Showing posts with label Beacon Road. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beacon Road. Show all posts

Sunday, 16 October 2022

Loughborough's letterboxes, Pt 3

Over the past two weeks, we've been looking at some interesting pillar boxes in Loughborough, firstly a rare anonymous box, followed by a couple of pillar boxes bearing the VR cipher. This week, let's stick with pillar boxes, and have a quick tour around those with the EVIIR cipher, the GR cipher, and the GVIR cipher. 

Sadly, we don't have any EVIIIR boxes in Loughborough, but we do have at least a couple of EVIIR boxes. Out on Ashby Road, close to its junction with Epinal Way, the EVIIR box stands proud outside the university's Harry French halls of residence, in the grounds of The Grove, on the left-hand side of the road as you come into town from the roundabout. It's actually This box dates from between 1901, when Edward VII became king on the death of his mother, Queen Victoria, and 1910, when he himself died, and was made by McDowell, Steven & Co.. 

EVIIR outside The Grove, 2016 

A close-up of the EVIIR cipher, 2013

The other EVIIR box is on Empress Road, located outside the corner shop at its junction with Judges Street. Again, we can date this box to 1901-1910, and it was also made by the firm of McDowell, Steven & Co.. The houses adjoining the shop were built in 1900, and those a couple of doors down have a distinct Edwardian look about them. A number of houses the opposite direction, closer to where there is a wall bearing shrapnel marks from the Zeppelin bomb attack of 1916, were built in 1903ish. It would seem that as the area grew, so did the need for a post box. This is the corner shop that Josiah Gilbert, who was killed by the Zeppelin bomb, ran. 


Empress Road EVIIR box, 2022

Close-up of the EVIIR cipher, 2022

Empress Road box outside the corner shop, 2022

Upon the death of Edward VII, in May 1910, George V became king, and reigned until his own death in January 1936. As you'd expect, we have more George V pillar boxes than those with ciphers of the earlier monarchs, and these are distinguishable from those of George VI's time, as George V's cipher is simply GR. Pillar boxes placed in Loughborough between 1910 and 1936 can be found on Forest Road, outside the shop; Knightthorpe Road, just after and opposite Dean Street; Leicester Road, at its junction with Factory Street; Old Ashby Road, at its junction with Windleden Road close to the shop; about halfway along Outwoods Drive; Cordell Road, off Braddon Road, and on Shelthorpe Road, at its junction with Woodthorpe Road. All these boxes were made by the Carron company.

The box on Forest Road outside the shop is interesting as it at one time had a directional arrow on its cap, but now no longer does.

Forest Road GR, with missing directional arrow, 2022

Close-up of the GR cipher, Forest Road, 2022

Maker's mark on the bottom of the pillar box, Forest Road, 2022

This is also true of the pillar box on Leicester Road which is situated outside a barber's shop, but which used to be a post office.

Leicester Road GR pillar box, 2022

GR box, Leicester Road, showing missing directional arrow, 2022

The GR pillar box on Cordell Road is a little puzzling as it sits in amongst a housing estate that was created in the 1970-1980s, and until the mid-twentieth century, the area of Thorpe Acre only had about 20 or so houses. I'm guessing this box was here before the newer estate was built.

GR box on Cordell Road, 2022

GR box on Cordell Road, 2022

Sadly, as I said above, I haven't found any pillar boxes in Loughborough bearing the EVIIIR cipher, and not many GVIR boxes either. The latter, dating between 1936 and 1952, appear on Beacon Road, opposite the junction to Herrick Road; Nottingham Road outside the former Towles factory, now SOFA, and close to Clarence Street, and on the corner of Broad Street, close to its junction with Ashby Road. The latter was positioned next to the post office, which is now an Oriental supermarket, before moving to the opposite side of the road, and now Ashby Road being without a post office. As far as I can tell, all the GVIR boxes in Loughborough were made by the Carron company.  

