Exhibition about Nanpantan

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that several of the projects I had been involved with recently were coming to their conclusion. In that post, I talked about the Focus on the Foundry photography programme, and since then the Bellfoundry Trust has included a brief review of the project on their website. 

Another local project, although my part in it is completed, isn’t yet live on the internet, so I’ll share that when it’s publicly available. Another project was a small exhibition, which ended up being hosted somewhere other than originally planned, and even smaller than intended: when I’ve seen it, I’ll share it with you!! Yet another project did result in an exhibition, so here’s a very short piece about it!!

On Monday evening, 24th March, an exhibition was held at Nanpantan Hall, which showcased the research about Nanpantan done by a group of volunteers working under the guidance of an experienced Victoria County History researcher, Dr Pamela Fisher, who has previously written a couple of guest posts for this blog [1]. Finded by the Charnwood Forest Geopark, meetings were held towards the end of 2024, and into early 2025, at Home Farm, where the volunteers learned skills and techniques for researching local history.

The volunteers put these skills to good use either at home or in the public library, and researched things like the pubs in Nanpantan, the school, the reservoir, the local farms, the local scout and guide groups, and so on, together gradually building up a picture of the area over time.

Although I had previously done some research on Nanpantan, some of which I wrote up in my ‘A-Z of Loughborough’, some in ‘Loughborough Pubs’, and some on this blog [2], for this project I researched some areas I wasn’t previously familiar with, and I have to admit it was rather good to be part of a team and to work with other people who were also researching.

As I said, the results of the research – well, a small amount of it! (there’s always far more information found than can be accommodated in a book, a journal article, a blog post, or even an A3 poster!) – was exhibited at Nanpantan Hall.

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Notes

[1]

Mary Tate of Burleigh Hall 

Loughborough’s Second Workhouse  

[2]

Visit to Nanpantan Hall 

N is for Nanpantan 

Nanpantan and Temperance 

Nanpantan church stone 

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Dyer, Lynne (2025). Exhibition about Nanpantan. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/03/exhibition-about-nanpantan.html [Accessed 30 March 2025]

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Loughborough local history rooted in Charnwood

So, lynneaboutloughborough has been out and about and a bit busy again this week! Let me tell you about it!

During the week there was a meeting about the Old Rectory Museum: don't forget, they are open most Saturdays from now until the end of October, and the new display is about the Civil War at Cotes. Check out their facebook group to keep up with the latest news!

Pop-up cinema at the Charnwood Roots Festival

Cinema is big on my list of interests, so I was really enthralled to listen to Brian Johnson talk about the village cinemas of Leicestershire and Rutland. Ok, so this didn't cover any of the cinemas in Loughborough, but it was fascinating to learn about all the little cinemas in the surrounding villages, the ways they were run, and the antics that both people running them and people visiting them got up to! 

The Roman mosaics in Leicester with GCR behind

Saturday we ventured further afield and had a tour of the excavations taking place in Leicester under what was the Stibbe building (the one in town, opposite the Highcross, not the one near De Montfort University that was demolished about 10 years ago). Yes, on one side was the Highcross shopping centre, but on the other side was the former Great Central Station. According to our guide, the company responsible for building the new premises will also be renovating the station, so that's something to look forward to. Anyway, we saw some stunning Roman mosaic floors, some surviving Roman wall, layers and layers of road surfaces, including the Roman one, and glimpses of the hypocaust. All this will be eventually displayed in the Jewry Wall Museum.  

 
Today, I was lucky enough to be able to go to the Charnwood Roots Festival, and gosh, did I have a great time!!! Charnwood Roots is a lottery-funded project to delve into the history of the towns and villages in Charnwood - so that includes Loughborough - uncover the facts and the stories, which will eventually be written up as part of the Victoria County Histories. These VCHs were originally created in the early 1900s and were a comprehensive guide to each parish in the country. However, although other counties have published updated versions of their histories, Leicestershire's, which was originally published in 1907, was briefly updated by W G Hoskins in the 1950s, but has not revised recently.

According to Professor Chris Dyer, Emeritus Professor of History in the Centre for English Local History at Leicester University, the idea to revise the Leicestershire VCH was re-born around 2007, and after applying for Heritage Lottery Funding, the Charnwood Roots project took off in about 2013. This project has seen hundreds of volunteers from across Charnwood get involved in researching the history of the area, from religion to work, from archaeology to education, from crime and punishment to health, from the land-owning gentry to the lowly peasant. 

In his lecture, Professor Dyer stressed that every place has a history, but that that history is more than just the infamous little Civil War skirmish, or the famous person who hails from the place. History is more than this. History exists partly because of the people who lived, worked and died in a place, so it's a combination of the experience of hundreds of people over thousands of years. People's experiences make history, and if we care to look around us we can find information about our hamlet / village / town history by simply looking - think of buildings and their architecture, place, street and field names, the village plan, the archaeology, the landscape etc.. When this is added to interpretation of the wealth of written records that exist - parish registers, wills, census returns, newspapers, memoirs etc. - the history can be extensive.   

The Charnwood Roots Festival was staged to present some of the research that has been done, this presentation being achieved through lectures, films (on laptops and in the pop-up cinema - pic above), storyboards, displays and interactive opportunities. Alongside this "story of the stone wood", local history societies and local heritage sites, local researchers and other organisations showcased their own work, information being presented in banners, artefacts, leaflets, books, noticeboards, and some very passionate people!

I spent most of the day talking: talking to people I know and love, and to people I've never met before; talking to people about things I was also passionate about, and I talked to people about things for which I only had a passing interest. I found out who some of blog readers are, and I promised to include some posts from new angles, so do look out for those over the coming months! I even managed to talk to some people about the #delaytheonsetofdementia initiative I run as part of my role as a DMU Dementia Ambassador!

So, enough writing, let's get to the pics!! Some didn't come out too well, as Beaumanor Hall can be quite dark downstairs and I didn't like to put my flash on, and some of my angles were a bit odd, so here's the best selection!

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). Loughborough local history rooted in Charnwood. Available from: http://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2017/05/loughborough-local-history-rooted-in.html [Accessed 21 May 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 

Cartwright and Warner

Oh dear, here I go again, promising you a further post on holiday connections, but finding myself eager to tell you about something else first!! This one's timely, as it follows immediately from my attending a book launch - a book about the Warner family, as associated with Cartwright and Warner (Hosiers), Nanpantan Hall, the churches of All Saints, Holy Trinity, St Peter's and St Mary in Charnwood at Nanpantan, and many other places!

Now, I don't want to spoil your reading of the book (by Derrick Hewitt) so what follows are a few snippets of information, not all of them gathered from the detailed talk that Derrick gave at the launch at the church of All Saints with Holy Trinity.

The Warner family is probably best known for its partnership with the Cartwrights in a hosiery business that seems to have been rather successful! There was enough money in the business for Edward Warner to buy Quorn Hall from the Farndon family, to build The Elms and Nanpantan Hall. 

According to Mr Hewitt, Aingarth (now retirement and sheltered housing) a Victorian building, was originally associated with The Elms, and the gatehouse to the Elms, now called the Lodge to Aingarth, fronts onto Leicester Road. This was recently for sale, and there are some pictures available. Both The Elms and The Lodge to Aingarth are listed buildings.

The Lodge to Aingarth

The Lodge to Aingarth

The Lodge to Aingarth

The Elms

The Elms

The Elms

Aingarth

Nanpantan Hall, was sold by the Warners to the Pagets (William Byerley Paget to be precise), and has latterly been part of the School of Economic Science. Not sure if this is still the case, as the Echo reported in July 2016 that Nanpantan Hall has recently become a wedding venue, ironic, since W B Paget's former house, Southfields House, is now the Loughborough Register Office!

The Warner family had connections with the Church of All Saints (now the Church of All Saints with Holy Trinity), and were instrumental in the building of Holy Trinity Church and St Peters Church, as well as a memorial to Archdeacon Fearon, in the form of Fearon Hall. 

Church of All Saints (today with Holy Trinity)

Fearon Hall

The company had various factories around Loughborough, including the one on Clarence Street (now a locally listed building) and those taken over by Towles.   

The Warner family were also benefactors of the Grammar School. 

In 1851 at the Great Exhibition, Cartwright and Warner* won a medal for their women's "union dresses" - a Victorian euphemism for women's combinations  

Apparently, one member of the Cartwright family, James, lived at 151 Ashby Road, in 1911.

There were a couple of Cartwright and Warner employees, Ernest Grimbley and Charles J Hunt, who died during the first world war and are listed on the Roll of Honour website.

In 1900 a row of almshouses were created on Mill Lane, as part of the Warner legacy. Sadly, the cartouche on the side of the building is beginning to wear away, but the properties are still, I believe, inhabited by former hosiery workers. These are administered by the Warner's Almshouse Charity in Melbourne, South Derbyshire. 

Mill Lane

One wonders if George Warner of Quorn, who went off to the United States, was part of the Warner hosiery family: Derrick may have said this, but I am a little hard of hearing and missed some of the talk.

An extract from White's Gazeteer of 1877 appears on the Genuki website, giving a brief description of Loughborough and naming various people associated with the hosiery trade. The complete White's Gazeteer is also available on the internet.

The Victoria County History of Leicestershire also includes some information on Cartwright and Warner, and is complemented by information on the British History Online website.

The Barrow Upon Soar Heritage Group include a report of evidence given by inhabitants of the village in regard to increasing mechanisation of framework knitting, some of whom worked for Cartwright and Warner in Loughborough.

If you're a member of the FaceBook Group Remember Loughborough, you've probably already seen this video of Cartwright and Warner employees leaving the factory in 1900 but here it is again!

Here are two of my favourite things - coincidences: whilst looking for mention of Cartwright and Warner on Grace's Guide, I happened upon a bell foundry called called J Warner who made the initial Big Ben, which was later recast by the Whitechapel foundry! And, would you believe it, John Henry Boyer Warner, one of Edward Warner's sons, moved to Kepwick Hall in Yorkshire, and on the top of one of the hills he built - you guessed it - an obelisk (see my previous post about obelisks)! The description I've found of this on various listed building websites seems to be incorrect, listing him as a Weaver not a Warner, but interestingly, the obelisk is constructed of Portland stone - just like the ground floor of our Carillon!

Portland stone bridge and Carillon base

We were lucky enough also to see some examples of original catalogues of products from Cartwright and Warner:

Finally, that institution, beloved of many Loughborough inhabitants, the Warner School, on what was the corner of Pinfold Gate and School Street, was funded by Edward Warner in 1870, as he provided both the land and the money for it. At the time it was most unusual as it had teacher's accommodation attached: ironically, today the teacher's accommodation is all that remains of the school which was demolished in 2015 to make way for the inner relief road. It is the only remaining stone building in Loughborough apart from the Old Rectory, and the former school on Nanpantan Road (which is classed as being in Nanpantan).

Warner School prior to partial demolition

The Warner School teacher's accommodation

The Warner School teacher's accommodation with a former framework knitters building adjacent

*Stanley, Chapman and Middleton-Smith, Jane (2015) John Smedley: the establishment of a tradition in fine knitwear, c. 1750-1874 In: Textile History, Vol. 46, No.1, pp.70-98 

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). Cartwright and Warner. [Online] Available from: http://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2017/02/cartwright-and-warner.html [Accessed 26 February 2017]

Fun in Loughborough

Over the last 10 weeks I’ve been blogging about a variety of things relevant to Lufbra – shopping, local initiatives, local places of interest, local people and more – so today I shall turn my attention to a number of local events that I have recently attended, which were certainly interesting!

Play in the park

The bandstand in Queen's Park

One of my blogposts was about Queen’s Park, and it was here, a fortnight ago, that I spent a very happy couple of hours. I often find myself walking through the park, either on my way into town or to the library, or just because I fancy doing so, but never after dusk when the park is closed! However, this particular evening some of us snuck in, after hours! All legal and above board – just in case you were wondering!

The bandstand adorned!

