Needlemaking and other Loughborough connections

This week the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society held their members event which sees members of the society give presentations on things they've been researching that would be of interest to others. This year, I decided to give it a go, and presented a short talk on archaeology - my kind, not the trench-digging, field-walking kind - with examples of artefacts I've found on my travels that have informed my research.

If you would like to see the presentation, I've uploaded the slides , and I've included the transcript below.

Archaeology and the fundamental interconnectedness of all things (with thanks to DA)

In late 2012, when I responded to an advert for members of the public who were interested in the history of Loughborough to enrol on a 6-month course in Leicester on learning how to lead a guided walk, little did I know what was actually in store for me!

At the first session of the course I felt like a complete interloper! Almost everyone else there was attached to a museum  - The Old Rectory, The Abbey Pumping Station, The Space Centre, The GCR, Newarke Houses etc. – so I attached myself to the unattached chap next to me and we got on like a house on fire, which was great as he was a retired fire officer!

As a daughter of the grim industrial areas of South Wales, what exactly did I think I had to offer to people who might be interested in the history of our little market town – and probably knew more about it than I did anyway!

Well, to cut a very long story short, I may have known very little about Loughborough at the start of the course, but many years of researching significant (that’s significant to me) areas of Wales, and endless hours of pouring over census returns and bmd records in a quest to complete the family tree, all held me in good stead. And maybe, just maybe, being a librarian by day was also a bit of help!

So, I passed the tour guiding course, and have shared some of my knowledge on guided walks. But when I read on Twitter about 18 months ago that some people viewed Loughborough as a rubbish town, I decided to try and do something to raise the profile of the town. Thus, the blog, lynneaboutloughborough was born. Each Sunday evening I write a piece about, or related to, our wonderful town, and share this on the internet for anyone to read.

Articles are prompted by my own interests, by things people have said to me, by events happening in and around the town, and by chance finds.

I know the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society started life as the Loughborough and District Archaeological Society, and although I was daunted at the prospect of joining such a prestigious group, I paid my subs and showed up at meetings. Now, I know nothing about archaeology except what I’ve seen on television programmes like Time Team, and in truth, I have a bit of an aversion to getting dirty, but I bit the bullet and went on a fieldwalking event, and thoroughly enjoyed walking through a recently ploughed field looking for bits of debris that might be a flint arrowhead, or some kind of pottery. Problem was though, having been brought up in South Wales I could easily recognise slate, and had there been any granite I would have recognised that too, from regular holidays in Cornwall. But, I didn’t find anything significant, and was really rather more interested in the 19^th century horseshoe I spotted!

So, if digging trenches and walking ploughed fields isn’t quite my kind of archaeology then what is?

Well, antique and junk shops are! Charity shops are! 2^nd hand bookshops are! The internet is!

So, I dig around all of these, looking for clues, usually about something specific, but equally often just picking up things that might be of interest. Everything I see of buy helps me to build up a picture of what I’ve been researching into and helps me to understand more about social history.  

Take this postcard. A picture of Leicester, sent to someone in Loughborough and bought over 100 years later from Lichfield. To me, this is all hugely significant: My journey from home to town takes me along Albert Street, and I’ve always been fascinated by the engineering factory on the corner. Research revealed that it had once been a needlemaking factory, one of the ones run by the Grudgings family, at least one of whom died during WW1, and at least one other who survived (and whose WW1 diary is tweeted via the Carillon Museum). And here I am holding a postcard sent to Flo Grudgings, an elementary school teacher and a member of that needlemaking family. The card was posted in 1903.

And then, of course, there’s the Lichfield connection. Wasn’t Lichfield Cathedral once the cathedral associated with our town? And at least some of the current bells were cast by Taylor’s Bell Founders in 1947. It was Taylor’s, of course, who cast the bells for our beautiful war memorial, which can still be heard on Sundays when the carillon is played.

I did a spot of volunteering at the Carillon Museum this year, just before my grandmother died. How strange then to learn at her funeral that a long lost uncle who emigrated to the States in the ‘60s, regularly plays the carillon in his home town of Morristown, New Jersey.

