Spotlight on Ashby Road 2023 Odd Numbers

Back in August 2013, I took a trip down Ashby Road, photographing the beautiful houses, some of the architectural detail, and the area in general. I also briefly looked into the history of some of the houses, and who had lived in them. This led to a blog post in October 2013, which has been one of the most popular ones to have appeared on the blog.

In August 2023, I replicated my trip down Ashby Road. Of course, this wasn’t my only visit since 2013, as I regularly walk down Ashby Road, and spent a lot of time doing this during the lockdown of 2020. Anyway, on that August 2023 trip, I photographed the beautiful houses, some of the architectural detail, and the area in general!!! In the earlier post, I did share some views of the shops, too, but I shan't do that this time, but will perhaps put them into a separate post - such a lot of changes in 10 years!!

Anyway, here's what I saw in August 2023, and I’ll try and show you a photo from 2013 next to one from 2023, so you can see what has changed!

In 2013 I mentioned the gate piers of the Laurels, no.99, so here's a picture from 2023

No.101 is named Holly Hurst, although this is almost indecipherable from the gate piers

The front garden of the property next to the sports physiotherapist has been completely cleared, and no longer appears to be offices 

Looking along from about 105 to 101

View from 2023 showing nos.101 along to at least 107

View showing the Victorian 115 with its much newer neighbours in 2023

Row showing nos.121 (top window only), 119, 117, and 115 in 2023. In 2013 no.121 was the New Life Guest House, but is now a residential property in 2023

View showing the former Kingscliffe day nursery (left) and a pair of semis, 2023

Detail of that pair of semis from 2013

No change in the detail from that pair of semis pictured above in 2023

Another detached Victorian property, no.129, in 2023

Another point of interest is that I hadn't realised before that if I stood in front of this house I could see the bell on St Peter's church, made by the local bellfoundry

What I didn't notice before on this house was the lovely little round window with its beautiful terracotta decoration, 2023. 

Detail from the gate pier of the house pictured directly above, 2023

Ash Hurst in 2013

Ash Hurst with its lovely turret in 2023

The side of the end terrace, from Cumberland Road, 2013

The side of the end terrace, from Cumberland Road, 2023

The whole row of Victorian terraced properties in 2013

The whole row of grand Victorian terraces 2023

Large detached residence 2023

Large detached residence 2023

The Grove in 2013

The Grove in 2023 (see also a blog article about letterboxes!)

Beyond the Grove, towards the Epinal Way roundabout

Towards the roundabout

Towards the roundabout

The end of the section of Ashby Road that runs towards the Epinal Way roundabout from town

Bastard Gates entrance to the University in 2013

Bastard Gates entrance to the University in 2023

Field House (subject of its own blogpost) 2013

Field House 2023 - the only difference I spotted was the external lighting fixed to the terracotta banding on the left

Field House 2023, view from the roundabout

Part of William Morris halls 2013

Part of William Morris halls 2013

Somerton, one of the buildings of William Morris halls 2023

View of some of the buildings of William Morris halls 2023

Side view of Clavering, part of William Morris halls 2023

Long view of some of the buildings of William Morris halls 2023

Clavering, one of the buildings of William Morris halls 2023

Although there haven't been many changes along this odd-numbered side of the road, I hope you enjoyed walking along Ashby Road with me!

Next time we'll have a look at the even-numbered properties on Ashby Road, where more changes are evident! Following that, we'll look at some of the shops!

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Dyer, Lynne (2023). Spotlight on Ashby Road 2023: Odd Numbers. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/10/spotlight-on-ashby-road-2023-odd-numbers.html [Accessed 22 October 2023]

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William Morris and Ladybird Books connections

Last week on the blog I focussed on hurricanes, inspired by my visit to the ThinkTank in Birmingham, and I promised I'd share my other discoveries from the Mint Cemetery and Winterbourne House. The latter has become even more relevant over the last week, but I can't for the life of me work out what connections I found between Loughborough and the Mint Cemetery! Well, here's a few pictures anyway:

The Mint Cemetery (aka Warstone)

A familiar name, but no relation to Loughborough's family

The catacombs

War grave

When we'd finished at the cemetery, we walked back through the jewellery quarter, and along the route saw a few 1920s and Art Deco buildings. If you're interested in Art Deco - and Loughborough has plenty of it! - don't miss the exhibition in the public library at the moment, which focusses on Loughborough's Art Deco buildings.