Imagine the park, if you will, with 1930s music playing from a gazebo, lights shining out from the café, fairy lights adorning and twinkling around the bandstand, and sofas, scattered with cushions, placed around it. Suddenly, the sound of car engines, distant at first, gradually getting louder until the vintage special rolled up to one side of the bandstand, and a 1970s hotrod raced up to the other side! And just as the cars arrived the French maid, who’d been swigging wine from a bottle, rushed to retrieve her shoes from the bushes and smooth down her hair and apron, before beating a hasty retreat from the bandstand!

This was the opening scene of Noel Coward’s “Private Lives”, a play based around the marriages of four characters, who were all spending their honeymoon in Paris, and unbeknownst to them are staying in adjoining rooms to their former spouses! The actors were students from Loughborough University, part of a group called the “English and Drama Theatre Company”, and they did a wonderful job of bringing Coward’s characters to life – and some!!

Warned to bring blankets – and not to bring alcohol – the audience were treated to chairs gathered around the bandstand, and cocktails were available from the café! Although this was late September, the weather was very mild, and with the silhouette of the Carillon in the background, the atmosphere was, well, nothing less than electric!

The actors and the audience

This was a truly remarkable event which brought “town and gown” together in a collaboration that made fantastic use of a remarkable setting that is normally only accessible in the daytime. For me, it was great not to have to travel miles to an outdoor play – although, perhaps Queen’s Park doesn’t quite have the setting of the Minack! The production was part of the Fab Friday initiative that I believe came about as a result of Mary Portas’s visit to the town, but I’m really hoping that this wasn’t a one-off event.

Charnwood roots

Last Saturday saw me in Leicester attending the Charnwood Roots project meeting. This initiative is all about updating the Victoria County History series of books, and the Leicestershire volume(s) had not been updated for a very long time. The area that was being focussed on was Charnwood Forest, which included about 35 towns and villages in Leicestershire, which included Loughborough, Hathern, Mountsorrel, and Barrow. The aim of the project seems to be to do research in local archives, take part in an archaeological dig, be involved in making a record of oral history, do some field-walking and various other things in order to update the history. The whole process is being led by staff at Leicester University and is going to take a couple of years to complete. After the introduction to the project, a member of the team talked about his visit to California where he was able to personally consult the Hastings papers: This archival material, pertaining to Loughborough, some of which goes back to Medieval times, was sold many years ago, and deposited and preserved by the Huntington Library in San Marino, for future use. Some of the material was digitised in the very early days of digitisation, but, as the lecturer enthused, there’s nothing quite like being able to handle the original documents! As I said, the project will be going on for a couple of years, and at the end of the presentations we were invited to sign up to take part in any, some, or all of the proposed activities: I can’t wait to get going!

LAHS  

That same evening, I made my way to our own university to join some new friends at the first meeting of the year of the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society. The presentation that evening was given by Peter Liddle, former Leicestershire County Archaeologist. My knowledge of monastic buildings was quite scant, but by the time Peter had described the 15 or so abbeys in Leicestershire and the evidence that the archaeology had brought to light, I definitely had much more of an idea about the archaeology and the history, and picked up a few pointers to some possible future research I could do myself.

Laughter in the library

The Carnegie Library

Last Thursday saw the birthday of my youngest child. His elder two siblings have gone off to university, so he was left at home to celebrate the occasion with his mum and dad! After a great meal at the Cactus Café, we went off to Laughter in the Library, a couple of hours of stand-up comedy. Again, great to see a space that’s not normally open until 11pm being used after-hours!

The Organ Grinder

The library has recently been re-furbished, and the taller shelving units replaced with lower shelving units on castors. This meant that a flexible space could be created by moving the units around. The use of a café-style table layout, complete with strings of fairy lights, helped make for an enjoyable experience. Even more surreal was the fact that there was also a bar run by the folk from the Packe Horse  Organ Grinder: They did quite a good trade! The acts were really quite good, and much mention was made of the fact that we were in the local library, especially by the compere. The days of libraries being run by ladies with buns, shushing people and throwing them out for eating and drinking in the building has well and truly passed!