Zeppelins, Loughborough, Heanor and Led Zeppelin

So, last week Zeppelins featured in my world again. It's almost 101 years since that fateful night - 31st January 1916 - when Zeppelin airships dropped bombs on Loughborough. It is believed their pilots were heading for Liverpool, but because of the inadequate navigation systems available to them at the time, and also because of the lack of orientation possible, due to the blackouts, our town was targeted, as we had left lights on.

In actual fact, there were a number of airships flying into and over Britain on that fateful night, and the raids have become known as the Midlands raid, so as well as bombs dropping on Loughborough, bombs were also released onto Birmingham, Titpon, Wednesbury, Dudley, Walsall, Ilkeston, Bennerley, Stanton, Trowell, Burton, Overseal and Swadlincote - though not necessarily a comprehensive list. 

I popped along to the Heanor and District Local History Society meeting last week to hear Stephen Flinders, Chair of Ilkeston and District Local History Society, talk about the "Terror from the Skies", an account of January 31st 1916, the night the Zeppelins came. And what an exciting talk it was too! Stephen had some interesting information to share with the audience - which numbered in excess of 100 folk - and had done some great work on mapping out the journey of each of the individual Zeppelins involved in the raids on that fateful evening, so we could see the exact route each travelled. We heard stories of lucky escapes, and unfortunate decisions. We heard accounts of Zeppelin-sightings from eye-witnesses, we saw adverts for post-raid Zeppelin attack insurance, we looked at satirical illustrations from the likes of Punch magazine, we heard the story of the message in a bottle, and we wondered at the marketing of Coleman's mustard!

Having listened to Stephen's talk, I now have a bigger picture of the Zeppelin raids of 31st January 1916 which saw so many bombs being released onto the Midlands, the overall death toll being around 71, and the casualties amounting to about 113. According to Derbyshire Life (see below), "the raid on the Midlands on the night of 31st January / 1st February 1916 [was] noted as one of the heaviest of the First World War."

Last year, following a walk led by Bob Stephens, a fellow accredited Leicestershire Tour Guide, I created a virtual walk around Loughborough which you can follow if you wish to visit the sites affected by the Zeppelin bombs. More information on Zeppelins from this blog can be found on the following pages:

• Night of the Zeppelin
• An account of Bob's walk

And so to Led Zeppelin! The story of their formation seems a bit complicated (think Yardbirds, New Yardbirds, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Jeff Beck, John Bonham, Keith Moon etc.). According to Wikipedia (oh go on, please give me a break, I don't actually know much about rock music so I had to look somewhere!!) one of the stories associated with how the band got its name revolves around the idea that a supergroup with Jimmy page and Jeff Beck would, according to Keith Moon and John Entwistle, not go down very well, in fact would be like a lead balloon. Dropping the "a" from lead, and substituting Zeppelin for balloon made for what was considered to be the perfect name for the group which Jimmy page had envisioned. Sounds plausible to me!  
     
Anyway,if you want to read more about the Zeppelin raids on the Midlands, here are a few websites you could view:

• Ian Castle's Zeppelin raid site
• The Express and Star report from 31 January 2016 on the Black Country Zeppelin raids
• The report of the unveiling of Ilkeston memorial plaque on the Railway Electrical Services website
• A Derbyshire Life article on the Zeppelin Terror on Burton and Derby

Thanks for stopping by!

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

Dyer, Lynne (2017). Zeppelins Loughborough Heanor and Led Zeppelin. [Online] Available from: http://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2017/01/zeppelins-loughborough-heanor-and-led.html [Accessed 15 January 2017]

   

Bloomin' Loughborough! Loughborough enters the In Bloom competition!

Oh, hello there! Nice to see you again!!

Today’s post is all about Bloomin’ Loughborough!

So, my mission to ensure that Loughborough doesn’t make it to the list of 50 rubbish towns, today sees me focus on the towns in bloom competition!

Each year our town is decorated with hanging baskets, window boxes, towers of flowers and all manner of other interesting displays of flowers. And, each year, we seem to do better in the competition, so last year, like 2011, we managed to gain a Gold in the East Midlands in Bloom competition.

Now, it’s not my intention to explain what the competition is about, as this information is perfectly well explained elsewhere and I’ll give you some links at the end of this blog. Rather, what I’d like to do is share some pictures with you, so you get some idea of what’s around town at the moment. There are, however, a couple of things to say first: there are some stunning displays missing from my photos, because whenever I’ve been out and about with my camera it’s been too busy with cars to take even adequate photos. And, secondly, I am no David Bailey – I’ve come to the conclusion that I see beautiful things and take photos of them, whereas as a good photographer sees things and takes beautiful photos. So, my photos don’t do the actual blooms justice, but I hope they give you a sense of what’s going on. Finally, I have made a conscious decision not to include Queen's Park today: This park is looking so spectacular at the moment, that it truly deserves its own blogpost! Watch this space!!

So, let's start on the outskirts of town.

The small triangular planting area at the junction of Edelin Road, Park Road and Shelthorpe Road has been repaired and planted up with beautiful wild flowers, thanks to the hard work of some Loughborough residents.

A very similar area has also been planted up, but with a different selection of flowers. This is on the junction of Beacon Road and Beacon Drive, and has a matching area on the opposite side of the road. The Beacon pub, just up the road from here also has hanging baskets a-plenty!

Following Epinal way down in the direction of the university and Derby takes us to the roundabout on Forest Road. Here, there is a stunning display from Harry at his property tucked in on the left-hand side. This character made an appearance during last year's competition as an Olympic competitor, and also at Christmas-time. Here he is as a farmer, with his dog and Dolly the Sheep!

This is Harry's house, and, by George, he's made a real impression with his fantastic, thoughtful displays! I wasn't the only person taking photographs!

And this is the stunning display that Harry's house looks onto, just beside the Woodbrook. Hides a less lovely aluminium fence!

This fabulous display of beautiful pink flowers is on Forest Road near the pedestrian crossing, opposite the Woodbrook. It's one of the many displays by the university. If I can get to one of the others when the roads are less busy I'll show you that one too (I think I need to get up earlier to beat the rush!)

Leaving the outskirts and heading into town now, down Forest Road, and we enter past John Storer House. Just look at these displays, hiding the slightly less pretty 1960s building! Last year, JSH won an award for their displays!

To the right of this flowering display is a bench where you can sit and look at what used to be the Blacksmith's Arms!!

On New Street, the one that looks down onto the Carillon in Queen's Park, JSH have another little display.

Bedford Square itself is home to numerous flower towers and flower tubs, pictured here:

The entrance to Granby Street car park isn't short of a flower tower or two, either!!

And, looking down Granby Street towards the cinema (Empire, Essoldo, New Empire, Curzon, Reel, Odeon - you chose!!) you can see that Cattle Market is adorned as well.

Market Place has numerous flower towers, strategically placed so as not to interfere with the setting up of the regular markets.

The Town Hall looks festive with lots of hanging baskets of flowers, though they do look better than this photo shows!

Many of the banks have also joined in the fun with hanging baskets. Here's a picture of the HSBC - again this photo doesn't do it justice. 

And one of the NatWest (a building designed by Watson Fothergill).

And finally, if you need a drink after all that walking, you'll be pleased to know that the pubs are looking pretty jolly too!! Here's The Griffin.

I do hope you've enjoyed this little trip into Bloomin' Loughborough and that this little contribution nudges our town one step further down the list of the 100.

Here are those websites with information about the bloomin’ competition that I mentioned earlier: the Charnwood Borough Council website, the East Midlands in Bloom website and the Loughborough in Bloom community blog.

Bye for now!