S is for Swan

Talking to someone the other day, they wondered why there were a lot of swans in Melton Mowbray. I must admit, I wasn’t sure if they were talking about real, live swans, or some other kind of swan, but whichever it was, it got me to thinking about swans in Loughborough!

A couple of really obvious ones, are the real ones that can be seen on the canal, or down at Charnwood Water, or the little pond adjacent to the Tuckers clay pit off Forest Road, called Swan Lake.

Then there’s the swans that give their name to something. So, Swanns Funeral Services on Bridge Street was established in 1892. Then, we’ve got Swan Street, which joins High Street and runs towards Derby Road, via The Rushes. On one of the maps I’ve seen, The Rushes was identified as being called West Street. I can only assume that these street names came from the knowledge that the area was frequently flooded?

Of course, along The Rushes, we also have a pub called the Swan-in-The-Rushes, but it hasn’t always been called this. Previously the pub was known as the Charnwood Forest Railway Inn, then became the Charnwood Inn when the old building was demolished and the new one built in 1931-2. It wasn’t until 1986 that the name changed again, to the Swan-in-The-Rushes.

But this wasn’t the first pub in Loughborough to have the word Swan in its name. In 1831, there appears to have been a new building with a yard built on Wellington Street, which was being used as a public house called the White Swan, and had been recently occupied by George Slater. This advert appeared in the Leicester Journal and Midlands County Advertiser of 10th June 1831. This new building must have replaced an older building which was also used as a pub, but called the Black Swan. Apparently, the White Swan closed in 1959.

On my recent travels, I have seen both White Swan and a Black Swan in Melton Mowbray, and the Three Swans at Market Harborough, all of which had lovely 3D signs!

  

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This is one of a series of posts in the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

 

 

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Thank you for reading this blog.

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The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). S is for Swan. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/s-is-for-swan.html  [Accessed 22 April 2024]

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Tuckers clay pits

Over the years I seem to have written quite a few blogposts about Tuckers, the brickmakers of Loughborough (see below), and included the company in some of my presentations and books. It seems timely to re-visit …

Evidence of Tucker’s brickworks can still be seen around Loughborough. Charnwood Water, formerly a Tucker’s claypit, is now filled with water and is a haven for birds, a great place for anglers, a perfect place for model boats (though not so often nowadays), is ideal for walking, and once was the location for raft and dragon boat races.

I make quite regular visits to Charnwood Water, which was once known as Tuckers Pond, and every time I visit, I see something different! I guess this is partly because of the changing seasons, which means that the plants are different throughout the year, and the views are different when the trees are in leave and during the winter. It’s also partly because of the migratory birds that grace the pond, so Sometimes there’s loads of Canada Geese, or black and white ducks, while other times there’ll be loads of cygnets. Bizarrely, I’ll see something different, or differently depending on which way round I choose to walk the perimeter! And I see and hear different things depending on whether I’m focussing on looking around, or more on listening – or not focussing on anything other than putting one foot in front of the other, a different experience in the muddy winter, and the sunny spring!

Of course, although I believe this was the main brickworks Tuckers also had a works off what is now Epinal Way, on William Street. There are two ponds in the vicinity, and the little one is now also haven for wildlife, and if I remember rightly, I have also seen people fishing there. It’s a bit hidden, and I don’t think it’s possible to walk all the way around, and some of the banks are a bit slopey, but it’s an interesting place, nestled as it is between allotments and a new housing estate. I’m not sure that the larger pond is publicly accessible.

The other Tuckers works was called the Park Road Brick and Tile Works, and was off Park Road, with kilns and other buildings closer to what is now Beacon Road. The main site is now occupied by a supermarket – the building, the car park and the petrol station covering almost exactly the footprint of the brickworks, and the area closer to Beacon Road is now a storage area for a building firm. However, before this, the area was used as the town landfill site, before moving to its present position on Railway Terrace, off Nottingham Road.

Previous posts about Tuckers

A selection of Tuckers buildings post-1934 

A few Tuckers brick buildings from 1928-1933 

Some of Tuckers early buildings up to 1927 

A selection of buildings in Loughborough made from Tuckers bricks 

A bit of family history

Previous posts about Charnwood Water

A winter walk around Charnwood Water 

Charnwood Water in the snow 

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2023). Tuckers clay pits. Available from: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8260542616882131850/7888115552364711966#:~:text=https%3A//lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/01/tuckers%2Dclay%2Dpits.html [Accessed 28 January 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Holiday in Loughborough

Watery Loughborough

So, this year, instead of the annual two-week holiday in St Ives, Cornwall, our holiday this summer is staying in Loughborough and investigating as many water sources as possible. It's hardly the same as seeing the Celtic Sea, which is apparently the bit of the Atlantic Ocean that St Ives sits on, but it has actually been quite exciting trying to find as many bodies of water as possible.

Most of the places I've been to these last two weeks, are either places I've been to before, or places I've been meaning to visit for a while. Needless to say, there wasn't enough time to visit or re-visit some places, so there's still plenty more for another day! And I'm pretty sure there are places I haven't been to that I don't know about!!

Of course, when I embarked on my watery Loughborough holiday, I hadn't really thought that it would rain nearly every day in the first week, and that I would get absolutely soaked on a couple of days!! It was almost like being at the seaside!!

I also admit to getting a bit confused with all the names of the bodies of water I've visited. Sometimes it's a canal, sometimes a cut, sometimes a river, sometimes ... well, the list goes on!! The best I can do today is share some photos of the places I've visited, and some maps of the walking route I took to get to and around them. They're all well worth the trip, if, like me, you're looking for a watery Loughborough holiday!

Around Black Brook Reservoir and Whitwick Quarry

Black Brook Reservoir

The Black Brook under the Stonebow Bridge

The Black Brook near Morrisons

Whitwick Quarry

Around Buck Hill area Part 1

Around Buck Hill area Part 2

Practically the start of the Wood Brook on Home Farm, Nanpantan

From Bunny and around Rushcliffe country park

The pond at Rushcliffe country park

Around Foremark Reservoir

Foremark Reservoir

Shardlow to Trent Lock

River Trent between Shardlow and Trent Lock

Start of the Trent and Mersey Canal at the mouth of the River Derwent, near Shardlow

River Trent and Erewash Canal junction near Trent Lock

River Trent at Shardlow

Canal and River at Sawley

Around Staunton Harold Reservoir

Staunton Harold Reservoir, beachy end

Staunton Harold Reservoir, Melbourne end

Sutton Bonington to Trent Lock and back

River Soar through Kegworth

Grand Union Canal at Kegworth

Looking towards the Erewash Canal

Beeston to Nottingham along the Trent and the Beeston Cut

Beeston Canal, Attenborough end

Beeston Canal, Nottingham end

The River Leen in Nottingham between the Trent and the Beeston Canal

The River Trent at Beeston

I have no map for the remaining watery trips out, but here are some photos of the other places I visited:

Charnwood Water

Dishley Pool

Grand Union Canal at the I&R Morley apartments near Nottingham Road

Thornton Reservoir

Bridge over the Hermitage Brook

The Summer Pool Brook on the Lammas Meadow

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

Dyer, Lynne (2020). Holiday in Loughborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/07/holiday-in-loughborough.html  [Accessed: 19 July 2020]

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.

If you wish to leave a comment, please do so in the comments box that appears below this blogpost. Alternatively, you can contact me via lynneaboutloughborough[at]gmail[dot]com.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne     

Life in Locked Down Loughborough

Lockdown Life in Loughborough

So, it's been a couple of months since I last invited a guest blogger to write a post for the blog the first on the fate of Zeppelin L 20 and its commander, the second about artists in Loughborough, Leicester and Leicestershire. The contribution from today's guest blogger is a little different, in that it's a reflection of what a young twenty-something, who is Loughborough-born, but also a student at Loughborough University, has discovered about her hometown during the period of lockdown, from the end of March 2020 to today. Do, please read on!

"When my mum asked me if I’d write a blog post about my life during lockdown I initially thought, gosh what on earth would I have to write about? Surely, I have nothing worthy to say whilst I’ve been hiding away in my studio flat in student accommodation… Surely other people have had a more colourful lockdown experience?

The truth is, I have felt privileged to reside in the bubble of my student accommodation, continuing my studies towards my PhD accompanied by my partner. Many of my friends are key workers and remained working for the duration of lockdown, other friends have been furloughed but I have continued to receive financial support from my research stipend.

One thing I have been extremely grateful for that I perhaps had not appreciated before, is the extensive nature surrounding my small hometown. I have always known there are many beautiful areas in close proximity to me but it is a shame that it has taken a global pandemic to slow my pace of life and to encourage me to use my two feet and get out there and see what’s about!

Loughborough Canal during lockdown April 2020

It has now been several weeks since we were allowed outside for longer than one hour and for multiple bouts of exercise. Prior to this change, my walks were somewhat short and limited in the freedom but pleasant, nonetheless. I am now extremely familiar with my University’s campus and the treats that can be found hidden in genius places (I am of course referring to Geocaches – I highly recommend looking into Geocaches ⁽¹⁾,  if like me you like to have a purpose to your walk, other than simply walking).

Venturing a bit further than the University my partner and I took some time to explore Burleigh Woods. We followed the trail leading out from the Holywell end of the campus and found ourselves in a lovely woodland area. It has been years since I have explored that end of Loughborough. Our timing was perfect, the tranquility of the wood, the vibrancy of late spring meant there was plenty for us to see. We followed the wood round and peeked out towards the direction of the Priory, normally something I’d only ever see from the roadside.

Burleigh Woods

 

We continued full circle to find ourselves back at the Holywell conference centre. Eager for more “treasure” my partner insisted we continue across the A512, through the playground behind the Harvester [formerly the Sea Around Us] towards the Bluebell Line. When I think about it I really am ashamed I haven’t paid more attention to the history of my little hometown. To think a path I have walked many a time used to be a railway line! By this point my little legs were aching for a rest, much to my partner’s dismay. I promised him we’d return to locate any remaining treasure.

And return we did! Only this time we began our walk by retracing our steps down the path, beginning at the park on Garendon Road, our destination was Booth Wood, with of course plenty of stops for Geocaching. Booth Wood is another area I don’t think I’ve ever paid much attention to, but I’m glad I have now. The woodlands are beautiful, small and compact but encompassing and grand. We explored for a while and ventured on to find ourselves at the Obelisk! Now this was something I’d heard about, thanks Mum! A funny structure, with, as I understand it, the purpose of indicating grandeur and rank of the landowner. 

The Obelisk from Burleigh school playing fields

Having recently learned about the grounds on which the Obelisk was built it felt rather nice to turn my back to the Obelisk and absorb the landscape. A moment of reflection made me rather sad that this landscape would be, and is, changing somewhat with the ongoing building developments. Our walk brought us round to Nether Top Game farm, where we rested a moment and, yes you guessed it, searched for more treasure! If there was monetary value attached to the treasure, I’d surely be wealthy by now with all the treasure hunting I’ve done over the last few weeks. Satisfied with our finds, we continued on to Stonebow Bridge where we crossed the Blackbrook. By now I was definitely ready to return home!

My usual spots for outdoor exercise include the Outwoods, Charnwood Water and Beacon Hill. I have enjoyed visiting new areas, but that’s not to say I have neglected my favourite spots. I have thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Outwoods (closed during initial lockdown period but “opened” up as rules changed) and observing the change in the surroundings. Ongoing work to reintroduce native trees meant that established non-native trees were felled, which I was initially saddened by, but the motivation seems reasonable. The Outwoods is perfectly spacious and full of lots of little nice spots to stop and observe, making it a perfect place to wander aimlessly.

The Outwoods

Our shorter walks have also enabled us to walk through and explore the local streets, and I’ve been able to reflect on how much Loughborough has changed just during my lifetime let alone across the many decades. Places I have taken for granted such as Queen’s Park and Lodge Farm (although I’m told I’m one of few who refer to it as Lodge Farm  ⁽²⁾), have provided some form of comfort knowing they’re still there and fairly tranquil in this unsettling time when the world is responding to a global pandemic.

Queen's Park during summer 2019

Disclaimer: it should be noted that hygiene precautions were taken when searching for Geocaches!

Footnotes

(1) Geocaches - an item, like a container which holds a number of other items, that has been hidden at a location whose coordinates have been posted on the Internet.

(2) Lodge Farm is the large grassy area off Outwoods Drive, and beside Brookfield Avenue and the Wood Brook, although its postal address is Oakley Drive, and is where I learned to ride my bike without stabilisers. 

About the author

Ursula Davis was born and brought up in Loughborough. She attended Pinfold Gate Day Nursery which was in the Warner School, followed by Holywell Primary School, Garendon High School and then Burleigh. After graduating from Reading University she continued her studies at Loughborough, gaining an MSc, and then went to work at UCAS. She is currently back in Loughborough, where she is studying for a PhD at the university. In her spare time Ursula enjoys power-lifting, cycling and socialising with her friends, as well as growing plants, and the odd bit of macrame!  

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

Dyer, Lynne (2020). Life in locked down Loughborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/06/life-in-locked-down-loughborough.html [Accessed: 14 June 2020]

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.

If you wish to leave a comment, please do so in the comments box that appears below this blogpost. Alternatively, you can contact me via lynneaboutloughborough[at]gmail[dot]com.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne