Robert Bakewell, agriculturalist: commemorating 300 years since his birth

I have been reminded that Friday 23 May marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Robert Bakewell of Dishley. Last week I went to an excellent talk about Bakewell, his work, and his times, and remembered that a long time ago, when this blog was in its infancy, I wrote a couple of posts, after being taken on a walk around the disused church at Dishley, and the estate, one about the estate itself, and one about Robert Bakewell. I’ve also posted previously about the plaque on Warner’s Lane, Loughborough, that mentions him in connection with the Unitarian church of which he was a part.

The mosaic restored in 2023 by Dishley Residents' Association and Artisans at Dishley Grange. Funded by LCC Member's Highway Fund

Dishley Grange, a private farm, and home to some of the artisans mentioned above

So, for the forthcoming anniversary, I thought I’d take a different look at Robert Bakewell … well, a different look at Robert Bakewell the agriculturist, not any other Robert Bakewell! However, I was initially thwarted, when looking through one of the books in my collection [1], I found references in the index to Bakewell, the Derbyshire town, but also to Robert Bakewell – one a piece of text, the other a black and white photograph. Excitedly I leafed through to find the relevant pages, but they turned out to be about that other famous Robert Bakewell, he from Staffordshire, who created fancy ironwork, of which I have seen the gates in Derby cathedral, and the railings and birdcage at Melbourne Hall (which I’ve previously written about.)  

But what of Dishley’s Robert Bakewell? He wasn’t named in the book’s index, but I did manage to find a couple of paragraphs which the author had written about him. The first appeared in the section on The Shires, in chapter 1:

“The Wold country pastures were long famed for the excellent wool they produced; it was known as the best in England and laid the foundations of the county’s woollen industry. In the eighteenth century Robert Bakewell of Loughborough introduced the new Leicester type of sheep, and the county’s reputation for high-grade wool was still further enhanced. Today this breed is found wherever wool is extensively produced.”

The next quotation comes from the section entitled Lowland and Wold, which appears in Chapter 3 [with my paragraph breaks]:

On his virtual tour along the River Soar, Ingram moves south from Bunny, “to Dishley Grange where lived an eighteenth-century worthy who did as much for England as any of the great engineers or explorers. 

Here lived Robert Bakewell whose genius as a breeder of sheep and cattle provided the food for the rapidly expanding populations of the new industrial centres and without which the work of the great inventors and engineers could never have materialised. 

He started the new-fangled idea of irrigation, and surrounded the fields of his model farm with canals, and spent a great portion of his seventy years travelling round the country, examining stock, evolving new breeds out of old nondescript types. 

He established the science of pedigree stock-breeding, becoming the greatest pioneer of agricultural science in the world. The sixteen shillings stud-fee which he charged for hiring out his first rams for the season increased until it rose to 800 and then 1,200 guineas. Now most of the stock in England shows the effects of his years of effort. 

To Dishley Grange came visitors of high and low degree from all over Europe, to learn about his discoveries. Yet his country appreciated him so little that twice he nearly went bankrupt, and had to be helped by his friends.”

These two quoted sections on Robert Bakewell, the agriculturist, together run to nearly 300 words, compared with the text on Robert Bakewell the ironwork maker which runs to just over 50 words. Clearly “… his country appreciated him so little …” that he didn’t even appear in the book’s index! I mustn’t grumble too much – after all, I found the Robert Bakewell I was looking for, and the book did actually have an index!

We learned from the above entry that Robert Bakewell was concerned with the breeding of sheep and cattle, and irrigation. In addition, he also improved the Leicester cart horse, to become the forerunner of the Shire horse, and he also tried his hand at pig-breeding. However, whether or not he was involved with Hugo Meynell of the Quorn Hunt in selectively breeding fox hounds is unclear.

So, the beginning of the paragraph which follows the above extract about Bakewell is a statement which makes me cross!! And reminds me of why I write this blog, write books about Loughborough, lead guided walks around the town, and share my love of Loughborough through presentations. Here it is:

“Loughborough is the second biggest town in the county, but it is not a particularly interesting place …”

I beg to differ!! Ok, so Ingram does continue that sentence with “apart from its bellfoundry.” But this still doesn’t do our wonderful town justice!!

However, to give Ingram his due, while he might have had an intimate knowledge of the hamlets, villages, towns, and cities in the counties of the north Midlands, he would not have been able to share this in much detail in just 116 pages!

Here’s hoping that the expectations of the writer of the book’s flyleaf came to fruition:

“Text and pictures together should win many new friends for a part of England which is less visited or appreciated than its riches, both of landscape and architecture, deserve.”

As part of the commemoration of Bakewell’s birth, 300 years ago, members of the New Dishley Society have written and released a new book, Robert Bakewell Britain’s Foremost Livestock Breeder which will be available from mid-May 2025, for £25, plus £4 post & packing inland UK. The book contains, inter alia, much newly researched material on the Bakewell family, their farming provenance, the distribution of his famous animals and his bankruptcy. It is an illustrated, hardback book running to 341 pages. To obtain a copy of the book please apply to ndssecretaryatgmaildotcom (making the usual substitutions) and include your name, address with postcode, and email address.

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Notes

[1] Ingram, J. H. (1947). North Midland Country: a survey of Cheshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire. Series: The Face of Britain. London: Batsford, pgs. 13, 15, 26, 29, 93 & 94

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

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 (2025). Robert Bakewell, agriculturalist: commemorating 300 years since his birth. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/05/robert-bakewell-agriculturalist.html  [Accessed 22 May 2025]

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Loughborough Agricultural and Horticultural Show

A chance sighting of the name Crimwell Chief has sent me off on a real treasure hunt this week!!

Who would have thought such a name could have resulted in so much time spent on research!

Loughborough Agricultural Association was set up in 1838, and in 1839 its first anniversary show took place on Mr Warner’s land on the London Road – so probably in the grounds of The Elms. There already were other shows happening in places like Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Market Harborough and Waltham-on-the-Wolds, and the hope was that Loughborough’s would equal any similar show in the Midland Counties.

The show did indeed prove to be successful, and ran for nearly 100 years.

The pictures below were taken at the 1948 show:

Vanners at the 1948 Loughborough Show

A bull at the 1948 Loughborough Show

A cow at the 1949 Loughborough Show

Showing in the ring at the 1949 Loughborough Show

Around 1880 the show moved to Mr W.B. Paget’s land, Southfields – today’s Southfields Park – and continued in the same format until 1930, when financial difficulties forced a change of focus. Although many of the shows were held on Southfields Park, there were a number of occasions when the show took place elsewhere. In 1920 the former cricket ground at Allsopps Lane was the venue; in 1929 the show took place on the Corinthians football ground, and the final show of its type, in 1930, took place in the grounds of Burleigh Hall.

Most of the shows were held in mid-September, and most years were on a Wednesday, but the association did play with the date a bit, so there were times when it was held in early August. During the period of the First World War, no show took place.

Following the stretch of financial difficulties, the show was rebadged as an exhibition, and from 1937 it was held in various locations, including at Cedars Farm, Normanton-on-Soar in 1937; in Wymeswold in 1939, and at Ladygate Farm, Diseworth in 1947. There were no shows during the period of the Second World War.

I’m unsure where the 1948 and 1949 shows were held, but it was these shows that popped up when I was researching Crimwell Stuart.

Our area has long been associated with Robert Bakewell, the eighteenth-century agriculturalist who developed an animal breeding programme which improved the quality of sheep (the Leicester Longwools) and cattle (the Longhorns). Bakewell, who lived and farmed at Dishley Grange also improved the process of irrigation. The other improvement that he made was to the heavy horse, which was the forerunner of the Shire horse, a type of draught horse, being tall, strong and hardworking and often used in farm work like ploughing. Shire horses, often known as draught horses, were often used to pull carts, perhaps carrying beer.    

So, like Songster – Loughborough’s war horse - and Sunloch – a Loughborough winner of the Grand National in 1914 – Crimwell Stuart turned out to be a horse! On 31st July 1948, Crimwell Stuart, a bay gelding, took part in the Loughborough Show, where he came first in his class, and was the runner-up of the challenge cup for the best horse in the draught horse section. Crimwell Staurt was owned by Offilers Brewery, of Derby: they also entered another of their horses, Samson, into the show, and it was he who won the challenge cup.

As well as owning Ambrose and Birkwood Surprise, Offilers also owned quite a number of horses whose names began with ‘Crimwell’, including Crimwell Quality; Crimwell Chief, and Crimwell Prince.  Other Crimwell horses included Crimwell Mimic; Crimwell Goldlust, and Crimwell Modern Boy, although I am not sure who owned them.