GVIR box on Broad Street, 2022

Close-up of the George VI cipher, Broad Street, 2022

A clear maker's mark on GVIR box on Broad Street, 2022

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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:

Dyer, Lynne (2022). Loughborough's letterboxes Part 3. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/10/loughboroughs-letterboxes-pt-3.html [Accessed 16 October 2022]

Take down policy:
I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Blog archive and tags:
If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.  
 
Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne               

Sunday, 2 October 2022

Loughborough's letterboxes, Pt 1

September seems to have flown away in no time at all, and left me wondering just what exactly has happened. I mentioned in an earlier post about some of the events that took place following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and there has been much discussion in the media about what happens with coins and banknotes, and postage stamps, which carry a picture of the queen's head.

While I was out shopping the other day, I happened to notice a headline in one of the national daily newspapers, about the royal ciphers that are on [most] postboxes across the country (and in other countries like Guernsey etc.). I've always been interested in postboxes, and have been a member of the Letter Box Study Group for many years, so it had not occurred to me that there might be any mystery behind the inscription and wording that appears on the boxes. 

I've had a look through my photograph collection, and see that over the years I've taken many pictures of the postboxes in Loughborough, but not of all of them. So, I went out last week and took some pics of one specific postbox to share with you.

But first, perhaps I should say that the initials - sometimes intertwined, sometimes not - represent the initials of the monarch who was on the throne at the time the postbox was installed in its position. So, EIIR represents Queen Elizabeth II (where E is the initial of her first name, and R is for 'regina', meaning Queen, and II indicating that she was the second queen who had the name Elizabeth). You can see a similar cipher on the uniforms of the Beefeaters (Yeoman of the Guard). 

Briefly, you will find the initials VR on postboxes installed during the reign of Queen Victoria (reigned 1837-1901); EVIIR on those placed when Edward VII was on the throne between 1901 and 1910, where in this case, the R is for 'rex' or king. The cipher for George V, however, who reigned from 1910-1936, is simply GR. Edward VIII was only on the throne for 325 days, so there are not many postboxes in existence that bear the initials EVIIIR.

George VI reigned from 1936 until 1952, and postboxes installed during this period bear the cipher GVIR. Once Queen Elizabeth was crowned, new postboxes carried the EIIR cipher, and now that King Charles III has taken the throne, any new postboxes created will be identified with CIIIR.

Postboxes came into being in 1852, but there was no standardised design until 1859, and even then that standardised design was regularly changed. Some of the early postboxes were made by Andrew Handyside, whose ironfounding firm was based in Derby, but the first standardised ones, between 1859-1866, were made by a firm called Cochrane, probably at their Woodside works near Dudley. Cochrane also made the distinctive Penfold boxes, designed by architect J.W. Penfold, between 1866-1879.

Anyway, back to the specific postbox which is the subject of this blog! Our postbox was created between 1879 and 1887, and in the year 2000, there were 300 of these boxes still standing. These boxes are known as anonymous boxes, because they do not carry any royal cipher! The initials on these should have been VR, but the Post Office, who were responsible for the design, admitted there had been an oversight. These boxes were created by Handyside, at his Britannia Works in Derby. Despite not having any cipher on the front, the boxes do carry the name of the company around the base, although in many cases the box has been re-painted so many times, that the embossed lettering is difficult, and in some cases impossible to read.

Here are some pictures of our anonymous postbox which can be found at the mini roundabout that links Park Road, as it leaves Royland Road, to Beacon Road.



Handyside Derby appears on the base

The top of the postbox

Posting aperture and collection plate


Well, that's one Loughborough postbox covered, only another 60ish to go!!!

Here's a link to Part 2 of the Loughborough letterbox blogposts.

____________________________________

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:

Dyer, Lynne (2022). Loughborough's letterboxes Part 1. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/10/loughboroughs-letterboxes-pt-1.html [Accessed 2 October 2022]

Take down policy:
I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Blog archive and tags:
If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.  
 
Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne                   

Friday, 17 June 2022

So who was Dr Blackham?

Ninian Boggs McIntire Blackham was born in County Dublin in 1860. His father was Charles Blackham, the Tax Master at the Dublin Law Courts, and Ninian was his second son.

Ninian Boggs McIntire Blackham

A newspaper article in the 'Loughborough Echo' in November 1952 indicates that Ninian Boggs McIntire Blackham came to Loughborough in 1891, to take up the post of assistant to the Medical Officer of Health, Dr Corcoran. The entry for Dr Blackham in the Medical Directory of 1905 reads as follows (with my comments in square brackets):

"Blackham, Ninian Boggs McIntire, 22 Beacon Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire - LRCPI [Royal College of Physicians of Ireland] and LM, LRCSI [Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland] and LM 1893; LM Rot Hosp Dub" 

Assuming that LM means Licentiate in Midwifery, then Rot Hosp Dub is the Rotunda maternity hospital in Dublin.

In 1894, Dr Blackham goes back to Ireland, and marries Georgina Taylor in Limerick, where she had been born in 1871. The couple's only child, daughter Irene, was born in Loughborough in 1899, and the family lived at 22 Beacon Road.

In March 1911, Dr Corcoran died, and Dr Blackham takes over as Medical Officer of Health. He, his wife, Georgina, and their daughter Irene continue to live at 22 Beacon Road until 1912, when they move to 25 Victoria Street, where Dr Corcoran had had his surgery. In 1927, Irene marries Cecil Lindsay Lapper, who was a physician and surgeon.

22 Beacon Road


By 1929, Dr Blackham is a tenant gardener of garden number 26 on Burton Walks, and is allowed to build a house here – No. 4, ‘Friesland’ - costing over £1,000 (with a rent of £23 19s.) on the plot. On 25th October 1931, while still living in the Burton Walks house, Georgina dies, and probate is granted on 20th October 1932 to Dr Blackham. After being re-sworn, Georgina's effects amounted to £783 8s. 10d.

Two years after the death of his first wife, Dr Blackham marries Patricia Minchin in Loughborough, and in 1937 he retires from his post as Medical Officer of Health, although continues in his medical practice. 

On the night the 1939 register was taken, Dr Blackham and his wife, Patricia, are living at Burton Walks, and Patricia’s sister, Jane Minchin is also listed here. In the same register, Irene and husband Cecil are listed as living at 8 Albert Place, and as this is the register taken in relation to the Second World War, it also notes that Cecil was a medical examiner for recruits (possibly to first aid positions?) and Irene was on ARP duty.  [Photo]

Albert Place


The 1940s saw several notable events in the life of the family. In 1942 Dr Blackham contracted diphtheria but luckily made a complete recovery. In 1945 at the age of 85, he finally completely retires from medical practice! On 27th April 1947, Cecil Lindsay Lapper of 8 Albert Place, died. Probate was granted on 19 July 1947 to his widow, Irene, and the effects amounted to £14,739 16s. 2d.. In 1949, Dr Blackham, and wife, Patricia leave the house on Burton Walks, and probably move to Spinney Cottage, on Vicary Lane, Woodhouse.




On 18th November 1952, at the age of 91, Dr Blackham dies, and the funeral takes place on 20th November at the church of St Mary in the Elms in Woodhouse. Probate 
was granted in April 1953 to his widow, Patricia Muriel Blackham, and his effects amounted to £8,562 12s. 11d.. It was around this time that Dr Blackham's name was commemorated when a residential street, Blackham Road, in Loughborough was named after him.

In June 1977, Irene Lapper, daughter of Dr Blackham and his first wife, Georgina, and widow of Cecil, died. Probate was granted on 25 November 1977, and effects amounted to £31,042. The following year saw the death of Patricia, widow of Dr Blackham. She died on 29 June 1978, and probate was granted on 15th November, the effects amounting to £130,150.

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2022). So who was Dr Blackham?. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/06/so-who-was-dr-blackham.html   [Accessed 17 June 2022]

Take down policy:
I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.
Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne