31 Days of Graves Day 30 Broken

The memorial above, and the first three memorials below can be found in the old Loughborough cemetery on Leicester Road. The first two were photographed in 2019/2020, and 2014/2026, the third in 2026.

The following detail of Hilda Dormer is extracted from my ‘A-Z of Loughborough’.

Hilda Dormer was born to Harry and Mary of Moor Lane in 1895. Hilda followed in her father’s footsteps, opening a butcher’s shop in Nottingham during the First World War. By 1919 she had opened her Loughborough shop at No.13 High Street. In 1936 she was elected to the Loughborough Town Council as the conservative councillor for the Beaumont Ward and served on many committees.

As an inhabitant of Hathern, Hilda supported many village events. In 1943 she was elected as president of the Leicestershire and Rutland Meat Traders’ Council, the first woman in the country to hold such a position. In 1947 Hilda succeeded Wilfred Banner as Mayor of Loughborough, and was the first woman in the county to hold such a position. Her term of office was busy with social and fundraising events. In April 1948 she bowled the first wood of the season on Queen’s Park green, in May she opened a sale of work in the Red Cross Room on Southfield Road, and handed out tins of food donated by the Dominions, to 2000 old people at the Town Hall.

In July 1948, alongside mayors from many Midland’s towns, she attended the celebration of Alderman Mrs Ethel Wainwright, OBE, deputy mayor of Mansfield, being awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Mansfield. In late September, Hilda fell ill and was admitted to Loughborough hospital, where she underwent an operation, but died on 19th October 1948. Hilda was only the second person to die in office, and she was succeeded by her Deputy Mayor, Councillor Lester, whose wedding anniversary she had so recently toasted.

George Hodson came to the Loughborough area in mid-1864, from his hometown of Willenhall. He came to work with Henry Humphreys, the land steward of the Beaumanor Estate, to help survey, and map the estate. In 1866, at the age of 23, George took up the position of surveyor and sanitary inspector for the Loughborough Local Board.

In 1870, George was joined by his brother James Francis, and in 1875, architect John Price was articled to George Hodson, the town surveyor, whose firm was based in Baxter Gate. The firm was called Hodson, Price, Hodson. In 1886, John Price left Loughborough to take up the position of chief inspector of the Sanitary Department in Cairo. In 1890, the Hodsons were described as engineers, rather than architects, and they were indeed concerning themselves with drainage, electric lighting using steam power, and sewerage works.

George and Francis created the Hathern Station Brick and Terra Cotta Company in 1874, and this later became Hathernware in 1938. Successive generations of the Hodson family continued to run Hathernware until the company merged with Shaw, and was later taken over by the Ibstock Brick Company. The company is now owned by Michelmersh Brick Holdings.

George died 25th April 1907, and the broken gravestones are a memorial to him, his wife, Lucy, who died on 2nd August 1924, and their daughter, Edith Alice who died 17th January 1912, aged 32.   

 

William Foulds was born on 31st May 1826, and baptised at All Saints on 26th June 1837. His parents were Joseph and Mary. In 1850, William married, Jane Monk who had been born a year earlier than him, and who had previously been married to John Monk, with whom she had a child, Emma.

In 1851, William and his family were living on Holborn Hill (where Collinson Court, opposite Sainsbury is now) where he was a brewer. By 1861, William was working as a brewer, living on Pinfold Street with his wife, Jane, but by 1863 he was a beerhouse keeper on Hume Street, which would have been, or certainly later become, the Cherry Tree Inn, which was how it was recorded in the 1871 census return.   

William continued to be the licensed victualler at the Cherry Tree on Hume Street until his death on 17th May 1886. He was succeeded at the Cherry Tree by numerous people, including Henry Roe (at least between 1891-2); Willam Moore (at least from 1898-1901); Joseph Wassall (at least from 1908 onwards); Walter Jervis (at least from 1911-1928), and Arnold J. Squire (at least from 1939 onwards).

This little slate stone in the churchyard of All Saints with Holy Trinity, is little because it’s broken. It’s really difficult to work out who it is a memorial for, other than that she was the wife of Joseph Clarke, who was perhaps an apothecary. One might also surmise that she was, perhaps, buried with two of her children.

The final stone, which is also in All Saints with Holy Trinity churchyard, has split vertically in two places. This makes the inscription difficult, but not impossible to read.

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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