Celebrating our history through commemorative plaques

I've been lucky enough this last week to be able to attend a couple of events that celebrate the contribution made t our local society by a number of individuals.

I'm sure you've heard of the Leicestershire County Council green plaque scheme, and the Charnwood Borough Council brown plaque scheme. There are some examples of green plaques on the blogpost called Walking the Plaques, and some brown plaques make an appearance in 'Secret Loughborough'. 

Basically, they're a bit like the London blue plaque scheme, which is currently administered by English Heritage, and is essentially focussed on London. This particular scheme has been run by English Heritage since 1986, but had already been running for over 120 years, by other organisations. English Heritage tried extending the scheme to the whole of the country, but found that local councils and other organisations already had things covered, so they remained focussed on London. As an example, Harrogate in North Yorkshire, has over 80 brown plaques honouring people, places and events related to the town.

Leicestershire County Council's scheme has been going for about five years now, and around 24 commemorative plaques have been revealed across the county, honouring people and places - like John Heathcoat, Angel Yard, and William Cotton - and Sunloch, the winner of the Grand National in 1916 (these are just examples from Loughborough). Suggestions are made by the public and a longlist is made, the public then voting for their six choices.

This week I went along to the unveiling of a green plaque commemorating two Suffragettes from Loughborough, sisters, Kathleen and Nora Corcoran. They were active in the movement and members of the local Labour History Society have been researching their story, and produced a booklet describing the life and events in the story of the sisters. As they used to live in a property called The Shanty, on Casteldine Street, the plaque has been mounted on the wall of a property on that street. The houses have now lost their original names, and now have numbers, but, for a number of reasons, the plaque is on the wall of the house next to the one the sisters lived in.

The event was popular, and was attended by quite a number of people. First, there was a reception event with speeches about the sisters, followed by the unveiling in situ, and then a further reception event along with a visit to the Red House on Burton Street, the site of a fire, allegedly started by the sisters. You can read more about the sisters on the county council website, and the full text of the booklet produced by Mike Shuker of the Labour History Society can also be read on the web.

Inside the hall

Speeches in the hall

Awaiting the unveiling

About to perform the deed!

The unveiling

The plaque unveiled

Refreshments back in the hall

Inside the Red House

Over in Rothley the previous week, I was at the Rothley Court Hotel, once home to the Knights Templar, for the unveiling of a Charnwood brown plaque honouring Lord Macaulay, who was born here. Thomas Babington Macaulay, lived from 1800-1859, who amongst other things, was an historian, and Whig politician, serving under two prime ministers, Lord Melbourne, and Lord John Russell. The Encyclopedia Britannica have an excellent biography of the man.

Before the plaque unveiling, we perused the information stand and listened to a speech about Lord Macaulay and his life. Making our way outside, the weather was not brilliant but the rain was light enough not to detract from the actual unveiling of the plaque.

Here's a link to the official Charnwood Borough Council report of the unveiling of the plaque to Lord Macaulay:

https://www.charnwood.gov.uk/news/2019/10/29/charnwood_heritage_plaque_revealed_to_honour_local_historian

And here's how to nominate someone, something or a place for a brown heritage plaque: https://www.charnwood.gov.uk/pages/heritage_plaques

The entrance to Rothley Court

The information stand

Some of the literature available

Before the unveiling

The speeches

The unveiling

Some of the attendees to the event

The plaque unveiled

Close-up of the plaque

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

Dyer, Lynne (2019). Celebrating our history through commemorative plaques. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/11/celebrating-our-history-through.html  [Accessed 3 November 2019]

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Lynne

A veritable pot pourri!

The Leicestershire Green plaques scheme

You may have seen a recent news report about a new green plaque scheme that is being rolled out in Leicestershire. This scheme is like the blue plaque scheme run by English Heritage, where a plaque is attached to a building where either someone famous lived and worked, or a building that has some interesting heritage attached to it.

The scheme in Leicestershire will see about six green plaques erected in Leicestershire in the first year of the programme. Members of the public are being asked to nominate sites and people that they think are worthy of such an accolade. Closing date for these nominations is Friday 24^th January, and once nominations have been submitted, the judging panel will make a shortlist of 12. Members of the public will then be able to vote, and 6 final choices will be made.

So, if you want to see that favourite person of yours honoured, or that building made special by a green plaque, send in your nomination! The nomination process is well-explained on the website, but in short, write up to 500 words in support of your nomination and send it in to the address listed on the website.

But hurry, time is running out!!!

  

Cinemas

 

I’m sure many of you will know that the proposed development of the Baxter Gate hospital has been approved and is likely to result in a new cinema for the town. I have my own views about this, which I won’t bore you with here. However, I will say that one of the benefits of this development is that it encompasses the former nurses’ home, a Grade II listed building, built in the late 19^th century, that is currently crumbling before our eyes.

The worry now, is about the current cinema. If I remember rightly, I think the Odeon (previously The Reel, The Curzon, The New Empire, The Essoldo, and originally The Empire) has also been granted permission to extend and is to add a couple of coffee shops and expand into Asha House which is at the back to the cinema, on Southfields Road. Originally, built in 1914 as the Empire, the cinema was extended in 1929, and the art deco façade that we all know and love so much was added. In 1935 a new auditorium was created and in 1974-5 the cinema was twinned.

The big question is, of course, can Loughborough sustain two large cinemas? We have already seen the demolition of Warner Street School, the only stone building left in town, and a Locally Listed Building. The current Odeon is also Locally Listed: How safe is this much-loved institution?

Aumberry Gap

I recently found myself being thrown out of the local studies library – not for bad behaviour, but because it was closing time! – and found myself browsing through some local stock that I hadn’t previously come across. Ohhhh, lots of stuff of interest – bits of paper printed on someone’s dot matrix printer, faint, creased and filed in ring binders, huge volumes of type-written books, and loads of directories. Flicking through one or two of these resources, I happened upon some really useful stuff that added to what I had already researched for some earlier blogposts, and some new information that will inform future posts. Oh, and I got thrown out of the main library too!!

The one thing I wanted to mention today was a volume of burial registers. I knew that there were some burials under the car park of the Beauchief (previously known as The Britannia Inn), and that Aumberry* Gap was so named as it replaced Cemetery Road. I can’t remember exactly, but someone once told me that these burials were either non-conformist, or the Church of All Saints had run out of burial space, and the cemetery on Leicester Road hadn’t yet opened. Here in the library, I found all the names of the people buried in this place, and thought how sad it was that there is now an inner relief road being built on top of them.

*Aumbry – in a mediaeval church this was a cabinet in which the chalices were stored

WW1 and the Church of All Saints

Some Heritage Lottery Funding has been made available to move some war memorials that are currently situated in the parish church to a more visible location within the church. There is to be a public meeting, a Community Consultation, on Saturday February 8th in the church at 7.30pm to discuss the project, to which everyone is invited.




Fearon Hall

This year, 2014, Fearon Hall is celebrating its 125th birthday, and to celebrate, ideas from the public are being sought. There is going to be a meeting in the hall on Sunday 19th January, from 2pm-4pm and anyone with ideas or memories of the hall to share is welcome to come along.

Luddites and Lacemakers

The Friends of Charnwood Museum have invited a guest speaker along to talk about John Heathcote and the Luddite raids of 1816. This talk takes place on Wednesday 15 January in the museum cafe, at 7.30pm, and everyone is welcome. There is a small charge for entry.




New Year Honours

Finally, I would like to congratulate Dr Jassal of Bridge Street Medical Practice for the fantastic work he does at Rainbows, the local children’s hospice, which has earned him and MBE in this year's honours list.