Holiday in Loughborough

Watery Loughborough

So, this year, instead of the annual two-week holiday in St Ives, Cornwall, our holiday this summer is staying in Loughborough and investigating as many water sources as possible. It's hardly the same as seeing the Celtic Sea, which is apparently the bit of the Atlantic Ocean that St Ives sits on, but it has actually been quite exciting trying to find as many bodies of water as possible.

Most of the places I've been to these last two weeks, are either places I've been to before, or places I've been meaning to visit for a while. Needless to say, there wasn't enough time to visit or re-visit some places, so there's still plenty more for another day! And I'm pretty sure there are places I haven't been to that I don't know about!!

Of course, when I embarked on my watery Loughborough holiday, I hadn't really thought that it would rain nearly every day in the first week, and that I would get absolutely soaked on a couple of days!! It was almost like being at the seaside!!

I also admit to getting a bit confused with all the names of the bodies of water I've visited. Sometimes it's a canal, sometimes a cut, sometimes a river, sometimes ... well, the list goes on!! The best I can do today is share some photos of the places I've visited, and some maps of the walking route I took to get to and around them. They're all well worth the trip, if, like me, you're looking for a watery Loughborough holiday!

Around Black Brook Reservoir and Whitwick Quarry

Black Brook Reservoir

The Black Brook under the Stonebow Bridge

The Black Brook near Morrisons

Whitwick Quarry

Around Buck Hill area Part 1

Around Buck Hill area Part 2

Practically the start of the Wood Brook on Home Farm, Nanpantan

From Bunny and around Rushcliffe country park

The pond at Rushcliffe country park

Around Foremark Reservoir

Foremark Reservoir

Shardlow to Trent Lock

River Trent between Shardlow and Trent Lock

Start of the Trent and Mersey Canal at the mouth of the River Derwent, near Shardlow

River Trent and Erewash Canal junction near Trent Lock

River Trent at Shardlow

Canal and River at Sawley

Around Staunton Harold Reservoir

Staunton Harold Reservoir, beachy end

Staunton Harold Reservoir, Melbourne end

Sutton Bonington to Trent Lock and back

River Soar through Kegworth

Grand Union Canal at Kegworth

Looking towards the Erewash Canal

Beeston to Nottingham along the Trent and the Beeston Cut

Beeston Canal, Attenborough end

Beeston Canal, Nottingham end

The River Leen in Nottingham between the Trent and the Beeston Canal

The River Trent at Beeston

I have no map for the remaining watery trips out, but here are some photos of the other places I visited:

Charnwood Water

Dishley Pool

Grand Union Canal at the I&R Morley apartments near Nottingham Road

Thornton Reservoir

Bridge over the Hermitage Brook

The Summer Pool Brook on the Lammas Meadow

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

Dyer, Lynne (2020). Holiday in Loughborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/07/holiday-in-loughborough.html  [Accessed: 19 July 2020]

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.

If you wish to leave a comment, please do so in the comments box that appears below this blogpost. Alternatively, you can contact me via lynneaboutloughborough[at]gmail[dot]com.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne     

A ramble around some Loughborough Connections

Today's post is one of those odd ones! A bit of half-finished research, prompted by some research I've been helping a friend with.

So, the architect William Railton built St Paul's Church at Woodhouse Eaves - amongst others - and was also responsible for the Bavarian Gates on the Garendon Estate, and Beaumanor Hall, the Herrick residence. I've posted about this before: 

http://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/william-railtons-bavarian-gates.html 

and

http://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/walk-from-loughborough-to-beaumanor.html

It appears that Railton, who lived in London, was brought to the county of Leicestershire by Ambrose Lisle March Phillipps de Lisle, who had great plans to bring Catholicism back to the county. Having designed and created a home for De Lisle at Grace Dieu (which was altered in 1837 and updated in 1847 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin), Railton was then commissioned to design the original Mount St Bernard's Abbey and this was followed by two lodges and a house on Garendon Park.