The Art Deco Electric Cinema from New Street station

An Art Deco building with familiar tiling

A 1920s building. Crittall windows, perhaps?

The walk to Winterbourne house also took us along the canal - which of course reminded me of Loughborough - which ran within feet of the railway line. 

Winterbourne House is a most exciting Arts and Crafts house, built around 1903, to the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement that was started by William Morris. The owner of Winterbourne, John Sutton Nettlefold, was instrumental in improving housing for the people of Birmingham and described as a pioneer of town planning. He was appalled by the Birmingham 'courts', where lots of dwellings were clustered around a central yard, with no access to any kind of garden, but with plenty of open sewers. There were quite a number of similar areas in Loughborough, although many have now been demolished or replaced.

One of Loughborough's extant Courts

Nettlefold (1) was also a believer in the idea of the 'garden city', and providing open spaces amongst new housing developments: Shelthorpe is our local example (more about this in 'Secret Loughborough'). 

Gateway to Shelthorpe!

As well as housing, Nettlefold was also involved in a company called Kynoch who made gun cartridges, for hunting, and apparently Annie Oakley, when touring England with Buffalo Bill, paid tribute to Kynoch's production of ammunition! You would be right in thinking that Buffalo Bill and his group came to Loughborough, in 1903, although I don't think Annie was on that particular trip (a little more in 'Secret Loughborough'). 

As well as the footprint and architectural design of Winterbourne House, much of the interior decoration also reflected the fashions of the time, with period furniture, little Arts and Crafts features and walls covered with patterns of the time. The garden of Winterbourne House was designed by Nettlefold's wife following the ideas presented by Gertrude Jekyll. 

It wasn't until last week that I made another exciting discovery, which links Loughborough to the likes of Winterbourne House, when I watched a television programme about renovating an Edwardian property (3). This was hosted by George Clarke (an architect hero of my youngest child), who actually came to Loughborough to visit the former Ladybird factory on Beeches Road - lovingly named Ladybird House - which is now home to what is known as Anstey Wallpaper Company. Now, I was aware that the company had taken over many other wallpaper designers/manufacturers, but hadn't realised that they actually had an archive (2) of block prints used in the printing of paper, going back to the 1860s and the time of William Morris! From the shots shown in the programme, the archive looked immense - and exciting! I now feel inspired to go back to the Leicester Print Workshop and take some classes in block printing - not that I could ever produce anything as stunning as William Morris, and other proponents of the Arts and Crafts movement! 

Grand Designs Show, 2009

Of course, one of the most striking Arts and Crafts houses in our area is Stoneywell Cottage, designed by Ernest Gimson, now owned by the National Trust. I feel another visit coming on ...

Stoneywell Cottage

(1) Please note that although this website is an interesting history, it does suggest that John Nettlefold's wife, Margaret, was the daughter of Arthur Chamberlain, whereas the information presented in Winterbourne House says that she was the daughter of Joseph Chamberlain. Whilst I am keen to share the work of other local history groups, I am concerned about this information, but deem the rest of the information on the site to be of interest. If I had time, I would check these claims out for myself, but sadly I don't, and they are only vaguely related to the focus of my blog. Feel free to do a bit of digging for yourself - and let me know the outcome!!

(2) There is a separate page for the archive, although it appears not to have a different url. In order to access it click 'Design' from the lefthand menu, which will open up 3 sub-options from which click 'Archive'.

(3) Hurry!! Only 16 days left to watch!! Series 6, Episode 2.

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). William Morris and the Ladybird Books connection. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/01/wiliam-morris-and-ladybird-books.html  [Accessed 26 January 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.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne