When only wine will do!

It's funny how things seem to point in a particular direction! There are so many things and people I want to blog about, I sometimes sit and think "where shall I start", but other times the subject of the post is obvious!

After last week's visit to the re-opening of the Old Bleach Yard path through to the Granby Street car park, I was thinking about the new businesses that have relatively recently opened in Ward's End, like Madeline's Gifts and Flowers (where I recently got my own wedding bouquet and buttonholes), the new cafe in what was until recently the shoe shop, and the Deli at 58, to name but a few. Here's hoping that their businesses boom now that there is easier access from the car park.

That also led me to thinking about the businesses that have only recently closed, like Denise's Florists, the shoe shop I've just mentioned above, the guitar shop, the Age Concern bookshops (ok, so it's still in town) and some time ago now, Wakerleys the bakers, again, to name but a few.

Of course, there are a number of shops which have been on Ward's End for a long time, including Kent Stevenson shoes, the vacuum cleaner shop, and George Hill, Wine Merchants. Again, here's hoping trade for them is also brisk!

Talking of George Hills, my eldest was home from university for a couple of days last week, and he popped into the shop looking for some Eiswein (ice wine), as a gift for a friend, who had spent some years working in Canada so was particularly fond of the Canadian variety. Anyway, none was to be had so he came home with some late Riesling instead. Whilst we were talking, I suddenly remembered I had a bottle of Eiswein squirrelled away somewhere at the back of a cupboard, so went to see if I could find it. Imagine our surprise when it turned out to be one of those elusive Canadian varieties!!

Also whilst we were chatting I remembered that I'd read somewhere that George Hill's were having s display in the local studies area of the public library, so I hotfooted it off to the library to have a look at said exhibition, and take a few photos. Do go and see it if you can because my photos are absolute rubbish quality, for which I apologise profusely.

Hmmm, and this gives me an idea for next week's post! Hope to see you then! 

  

Old Bleach Yard

Today I was lucky enough to be able to attend the opening up of the Old Bleach Yard!

If you know Loughborough, you are probably familiar with Angel Yard in Market Place, as being the original home of Wills and Hepworth, the publishers of Ladybird books, or maybe The George Yard, at one time home to James' Vaults. Yards like this, as well as courts, were very common in the Loughborough of old, but have changed over the years as new developments have replaced them.

The Old Bleach Yard is the path leading down by the side of the vacuum cleaner shop and The Moon and Bell (or Atherstone House) in Ward's End. For many years I used to buy my birthday cards in the pine shop that used to be on the left towards the bottom, but of late I have had little reason to go down there. The yard ends with a wall, and some concrete garages, with the old Clarke's dyeworks to the right. 

Well, I say this, but now the area has been transformed, the garages and wall knocked down and the pathway opened up into the Granby Street car park, with the aim of making it easier for folk who've parked there to come directly to the wonderful Ward's End, Devonshire Square, Bedford Square shopping area.

There is so much history associated with this area, I don't know what to highlight!! Obviously, Clarkes Dyeworks has played a very important part here, and I blogged quite some time ago about the Clarke family, and about some of the places, like The Gables, Park Street and Park Road where members of the family lived. The Woodbrook which runs through Queen's Park and across Granby Street was also important to the dyeing and bleaching industry. As you can probably tell from the name of this yard, there was also a bleach works, that went hand-in-hand with the dyeworks.

The cattle market used to take place near the opening of the Old Bleach Yard onto Ward's End, before it moved into what is now the Granby Street car park, evidence of which is still there in the form of the ring of stones near the entrance. Also, somewhere in the vicinity was the Drill Hall where the TAs used to meet (don't quote me on that: it might not have been the TA!!)

Just up the road from the entrance to the yard is The Orange Tree pub, previously the Wheatsheaf, and behind this a yard where Henry Moore (the spa ornament maker, not the sculptor!!) lived and worked on fashioning alabaster ornaments (I blogged about this a while ago, too!)

Just down the road from the yard is Devonshire Square, an area that has recently been rejuvenated with a colourful mural depicting local scenes, and created by Silent Hobo (subject of an earlier blogpost).

Whilst I was in town, I looked around Ward's End and took note of the many new shops that have opened in the area, like the Deli at 58, a new coffee shop, and a relatively new florists. Standing cheek by jowl with old-established businesses like George Hill's and Kent Stevenson, I'm sure this new link between the car park and Ward's End will encourage more shoppers to visit the area.

To end, here's some photos of today's event.

  

   

Remember Lymeswold?

May Bank Holiday weekend

Without the traditional Canal Festival, I was at a bit of a loss to know what to do with the Bank Holiday weekend: I read in the local paper that The Boat Inn was having a bit of a do, as indeed they did last year, but this didn't appeal to me so much.

Leafing through my page feed on facebook, I was alerted to an Artisan Cheese Fair taking place in Melton Mowbray over the weekend, so hubby and I headed out on an unseasonably cold Saturday at the beginning of May, fondly remembering such days in the past when we'd got sunburnt at the Rushcliffe Country Park in Ruddington (slight diversion here, but Zena over at Zena's Suitcase writes a lovely blog, and reviews RCP).

Well, if you like cheese (and coffee, and cakes, and alcohol and alcoholic ice-cream, and bread, and bread boards, and cheese-making kits, and preserves, and chocolate and old-fashioned lorries with old-fashioned cheese-making kit on board, and Morris dancers and ukulele orchestras) then you'd love the Melton Artisan Cheese Fair! It was almost like a mini food festival, but concentrating on cheese.

 

Walking around the various stalls, which had come from almost all over the country, including Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Lincolnshire, Kent, Wales, Cheshire, Shropshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Northumberland, Somerset, Wiltshire, North Yorkshire - and those are just the ones I can remember, there was a heady smell of cheese and alcohol in the halls! Little tiny chunks of cheese with cocktail sticks adorned most stalls, and we tasted and tasted, with each mouthful regarding ourselves to be better and better cheese connoisseurs! Erroneously, of course! I've done a course in wine-making and tasting (taught by the wonderful Andrew Hill) and got a certificate in it from Loughborough College, but I've no such qualifications in cheese-making and tasting!

Anyway, we bought everything we needed for a delicious tea for the evening - bread, butter, coffee, oh, and some cheese! All the cheeses tasted so good, it was really hard to pick just the one or two that wouldn't blow our small budget, and we settled for some goats cheese, a blue cheese (aptly named Battlefield Blue and made by the Leicestershire Handmade Cheese Company at Upton, near Nuneaton), a very smelly cheese (from Cardiganshire) and a wedge of mature cheddar: I'd post a picture, but half-eaten cheese doesn't really look very nice!










The most local-to-Loughborough products that I spotted were Chocolate Alchemy, who are based in Churchgate Mews, and Burleigh's [London Dry] Gin, which is a micro-brewery based at Bawdon Lodge Farm, Nanpantan Road.







So, having chosen and bought what we wanted, we watched the Morris dancers for a little while: What an energetic bunch, and so talented! Then, we listened to the Melstrum Ukulele Orchestra do  few numbers: Very entertaining! All cheesed-out, we made our way into town and had tea in one of the many teashops in Melton town centre, and then did a little bit of shopping with the teeny bit of money we had left, before driving home, keen to start cooking tea!



We took the scenic route home, and coincidentally drove through Wymeswold, a village which has always confounded me with it's layout! Driving past the church brought back memories of that lovely Lymeswold cheese, an English brie-type cheese, made in Cannington, Somerset, by Dairy Crest, not in Wymeswold as one might like to think, given its name!

The next foodie thing to happen in Melton will be the Melton Mowbray / East Midlands Food Festival, taking place on 3rd-4th October - another one well-worth a visit if you like your food!

Here's a couple more photos from the cheese event.