Lynne About Loughborough: Moon and Bell

Showing posts with label Moon and Bell. Show all posts

Saturday, 25 January 2025

Ones to watch

Time seems to be flying by, and we're already near the end of January!

Following the previous two posts about changes that happened in Loughborough during 2024, here's a very short post, focussing on changes and developments that are going to happen largely in 2025. I shan't cover the Garendon Estate here, as it's such a big project, and the properties aren't likely to be completed anytime soon. So, here are just two of the many developments I've seen recently.

Firstly, something finally seems to be happening to Atherstone House, the building which until October 2023 was home to the Moon and Bell, a Wetherspoons pub. Signs have appeared in the windows, work people have been spotted upstairs, and the signage suggests things will be progressing in the spring.

The other development I've been watching closely is the new housing that is starting to be built on the outskirts of Woodthorpe village. The entrance to the field being built on is where the road takes a ninety-degree turn to the village houses. If you walk along that road, there is a footpath to the left, which takes you to the GCR bridge (no. 339), and thence to the back of One Ash, and into Quorn. However, you can look back from the bridge towards the house building, which gives a sense of how big the field and the building area is. Hope that makes sense!!

The approach from Epinal Way Extension - Woodthorpe to the right

The GCR bridge

Looking back towards the perimeter of the field showing the William Davis bridge

Looing back towards the field being developed

Exiting Woodthorpe - now a give way to the construction traffic

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). Ones to watch. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/01/ones-to-watch.html [Accessed 25 January 2025]

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Lynne

Friday, 19 April 2024

P is for Pubs

Pubs! Well, a very small selection, and it would be remiss of me not to write about pubs for letter ‘P’, given the latest book!!

First of all, is our Phantom under threat? I have a feeling the Phantom, which was once the Cross Keys, is still owned by the Stonegate Group, which has in the past couple of days announced that it is re-financing.

Pubs we have lost since ‘Loughborough Pubs’ was written include the Moon and Bell, which closed in October 2023. It has since been re-roofed, but the windows – some of which are definitely 1930s Crittall windows – have been boarded up. For a while, the internal lights were left on, which afforded an interesting view of the deserted pub. However, Wetherspoons other pub in Loughborough, the Amber Rooms on The Rushes, is still trading.

The Windmill on Sparrow Hill, its frontage emblazoned with the words ‘Loughborough’s Oldest Pub’, has also closed, and the building sold. As far as I am aware it is to become (if it hasn’t already) a residential property.

The Plough over at Thorpe Acre has closed very recently, I believe. This is an interesting establishment, which has its back facing onto the road: you need to go round the back – to the front! – to really appreciate the building.

Champs was surrounded by scaffolding a few months ago. The Bellfoundry had another re-furb, and the Blacksmiths is currently being renovated.

Blacksmiths before latest renovation

There are numerous other posts about Loughborough's pubs on this blog: use the web view rather than the mobile view to see an alphabetical list of topics covered, where pubs will be listed under their name.

I don't know if it still contains up-to-date information, but years ago I did a pub quiz with a difference for the blog!

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This post is one in a series of posts for 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.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Pubs. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/p-is-for-pubs.html [Accessed 18 April 2024]

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Sunday, 4 February 2024

More changes around the town in early 2024

I really can’t believe that since I shared with you some changes that had happened around the town centre during 2023, yet more things have changed in the past couple of weeks!!

The most recent thing I’ve seen is that Moore and York, the estate agents, seem to have vacated the mill building on Devonshire Square/Ward’s End, that they have occupied for many years. Whether or not this is a permanent situation or not, I don’t know, but I do know they recently had a new heating system installed! The building might be on the register of locally listed buildings, although in reality, I’m not sure if the listing might perhaps be for the other end of the building, at the edge of the Granby Street car park. Nevertheless, the building in question is, in my opinion, quite lovely with its red and blue brick, its brick window arches, and its interesting cross-shaped white brick pattern.

View from Devonshire Square

View from Ward's End

I mentioned in my previous post that the Moon and Bell had gone, but since then work seems to have begun on the building itself. The Old Bleach Yard signs that were on the side of the building along the alleyway have gone (ok, so they were rather, ummm, bleached by the sun!), some of the rear windows have been boarded up, and the flat roof is being attended to.

The Old Bleach Yard alleyway

The Moon and Bell from the rear

The Old Bleach Yard banners in 2015

The Old Bleach Yard banners gone, 2024

And the little shop that for a very long time traded in vacuum cleaners, and has since hosted a number of other businesses, is now being turned into a pottery, which is having an open day on 24th and 25th February.

Whilst I was in the area, I walked through Queen’s Park, and noticed the trees that had been removed. Well, actually I couldn’t have noticed the trees, as they had ummmm, been removed, but I did gasp at the difference the removal of two of the trees had made to the view (and to the shade over and around the benches).

On the residential streets, a property with a Swithland slate roof has had these tiles removed and replaced with different ones – probably Welsh slate, so still fairly in-keeping with the house, but much more of a grey colour when compared with the green hue of the Swithland variety.

The old Swithland slate roof

A new roof

Champs now has scaffolding around it. Well, actually, I think it may have been like this before Christmas, but it didn’t quite make it to the blog! Prior to 2018, this sports bar was called The Unicorn.

Briefly, it looks like the Peacock is having a bit of work done, too.

The white property on Fennel Street (now the A6), which suffered a fire a few years ago, has had its side chimney (?) removed.

Pictured in November 2023

And there I must end for another week!

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2023). More changes around the town in early 2024. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/02/more-changes-around-town-in-early-2024.html [Accessed 4 February 2024]

Take down policy:

External Links:

Blog archive and tags:

Searching the blog:

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

Sunday, 7 January 2024

Changes in Loughborough 2023

This time last year there had been so many changes to buildings in Loughborough during the year, that I felt I ought to record some of them on the blog. Well, this year has also seen lots of changes, so here I am again looking at a selection of developments during 2023. Of course, apart from actual building changes, there have also been lots of instances of building change of use, or simply building vacation.

Here are some photos of a few of the changes I've noticed (apologies that some are so out of focus - I was having a worse day for photography than usual!):

Moon and Bell closed

Windmill changed to a residential property (I couldn't find my later photo which I'm sure showed even more changes than this particular photo from October 2023 does)