These horses were all around in the late 1930s-late 1940s, and appear to have been bred by William Brock at his stud farm called Crimwell Pool in Lower Whitley, Cheshire. Legend has it that the farm was actually named after Oliver Cromwell, as it is thought Cromwell watered his horses here in 1645 – which reminds me that Cromwell is reputed to have rested his horses and his men in our parish church during the Civil War, and, of course, it also reminds me of the story of the Bloody Pool in the grounds of Garendon Hall, so named because legend says that during the Civil War, the pool turned red on four consecutive days, which was believed to represent the 4 years of the Civil War.

However, the name of Cromwell Pool, was changed to Crimwell when the farm became registered to breed pedigree Shire horses. In 1841, at 175 acres, the farm was one of the largest farms in Lower Whitley. 143 of those 175 acres were sold to William Brock around 1941, where as well as breeding Shire horses, he also bred British Friesian cattle, and large white, and Saddleback pigs. His Queen Mary line of pigs trace their lineage back to Derby in 1881, and the prefix ‘Crimwell’ was first used for the large white pigs in 1922. Foot and mouth disease in 1967 meant that the farm had to be re-stocked. Descendants of William Brock continue to farm at Crimwell Pool.  

Offilers, of course, was a brewery formed in Derby in 1876. Although taken over by Charrington in 1965, and closed in 1966, there is still evidence of Offilers in Loughborough, in the windows of the Peacock on Factory Street, and in off-licence ghost signs advertising their ‘nut brown ale’, like the one on the corner of William Street and Curzon Street.

As for the Loughborough Agricultural and Horticultural Show, well this was rather like today's Leicestershire County Show, which did for a few years take place on the land next to Dishley Grange, but which now takes place at the showground in Market Harborough, or like the Sutton Bonington Show - some pictures towards the end of this post. Here's hoping these will return next year. 

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). Loughborough Agricultural and Horticultural Show. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/08/loughborough-agricultural-and.html     [Accessed 16 August 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.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne   

William Railton's Bavarian gates

Every time I have a holiday from work I get excited and think I'm going to have plenty of time to write the best blog post in the world ever, but every time I end up presenting you with very quickly written, half-finished research.

So, during this break from work I've been lucky enough to have the other half home with me, so over these last three days we've been out doing a lot of walking. It's good walking with him because I'm a bit of a scardy cat, and always afraid I'm going to lose my way, walk through private property and get shot at, walk too far and then be too tired to get home again, or embarrassingly walk around with the map upside down, back-to-front and inside-out!

Anyway, OH hadn't been well, but I needed a walk, so I decided to walk to Charterhouse in Shepshed - oh, sorry, I mean Armstrong's Mill. Now, if I'd gone on my own, which was what I'd planned, I'd have walked exactly the same route as I would have driven, so along Epinal Way, down the A512, over the M1 roundabout into Shepshed, a car journey taking about 10 minutes or so. However, OH, having been bedridden, decided a bit of fresh air would do him good, although a less traffic-busy route would be better. Hmm, I was not convinced!

We started off ok, walking up Epinal Way, up Holt Drive, past Lodge Farm, and up Badger's Walk (I may have got the names slightly wrong, sorry!). Then up Nanpantan Road, along the footpath just before the Priory that takes you out onto Snell's Nook Lane, and then along the path off the other side of Snell's Nook that tales you through Longcliffe golf course. At the end of the path through Longcliffe, we followed a path to the right and came out on the A512 at the big M1 roundabout. We took our life in our hands and crossed around this, walked on the pavement past the trucker's cafe, and then joined a path that went down towards Shepshed town centre, but which ran parallel to the A512, eventually coming out opposite the cemetery on Charnwood Road, just above Armstrong's. 

After a cup of tea in the cafe, I had a quick walk around the store: no clothes or shoes that took my fancy, which was a good job, because OH never likes to make a return journey that retraces any steps, so we set off on an even longer walk home!

The route home took us down into Shepshed town, up the other side to a path that ran along the side of Hind Leys, and led us over the M1, and onto the Garendon Estate. Now, I've walked from Dishley Grange to the Bavarian Gates of Garendon a couple of times before, but never approached from Shepshed. Coming to a row of poplar trees, I realised if we turned right we would see those gates again, in all their splendour. 

The Bavarian Gates on the Garendon Estate, designed by William Railton

The Bavarian Gates were designed by William Railton, an architect who worked in London, and won a competition to create Nelson's column, which is probably his most famous work. However, he did much work in our area, where as well as designing the Bavarian Gates, he also designed the two Garendon estate lodges, the first abbey at Mount Saint Bernard's before the one that we see today (designed by Pugin), the neo-Tudor manor house at Grace Dieu, the churches at Copt Oak and Woodhouse Eaves, and Beaumanor Hall.

Continuing our walk, we followed the path alongside the wall to our right, which then turned to the right. We didn't go over the stonebow bridge, following the Blackbrook, but instead followed the path that led to Booth Wood. What a joy it was to finally happen upon the Obelisk, which I had previously only seen from within the wood (there I go, afraid of trespassing!) and from a distance on the path towards the Bavarian Gates. 

The Obelisk, designed by Ambrose Phillips

What a thing! Designed by Ambrose Phillips, I can only suppose that the obelisk is a folly.

So, we walked through Booth Wood, across Old Ashby Road, out onto Ashby Road, through the university, and out by Towers onto Epinal Way. All-in-all, we walked for 3 hours and covered 12 miles! We could have gone in the car, but we wouldn't have seen such interesting sights! How lucky we are to live where we do! the only downside of walking with Oh is that he really doesn't like me to stop and take photographs! 

Beaumanor Hall, designed by William Railton

             

Dishley Grange in photographs

Briefly, Dishley Grange is a private farm between Loughborough and Hathern. In the 18th century it was farmed by Robert Bakewell, a pioneering agriculturalist who selectively bred farm animals, to provide more feed for the growing population. The farm was originally part of the Garendon Abbey estate, and in later years was the site of Dishley Anglican Church, records of which go back to 1681. This church was superseded by the church at Thorpe Acre, known as Thorpe Acre with Dishley, and opened about 1845. I recently went on a walk around Dishley Grange, led by Ernie Miller: I posted about Robert Bakewell last week, so today I am posting some of the photographs I took of a farm that is not normally open to the public.


 The view which greeted us when we entered the farmstead was the abandoned Dishley Church:

Looking towards the altar

Looking through to the dovecote

The outer wall

Windows?

Evidence of another floor?

View of the trees

Roof and dovecote

Inside the church were Swithland slate memorials to the Bakewell family. This would not have been their original position: If I remember rightly, these were "table-top" gravestones, ones that were not designed to stand upright, rather they were tombs.

Gravestones of eight of the Bakewell family



This is the gravestone commemorating Robert Bakewell, father of the agriculturalist

A memorial plaque mounted on the wall of the church 

Outside the church there were a number of gravestones to be seen. these would not originally have been laid flat, but would have been standing. The double line in the middle of the stone directly below marks how much of the memorial would have been buried, and how much visible above ground level.

Gravestone lying flat, but originally intended to be standing.

Another horizontal memorial

Commemoration of Robert Bakewell, 1725-1795



A gravestone lying flat

Just beyond the church, in the direction of the farmhouse stands a mausoleum. There is no way in. It is believed that the mausoleum was opened up around the turn-of-the-century, and was closed up again, it being deemed there was no-one of importance within. Who knows?

The mausoleum and church

Looking towards the farmhouse:

The farmhouse itself, peeping through the trees

We were not the only visitors that day!

Getting closer - through the willows

The farmhouse has had an extension to the front, but the back has some original features:

The front view of the farmhouse

The rear of the farmhouse with an original window on the far right (kitchen)

A useful outdoor tap!

 The barns formed a courtyard:

Archway on the right leading to the courtyard

Inside the courtyard

Horses within, doves to the right!

The dovecote was an integral part of the farm.

View of the dovecote from the back (i.e. from the church)



Inside the dovecote looking up to the glover

The walls showing the angled bricks that provided nesting areas for the doves/pigeons

Another view up the wall!

Old and new working together

Farming moves with the times!

So who was … Robert Bakewell?

The Dishley Millennium mosaic.

In short, a pioneering, 18^th century Leicestershire gentleman farmer! Interested to know more? Read on!

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a walk, led by a friend of mine, around the farm where Robert Bakewell did much of his pioneering farming. The estate is privately owned, and arrangements had been made with the tenant farmers to allow a group of interested folk to come and visit the estate that had been so important in the early days of the agricultural revolution. The weather started off looking promising, but much of the walk took place in heavy rain, although this in no way dampened the spirits of the enthusiasts who had turned out for this exciting walk! 

So, Robert Bakewell (1725-1795) was the son of Robert Bakewell, the grandson of Robert Bakewell, and, if the sources I have consulted are correct, the great-grandson and great-great-grandson of Robert Bakewell!

