and walked down a path towards the charcoal burning area.

Along the way we spotted jays, and muntjac deer, as well as numerous different species of trees. At one point I exclaimed “What a lot of ferns, or is it bracken?” It had intended to be a rhetorical question, as I had thought the word ‘fern’ was interchangeable with the word ‘bracken’, but I was wrong!! What we saw first were bracken, and further along the walk we spotted some ferns, so now I know the difference!

The Outwoods is full of commemorative things, like plaques and benches, and one of the first plaques we came to honoured VE-Day.

Of course, as it’s called The Outwoods, one expects to see lots of different trees, and we really did spot oh so many different species. These are looked after in several ways: non-native trees are sometimes removed to give native trees, and other things that live in the woods, space to grow and thrive. Trees are often coppiced, having their tops chopped off to encourage better growth.

There was also a small square of metal in the ground at one point, but I really didn't know what it was for, until we came across a post, which had obviously once been part of a tree! It had the letter 'T' engraved on it, and it was anchored by a small square piece of metal like the one we had previously seen. I'm still not sure what it was? Some kind of directional post, perhaps?

Along the way, and often growing on the trees, we also spotted lots of lichen – different types and different colours!

And there were literally dozens of different sorts of mushrooms, of all shapes, sizes, and hues!! Lovely to look at but potentially hazardous, so I wouldn’t advise picking any of these beautiful specimens, as you might select something poisonous, and besides, as The Outwoods is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (a triple SI as Sam would say), it is a criminal offence to pick them.

Having made our way around the perimeter of the woods, we headed back to the car park. Although the rain had stopped and it wasn’t particularly cold, my hands were a feeling a bit chilly, so I admit I did pop into the café in the car park for a nice warm cuppa! After all, I did have a bit of a trek back to the car ahead of me!! Anyway, I made it back safe and sound, and was pleased to see some of the fantastic rock formations in the woods, and I had some beautiful views of our lovely town on the way down.

Thank you to Sam for a very interesting walk!

Ranger Sam will be walking again in the springtime, and I'd highly recommend joining her!

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I’ve written extensively about The Outwoods on this blog, so if you want to follow some of my earlier journeys, here are some links:

Here are some of my earlier posts about The Outwoods:

O is for Outwoods

Walking from Loughborough to The Outwoods and Back - guest post

Outwoods Sculpture Trail 2022

Outwoods Sculptures in town

Memorial benches

Walk to Oaks in Charnwood via The Outwoods

New Year walk to The Outwoods 2016

Life in locked down Loughborough

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). An Autumn Walk in The Outwoods. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/10/an-autumn-walk-in-outwoods.html [Accessed 26 October 2025]

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Sunday, 19 October 2025

Ever-Changing Loughborough

I’m pleased to say that my latest book has now been published. Having an article published in a journal or magazine, particularly if they are online, tends to be a fairly quick turnaround time. I’ve sent articles about Loughborough to various journals, and they have appeared in the publication within a month! Book publishing, however, has always been quite a long, protracted process, although I admit I was very pleasantly surprised when my publisher was able to publish my earlier Loughborough titles only a few months after I’d provided the text. That all changed during and following the pandemic, which rather brings me to the point of this post … since I wrote ‘Loughborough At Work’ rather a lot has changed in our lovely town!

Although I wrote about lacemaking and hosiery in Loughborough, I didn’t write specifically about the Shepshed Lace Manufactury, on Great Central Road. The building had last been used as Merlin Archery, I think, but planning permission has recently been approved to demolish the building and create housing on the site. The recent fire that happened towards the rear of the properties probably hastened the demolition, which has now begun in earnest, and is moving quickly. On Monday this week, when I walked past the buildings I could see the work going on at the rear, but the ghost sign on the side of the building facing the track of the GCR was still standing … by Friday evening even this had gone.

Monday pics

Friday pics

A couple of other things that might have changed since I wrote the book, are the idea that working from home is happening a lot since the pandemic. New reports now say that many firms are stipulating that workers must go back on site. Also, when I was writing the book I used to walk along Trinity Street, past the former school hall, and noted that it was home to Affixxius Films, and it was just possible to see people through the windows, working inside. Now when I walk past, it seems deserted in there: is the company still based in Loughborough, or have they moved away? Perhaps I should get in touch with them and find out once and for all?!

Trinity Church in the foreground, redbrick church hall to the right

The final change is that the splendiferous cover shot for the book will never again be subject of a photoshoot. Gone! That glorious ghost sign, canal-side, is no more that a pile of bricks in a reclamation yard somewhere. The rest of the site has changed dramatically as well, although it appears the middle portion is staying.