Tired, and feeling a bit lack-lustre, I gave myself a good talking to, picked myself up, brushed myself down, and braved the somewhat cooler weather. Ok, so I was travelling the first 17 miles by car, so there should be no need to be much affected by the weather. The last mile would be on foot: nevertheless, I was still pretending it was summer, and walked out wearing a dress, and thin cardigan – and was plenty warm enough!
So where was I off to? Well, I had been invited along to the opening of an exhibition at the Weston Gallery, in Lakeside Park, part of the University Park Campus of Nottingham University. It’s actually a very lovely park, once you’ve negotiated crossing the busy road, and avoided stepping onto the tram tracks. There’s plenty to see in terms of trees and nature. There’s the beautiful 1930s university building on the hill; a couple of large, stone Chinese lions around the waterside which look as though they’ve been there since the 1700s, but were actually gifted to the university in the 1980s; a statue of Jessie Boot at one of the park entrances; there’s a former lido complete with entrance turnstile, and, of course there’s the arts venues.
So what exactly is the Loughborough connection? The exhibition I’d been invited to was entitled ‘Secret and Sacred Libraries from East Midlands Parishes’, which was curated by the Manuscripts and Special Collections department of the university. There were quite a few parish libraries included in this exhibition, either panels describing them and what they meant to both the keepers and the people, or on how and when they were created, or the social norms of the time. There were also actual exhibits, so books from the various collections, and it was examples from the Loughborough Parish Library that seemed to be the most prevalent. It wasn’t the biggest library represented, but it was certainly important at the time the Reverend James Bickham began it, and for quite some time after his death. You can read more about the story of the library in an earlier blogpost.
There were a
few items on display in a case relating to the Loughborough Parish Library,
but, as I mentioned, there were numerous items from our parish library to be
seen in specially themed display cases, for example, there was one on language
which was open at a page about the inclusion of a Leicestershire phrase in a
Shakespeare play, and another focussing on literature. I’m being a bit vague
here as I am relying on my memory of what I was able to take in in a room full
of people, where photography was prohibited, so I don’t have any snaps to refer
to!! I do remember being pleased to see a copy of William Burton’s ‘The
description of Leicestershire containing matters of antiquity, history, armoury,
and genealogy’ - and then I
remembered I had my own original volume at home, acquired at a time before the big
tech companies gobbled up old books in order to train their AI. That said, I must
go and have another read of it and see if I can find anything to research further
for my own next book! Photos below of the exhibition in the Old Rectory in 2024.
If you can’t make it to the exhibition, you can see a few examples of books from our parish library on one of my blogposts when an exhibition dedicated to the library was on display in the Old Rectory, its original home from 1761.
Also at the exhibition was a video focussing on some of the parish library collections across the East Midlands. I avidly watched the whole video, and was fascinated to learn of some of the places which had parish libraries. I’ve added a few to my ‘to visit’ list, which includes the newly renovated St Mary’s in Newark, and also All Saints at Oakham, whose collection is housed at the University of Nottingham, but who currently have an exhibition about Lady Anne Harrington who donated about 80 books to them in 1615.
I also learned quite a lot of other things, but I would rather you went and visited the exhibition for yourself, than let me bore you to tears with my words!! It's on until 28 February 2027! I was also hugely pleased to bump into some people I hadn't seen for a while, and chat with our very own successor to James Bickham, the Rev. Emily Sharman of All Saints with Holy Trinity, Loughborough.
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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough
With apologies for
typos which are all mine!
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Dyer, Lynne (2026). Visit to Secret and Sacred Libraries from East Midlands Parishes exhibition. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2026/10/visit-to-secret-and-sacred-libraries.html [Accessed 15 November 2026]
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