As Wikipedia might put it, here's some disambiguation:

• Robert Bakewell (agriculturalist - pioneering English farmer) 1725-1795 *

• Robert Bakewell (ironsmith – English wrought ironsmith) 1682–1752 **

• Robert Bakewell (geologist - English) 1768–1843

Sign at the entrance to Dishley Grange

Our Robert Bakewell inherited Dishley Grange (formerly the Grange to Garendon Abbey), a farm of about 440 acres, a quarter of which was arable land, from his father when the latter died in 1760. The farm was owned by Sir Ambrose Phillips, and the Bakewells were tenant farmers, being granted a 3-generation lease, as was common practice at the time. Before taking over the running of the farm from his father, Bakewell had been travelling around England, Europe and the Low Countries learning about farming methods, and absorbing everything he saw, before serving an apprenticeship with his father from about 1855, and finally taking over the running of the farm when his father died.

At the time when Bakewell inherited the farm, things were changing in Britain. Until the time of the Enclosures Act (around 1750) people were able to graze their own animals and grow their own crops on land where they lived, but this was not an efficient way of providing for what was a growing population. More food was needed, so farming methods began to change in order for the farmers to farm more efficiently. Also, animals had previously been an integral part of the family, and people worked and slept with their animals.  

There seem to have been several aspects of farming that Robert was interested in, and developed:

• Animal breeding: Cows, sheep and horses

• Crop management techniques: Land irrigation and crop rotation

• Manuring techniques: Double floors for manure collection

Animal breeding

Prior to Bakewell’s time, male and female animals were kept in the same fields and allowed to breed naturally. On his travels, Bakewell had observed that it was possible to change inherited characteristics of animals, if their breeding was controlled. So, he began by separating out his males from his females, keeping them in different fields and allowing the male to breed with specific females only, so as to accentuate certain characteristics.

To help feed a growing population, Bakewell was interested in producing animals with more meat. Up until this time, sheep, for example, had been reared predominantly for their wool, but Bakewell used his breeding “in and in” techniques to produce the New Leicester (or Dishley) sheep, that, although delicately boned, were big, with fatty forequarters, and good quality, long, coarse wool. From accounts I’ve read, it appears that Bakewell crossed Old Lincolnshire sheep (possibly the Lincoln Longwool) with the best Leicester or Ryland sheep. Apparently, the New Leicesters produced 2lbs of meat where there had previously only been 1lb and the average dead weight of sheep increased from 12.7kg in 1710 to 36kg in 1795.

Bakewell also applied his breeding principles to cattle, and managed to produce a much larger cow, although its meat was somewhat fattier, and its milk was poorer. He apparently used Longhorns (possibly from Warwickshire) to breed with Lancashire (possibly Westmoreland) bulls.

As if this were not enough, Bakewell also improved the draught horse, the Black Carthorse, or Leicestershire Black, which was the forerunner of the Shire horse. These horses were bred for their strength, and it is widely reported that where other farmers needed between for and seven horses to pull their ploughs, Bakewell only needed to use two. 

Some of the sources I read also made mention of pig rearing, but I have not found any evidence of this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was also something Bakewell was involved in.

Some of Bakewell’s famous animals are Twopenny the Bull, Twopounder the Ram, and the Black Horse called “K”, and the horse called “G”, which was a favourite of George III. 

In 1783 Bakewell formed the Dishley Society to protect the purity of his stock, and to help other farmers improve their livestock.

Bakewell was also one of the first farmers to hire out his male animals – stallions, bulls and rams - for mating. Often, rams were hired out for a whole season, and while in 1760 the cost was simply a few shillings per season, by 1770 this had been raised to 25 Guineas, and Twopounder for £1200.   

In the early days of his work, Bakewell would preserve skeletons and pickle carcasses of various specimens of his animals in order to better study them and assess their characteristics. He was initially also quite secretive about his work, presumably because in-breeding was frowned upon by the church. 

Crop management techniques

The land that Bakewell inherited was very wet, and sloped down towards the river. He took advantage of this, diverting the brook and creating canals, which meant that he could improve the quality of his grasslands by allowing them to be slightly flooded, which in turn meant that he was able to cut his grass four times a year – the extra one being in the Spring, which meant that his cattle could be grazed, and therefore fattened earlier in the year - rather than the three cuts which was more usual. He also set up different parcels of land to experiment with different manuring techniques and with different levels of flooding.

The canals also served a mill, and were also used to transport livestock feed, in the form of turnips, which were thrown into the canal at the high end and they floated down to the end of the route, where they were stopped by a grating, being collected clean and ready to be stored and used later to feed the animals.

