Loughborough is the best town in the world!

A couple of weeks ago I was very kindly sent a couple of newspapers which featured Loughborough.

The first of these was the Sunday Times Good University Guide which was published on

Towers never changes!

22nd September 2019. How wonderful it is to note that our very own university has again achieved 5th position in these tables. Not only that, it has been voted University of the Year again for a second time. And, as if that weren't enough, students rate their experience highly, making it third of all the universities. 

Engineering is one of the strengths of the university, but it's perhaps best known for sport, so it comes as no surprise that Loughborough University won the British Universities & Colleges Sport championship this year. In another measure of university success, Loughborough gained a Gold for the quality of its teaching in the Teaching Excellence Framework.

The alphabetical listing of universities is peppered throughout with interesting statistics and short articles, including a spotlight on some particularly good 'student cities'. So, we can either be glad or a bit regretful that Leicester is recommended as a great student city - for students at Leicester and Loughborough. The article mentions the large number of festivals that are held in Leicester (like Diwali and the Caribbean Festival), explains that the remains of Richard III are now in Leicester Cathedral, and that live music is to be found everywhere. This particular article is accompanied by a picture by Eleanor Walker entitled 'Echoes', which focuses on Loughborough's Sockman, the Carillon, and Towers.

So, the other article was also from the Sunday Times and discussed towns where folk might want to live if they want to remain connected, but at the same time calm! Apparently, 57% of people stress that access to broadband is a key factor in their search for a home, and other things like being able to walk to work, being able to retain a modicum of privacy, having shops and amenities close by, as well as great public transport are also important. 

London Marylebone anyone?

Some of the ideal places people may want to live identified by the author of the article include Banbury, Linlithgow, Malton, Penrith, Sevenoaks and Totnes. Oh, and Loughborough! Of all the towns listed, the average house price in Loughborough is the lowest. It's a 90-minute train ride to London; Leicester, Derby and Nottingham are 20-minutes away, and the countryside only a 5-minute ride away. Apparently, the town is a good place for small start-up companies too, which can only be a good thing. 



I have to confess to being somewhat disappointed that we don't seem to have made it to that new daytime television house-hunting programme, Escape to the Perfect Town, which so far includes Abergavenny, Arundel, Berkhampstead, Bideford, Guildford, Knaresborough, Sevenoaks, Thirsk Tunbridge Wells and Woodbridge. Still, it's early days in the series, so there's time for us to make an appearance!

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). Loughborough is the best town in the world. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/10/loughborough-is-best-town-in-world.html   [Accessed 20 October 2019]

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

Many of the things highlighted in this blog post are dealt with in more detail in 'Loughborough in 50 Buildings', e.g. the Carillon and Towers, and in 'Secret Loughborough' like the university.      

Snowy Loughborough

This morning I was due to go out on a walk around the town centre with a group of folk to look at our Art Deco heritage. However, it was too snowy for standing around observing and recording buildings so I went out for a bit of a walk around town on my own - well, not on my own, I had my camera with me! Here's some of what I saw:

I started my journey in Queen's Park, always a beautiful place, but even more atmospheric in the snow

Then I walked through the Market Place. The sockman was obviously enjoying the festive season, but shouldn't that be yellow cross-gaiters??

And I've seen some sights in my time, but never reindeer here before!

From here I walked over to the older part of town, where the Christmas trees looked very, ummm, Christmassy

And the real trees looked stunning!

The Swithland slate gravestones in the churchyard were either buried, or peeking out above the snow

Making my way back along Baxter Gate, the snow added a certain romance to the area, and the snowman was clearly enjoying his tea break!

Back through the Market Place again, where folk were singing and dancing in the, ummm, snow!

And the Christmas tree was listing towards Angel Yard!

Zhengs looked particularly bright and cheerful.

But by this time the pavements were beginning to get rather slushy

At the top of New Street, the trees were making their mark on the snow

And around the corner from the Blacksmith's Arms, the area around Brown's (did this used to be a dairy??) looked almost unrecognisable!

And nearby roads looked quite pretty.

And the only Art Deco building I photographed was along Baxter Gate

That's it for now folks!

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). Snowy Loughborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2017/12/snowy-loughborough.html  [Accessed 10 December 2017]

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  

  

So who was A T Warbis?

If you pop down to the public library before the end of July you will see the exhibition cabinets near the Local Studies Library full of sketches created by A T Warbis. Alfred Thomas Warbis, or AT as I believe he signed his drawings, was a prolific artist, and created over 1,200 drawings for the Loughborough Echo, which appeared in a column called "From and Artist's Sketchbook".

Here are some pics from the exhibition; they don't do it justice and I'm still trying to get to grips with my new camera, so do try and pop in and have a look for yourself. And, if you're on Twitter and want to follow what's going on in the Local Studies Library, follow the volunteers - LLLSV @Loughlibvol

If you pop over to the internet (preferably using Chrome rather than IE (as the site doesn't work for me on IE)) you'll find some webpages on A T Warbis created by his son, David. This site also includes an obituary that appeared in the Loughborough Echo at the time of A T's death (1976). In his introduction, David makes a great point that his father's sketches were not only works of art, but now also contribute to a recorded social history of Loughborough. So, for example, in the public library exhibition you can see copies of A T Warbis's sketches, next to a photograph of what the same view looks like today: some are little changed, but many are vastly different.

The Loughborough Echo obituary tells you a little more about the artist's life, and it is wonderful to learn that he created about 5,000 sketches, was a pupil of, amongst others, Herbert Railton *, and worked for Brush.

Personally, I love these sketches. There is no substitute for a real drawing, but since I am no drawer myself, and I do like taking photographs, so I have recently been playing with some software that allows me to create pencil sketches from photographs, and I've used these in my walking booklets. Of course, as I said, they are no substitute for the real thing ...

The Manor House

The Odeon

The Sockman

Beacon Bingo

The Parish Church

The Old Hospital Site

The Old Rectory in the snow!

 * I've been looking for a connection between Herbert Railton, artist (who originally trained as an architect) and William Railton, architect, who designed, amongst other things, Nelson's Column, and the Bavarian Lodge at Garendon Park, but as yet have been unsuccessful!