The folk engaged to build the abbey at Mount St Bernard were Irish Catholics, and because they settled in Whitwick, De Lisle paid for the building of a small chapel (Holy Cross Church, now demolished and rebuilt on the other side of the road) and later a presbytery (still standing and now a listed building), and engaged the services of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, architect. 

From about 1875 the presbytery was used by Rosminian nuns who eventually transferred to the Convent in Loughborough, which had been created around 1841 when Lady Mary Anne Arundel, born Mary Anne Nugent-Temple-Grenville, and widow of James Everard tenth Lord Arundel of Warder, opened a small girls' school in Loughborough on Paget land.

In 1844 Sisters Mary Parea and Mary Somonini took over the running of the school, and Lady Mary died the next year, following a two-day illness. She was buried in the cloisters of what is now Ratcliffe College, despite her long-standing home having been Prior Park in Bath, now a National Trust property. Further buildings at the Loughborough Convent were designed by Charles Hansom, brother to Joseph Aloysius (prominent architect, but possibly more popularly known for the design of the Hansom cab), who was highly influenced by the works of Augustus Pugin. 

Interestingly, Ratcliffe College was designed by Augustus Pugin, and the area known as The Square was designed by Charles Hansom. The Historic England listing for Ratcliffe College suggests that Augustus Pugin didn't finish the building, but that was done by Joseph Hansom, and that the chapel was created by Edward Welby Pugin, son of Augustus, in about 1875.

It doesn't appear that Edward Pugin created many buildings in Leicestershire, but he did create an 80 foot high tower, a monument to the son of Ambrose de Lisle, Everard Aloysius Lisle Phillipps VC, who was killed in the Indian Mutiny at Dehli in 1857. The tower was demolished in 1947 as it had become unstable. In 1865-6 Edward Pugin made various additions and changes to Garendon Hall.

As for the Hansoms, well, Joseph designed what is now New Walk Museum in Leicester, which was built in 1836 originally as a Nonconformist Proprietary School, and the Belvoir Street Baptist Chapel in Leicester, which is now home to the Vaughan College. At one time he lived in Hinckley, and was the architect for the Workhouse. I haven't been able to identify any further work by Joseph's brother, Charles in Leicestershire, although he has certainly designed some important buildings around the country, for example the Malvern College.

So, I think I'll end there, before I start rambling too far away from Loughborough.
    

Joseph Hansom's London House

Beaumanor Hall Woodhouse

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

Dyer, Lynne (2018). A ramble around some Loughborough Connections. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-ramble-around-some-loughborough.html [Accessed 14 January 2018]

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  

Ascot Stamford and Loughborough!

Well, I hadn't intended to write a blog post today, as I anticipated feeling too tired, and not really having enough time. However, here's a quick picture diary of the last 4 days:

This was my Thursday:

I went along with this young lady

to this place

  to see some of these

and some of these

but I wasn't expecting to see these

and I hadn't thought I might see some of these, either

Then, on Saturday I went to Tolethorpe. In the afternoon I saw this

And in the evening I saw this

Then I spent the night here

The following day I took  a trip on this

and saw this

and this

I tried to be a bit arty with the camera

and then snapped these

Luckily, I didn't need these

Later that same day, I went along to the Loughborough History and heritage Network Community Local History Day, at which there were stalls, talks and panel events, focussed around the topic of the Future of the Past. Well done to the organisers for a well-attended, interesting, informative and exciting event! Although I arrived very late, I was still able to chat to people I knew, listen to a couple of panels, chat to people I didn't know, and buy a few books. From what people said to me, the event was well-attended, and there was a real buzz in the rooms. History, particularly the local history of Loughborough, is alive and well, and if any of us who attended the event have anything to do with it, it will continue to live for a long time to come.

These are some of the books I bought:

Ian Porter's The last of the Luddites

Neil Fortey and Robert Sparham's Angels and Dragons

Christopher Matchett's Ale houses of Whitwick

Hoping for a quieter week next week!