Bakewell also sowed his seeds using the seed drill system (as pioneered by Jethro Tull) rather than the dispersal system which was the most common, but most unreliable way, and used a horse hoe to keep the ground clean. Taking advantage of the wet ground, Bakewell planted many willow trees, which were trimmed about every seven years, and were used to make things like rake handles, and sack bottoms were made from the willow tree trimmings. Bakewell also had a pond which he kept filled with fish, and water that drained from the yard of the house were channelled into the brook to help with the irrigation.

Manuring techniques

In his efforts to improve the efficiency of his farm through his land, his animals and his techniques, Bakewell created animal stalls with double stalls, which meant that he was able to collect manure from his animals, and watered it down to make a liquid manure to improve the quality of his land.

Bakewell and religion

Bakewell was a Unitarian, and a trustee of the Unitarian Church in Loughborough (which was somewhere along Warner’s Lane) and in Mountsorrel. Unitarians were a non-conformist group and, as such, were not widely accepted until after the Act of Toleration in 1689. This meant that although they became recognised and allowed to build their own chapels, there were many restrictions on them. So, for example, Unitarians were not allowed to go to university, nor to be JPs or hold any state or civic office.

The effect of this was that Unitarians often worked and socialised with other Unitarians and often a Unitarian married another Unitarian. At one time (and I’m not sure if this is still the case) Unitarians could only be buried in Church of England burial grounds. In the grounds of Dishley Grange is the remains of Dishley Church, which fell out of use in about 1854 when the Thorp Acre Church was built. In about 1882 the church was mostly dismantled, but some restoration work appears to have been undertaken in about 1919.   

Unfortunately, despite his success with animal breeding and new farming techniques, Bakewell was not particularly wealthy, and was indeed at one time bankrupt. There may perhaps be a number of reasons for this: He entertained lavishly, and probably beyond his means; his experimentation was expensive; there were often times when others did not pay the amount due for the lease of his rams; wool was at one point selling for a fraction of its highest costs, and war with America had reduced the value of some produce.

Bakewell today

In 1974, the Robert Bakewell School was built in Loughborough, and was extended in 1980. This is a popular primary school situated in Barsby Drive, an area which was once part of the parish of Thorpe Acre, of which I believe Dishley was a chapelry.

I don’t know when the original Dishley Society was disbanded, but the New Dishley Society was formed in 1994, to ensure that the bicentenary in 1995 was recognised. The New Dishley Society aims:

The blue plaque on Warner’s Lane

“to promote the memory of Robert Bakewell of Dishley Grange (1725-1795), and of his contemporaries and students of his methods. It aims to disseminate knowledge of his work and appreciation of his pioneering legacy in the breeding of improved farm livestock and better crop management. It supports research into the revolutionary agricultural techniques of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and into the men who developed these techniques.”

On Wednesday 29th October, 2008, a blue plaque, commemorating “Robert Bakewell, Livestock Breeder”, was placed, by the borough council, on a building in Warner’s Lane, Loughborough, that building being closest to the site of the Unitarian Chapel of which Bakewell (and his father before him) was a trustee.

2009 saw the completion of the Robert Bakewell halls of residence at Loughborough University, and in 2012, Brooksby Melton College honoured the memory of Robert Bakewell, after whom one of their halls was already named, by unveiling a plaque and storyboard outside the aforementioned hall.

In Loughborough itself, the Belton Road industrial estate is notable for naming its roads after local firms (for example, Cotton Way and Messenger Close) but there is indeed also a Bakewell Road. 

Mother and calves at Oakley Grange March 2014.

Up at Oakley Grange, between Hathern and Shepshed, the traditional of Longhorn breeding is carrying on as descendants of Bakewell’s Longhorn cattle are still being bred, and Leicester Longwool sheep are still bred in Yorkshire, as well as other parts of the UK, there also being an association specifically focussed on them.     

That’s all for now, but do call back to lynneaboutloughborough next week for a photographic walk through Dishely Grange Farm.

* Over in Norfolk, Robert Bakewell’s work was known to one Thomas William Coke (1754-1842, first Earl of Leicester, seventh creation) who had a large estate. He is remembered mostly as an agricultural reformer, who was influenced by Bakewell’s work, rather than for his work as an MP.

 

** Coincidentally, Robert Bakewell, ironsmith, also had connections with one Thomas Coke (1674-1727), this particular Thomas Coke being the owner of Melbourne Hall, in south Derbyshire, an architect and an MP for Derbyshire. The “birdcage” in the gardens of Melbourne Hall were created by this Robert Bakewell.