I noticed recently that a house on York Road, no.21, was up for sale and the new owner has now applied for planning permission to convert this late-Victorian property into two, two-bedroomed flats. The last time I looked at this property, its quarry tiled entrance floor, and its ceramic tiled porch wall were still intact: I do so hope these original features can be retained.
.JPG)
This particular property, if the epigraph is to be believed, was constructed in 1900, and it is likely that Richard Marlow, a 32-year-old assistant superintendent at the Prudential Insurance company, his wife, Elizabeth, and their daughters Hilda and Nellie, were the first inhabitants.
However, by 1911 it was Herbert Preston Hives, a 39-year-old builders foreman, who lived at 21 York Road, with his wife, Emma, and children Herbert William, Gladys Emmeline, Gerald Kemp, and Ronald Edwin, but by 1939 he had moved to Woodland Road in Leicester.
In 1939, Albert Ernest Bowler, and his wife, Charlotte, were the residents, and Albert was listed as a 56-year-old wholesale smallware dealer. He was the eldest son of George
Harry Bowler, and his wife, Lois. I believe it was Albert’s brother, also
George Harry Bowler, who was mayor of Loughborough from 1924-1926, and who gifted
the ancient Bluebell Woods to the people of Loughborough, around about the same
time as Alan Moss gifted The Outwoods. Albert continued to live at the York Road property until the early 1950s.
Another inhabitant of 21 York Road was Eva Emilie Larkin, mother of the poet Philip Larkin, who lived here from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s. Eva’s daughter, Kitty, also lived on York Road, before moving to Forest Road in the mid-1960s. During the time his mother lived in Loughborough, Philip Larkin was a regular visitor, to York Road, and to Loughborough itself.
This in turn reminded me that today is the 100th anniversary of Philip Larkin’s birth. Briefly, his parents were Sydney Larkin and Eva Emilie Day, who married in 1911, and whose first child, Catherine, was born in 1912 while the family were living in Harborne, and Philip being born on 9 August 1922, in Coventry, when his father was the Deputy City Treasurer.
Philip chose to become a librarian, and started his career at Wellington library in Shropshire, before taking up posts at the University of Leicester, Queen’s University, Belfast, and then spending nearly 30 years at Hull University. Of course, Larkin is more widely known for being a poet and this explains why there is a Larkin Lane in Loughborough.
You can read more about the man, and read some of his poetry on the Poetry Foundation website, and on the Poetry Archive website you can hear some of Larkin’s poems being read.
The Philip Larkin Society is an active organisation which aims to promote knowledge and appreciation of Larkin’s work, and unite those with an interest in the man. The Society is celebrating Larkin’s anniversary in a number of ways, and you can follow them and their activities on Twitter. Watch out also - there may well be a Larkin-themed event coming to a town very near you!
And this mention of Eva Emilie Larkin brings me full circle back to the practical psychology clubs I wrote about earlier this week ... and that there is much more to say about these ...
_______________________________________________
posted by lynneaboutloughborough
With apologies for typos which are all mine!
_______________________________________________
Thank you for reading this blog. You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:
Lynne