But, back to archaeology! Earlier, I said I could recognise slate and granite, but perhaps I should also add alabaster to that list. I first met Ray State in the local studies library about a week after I’d written an article on spar ornament makers of Loughborough, so it was a real pleasure to come along and hear him talk, just before Christmas. Curiously, also a couple of weeks before Christmas, we had a sale of unwanted goods at work: We’re trying to raise money to train a guide dog, and for the huge sum of 50p I bought this alabaster egg. I got the feeling people thought I was a bit mad, but I’m now so glad I did buy it! Needless to say, I have been scouring the shops for other alabaster ornaments, but I don’t think I’ll ever find any! But, who knows, I might yet be surprised …

… as I was on another recent shopping trip looking for suitable Christmas presents!

Imagine my total astonishment and excitement when I stumbled across this trunk! Ok, so it’s a steamer trunk, but not just any old steamer trunk! Fortuitously, the last luggage label had been left on: This trunk belonged to Charles Knight Deeming, he, latterly of One Ash House, the former owner of the current Odeon (aka The Empire, The New Empire, The Curzon, The Reel), and the now demolished Victory Cinema, which stood in Biggin Street on the site now occupied by a card shop, Games Workshop and Bonkers.  

Ironically, I’m a little bit interested in cinema and theatre and had been researching the family tree of Charles Deeming. Unfortunately, at £165 the trunk was too expensive for me to buy – so no prop to show you!

Finally, it was a visit to a 2^nd hand bookshop in Warwickshire that led me to this publication,  Needlemaking, and the list of places to visit in the back. This included Forge Mill Needlemaking Museum in Redditch. This, of course, takes us back to the Grudgings family where we started, unless we want to explore these connections further, for Bordesley Abbey was on the same site as the needlemaking museum and there is a strong connection to Garendon Abbey and has been the subject of a community dig.

So, our archaeologies are fundamentally interconnected, but I must stop here, otherwise I could carry on connecting for a very long time!

Thanks for listening!

Loughborough 2014 in pics

I'm still reviewing 2014! Last week I shared the top blogposts and my favourite blogposts with you: This week I'm sharing my favourite pics from 2014! Warning: Lots of pics and I haven't as yet worked out how to make them smaller without loosing quality, so they load more quickly: A job for 2015!

From January 2014 - Warner Street School shortly before demolition. All that now remains is the portion which was the schoolmaster's house, to the right of the main school in this photo. The blogpost this appeared in was a veritable pot pourri and included info about resources in the public library, a bit about Aumbery Gap, mention of a talk on Luddites, a WW1 project, the Leicestershire Green Plaque scheme, and a few other things.


Warner Street School shortly before demolition

From February 2014 - an open day at Unity House led me to the discovery of a rulebook for the Oddfellows, published in 1904. Unity House is a lovely building erected in about 1889, and has an interesting history, described in the blogpost. The Oddfellows had various meeting places in Loughborough, and Unity House was one of them.

Oddfellows rulebook for 1904

From March 2014 - ghost signs of Loughborough produced some really interesting photos of painted signs on the sides of buildings advertising businesses that were no longer there (and a few other carved, embossed, and painted signs that really weren't ghost signs!). I think my favourite is the Wool Shop on Nottingham Road: Someone recently told me that the lady who ran the shop knew exactly where everything was, despite the seeming disorder, and when she eventually shut up shop went on a worldwide cruise!

The Wool Shop on Nottingham Road

From April 2014 - during WW2 Sir Malcolm Sargent toured the country with his orchestra, visiting industrial cities affected by the Blitz. He was supposed to conduct at the Empire Cinema, but was unfortunately indisposed on this particular occasion, his place being taken by Warwick Braithwaite.



The programme for the concert at The Empire Cinema

From May 2014 - a rare guided walk around the Dishley Estate led to some really exciting photo opportunities (although I didn't get into the photograph that appeared in the Echo, because I was too busy looking at the walls of the church!)



All Saints Church, Dishley

From June 2014 - For the last couple of years the Loughborough In Bloom initiative has commissioned sculptures to adorn the pond area of Queen's Park, outside the Charnwood Museum. This year the sculptures were on the theme of remembrance.

From July 2014 - having helped out at the Carillon Museum for a few weeks during the 2014 season, imagine my surprise when I discovered that my uncle in New Jersey was the carilloneur in their carillon!!

The Loughborough Carillon in Queen's Park

From August 2014 - a wonderful event took place in Queen's Park, as a reminder of the start of the First World War. There was a parade from John Storer House, a service at the base of the Carillon, and there were stalls and events in the park.

From September 2014 - the spotlight on ancient Loughborough part 1 as a feature on The Windmill Inn, a regular haunt of mine during the 1980s! One of Loughborough's most historic and characterful pubs.

Possibly the oldest pub in Loughborough!

From October 2014 - following my research into Temperance, and particularly into the Temperance Hotel in Nanpantan, I took a visit to Nanpantan Reservoir - its old workings, its surrounding farms and houses, and its wildlife.

A view of the reservoir at Nanpantan

From November 2014 - the son et lumiere on Loughborough Carillon turned out to be rather controversial - some people objected to such an event, and many others simply didn't know it was happening. I went along and took some rather rubbish photos, but it gives you an idea of the event.

Everyone loves a cat

From December 2014 - December gave me an excuse to focus on Christmas events! The Christmas in Leicestershire blogpost gave me a chance to indulge in Hathern Band (particularly the trombone section) and in Christmas trees (although I was unable to attend the Loughborough Christmas tree festival, so the ones on show here are Melton Mowbray).

The trombone section of Hathern Band playing at the Melton Mowbray Christmas tree festival

And, here's a selection of my other favourite pics from 2014

The granite cross in the road on Swan Street

Book by local author!

Unity House on Fennel Street

Bullrushes at Pillings Lock

Lambs at Oakley Grange

The Temperance building in town

The 1930s Echo offices on Swan Street

The Georgian Theatre, Richmond



At the last canal boat festival

Robert Bakewell and Dishley

The Old Rectory Museum

The former Temperance Hotel, Nanpantan

Radmoor House

WW1 research on display in Hathern Church

At the fair!

Queen's Park in November

Songster on display in Charnwood Museum

The new Devonshire Square mural

Spar egg cup - though probably not made in Loughborough

Andy Everitt-Stewart's exhibition in Charnwood Museum

And finally ...

The public library!

Christmas in Leicestershire!

This time of year is always busy with lots of Christmas concerts and a variety of other things.

Last Sunday evening I was at St Mary's Church in Melton Mowbray to celebrate their Christmas tree festival, and to listen to the Hathern Senior Band playing pieces before and after the service and carols during the service. As ever, they were brilliant, and all in all it was a lovely evening. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the Loughborough parish church tree festival, so here's some pics from Melton's (with apologies for focusing on the trombone section!):

The day before I had been to a Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society meeting at which we had a talk on local alabaster: This included a description of alabaster from the area, its uses and its history. A number of local churches contain, amongst other things, alabaster statues, and the church at Tutbury (a place I go to fairly often) was started to be built in about 1086 by Henry de Ferrers and uses alabaster in one of the door arches, has an alabaster coffin inside, as well as an alabaster altar-piece. You can read about the use of alabaster in Loughborough in an earlier post of mine, and if I ever get to see any for real, I'll be sure to take some pics to post on the blog. In the meantime, here's a photograph of some alabaster we saw at the LAHS meeting:

Last evening saw me in the Hodson Hall at the Grammar School, again listening to Hathern Band, this time in their traditional Christmas concerts, featuring lots of exciting Christmas pieces, and a couple of carols. This concerts also features the Training Band and the Concert Brass, all of whom played exceptionally well. If you weren't able to come along to any of the band's concerts, you can find the band's Christmas CD as well as their most recent release on the Hathern Band webpages.

Baubles!

Baubles, bawbles or spar ornaments!

Hopefully, by the time you read this all your festive food and drink will have been devoured, your Christmas presents used, worn and read! But more importantly you will have taken down your Christmas tree and your Christmas cards, and packed away your Christmas decorations.

Talking of Christmas decorations … When I was researching for last week’s blog post (which was going to be a "Who was ..." but mysteriously morphed into something else), I chanced upon a very interesting article that appeared in the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society’s Transactions of 1962-3. It was on the subject of “bawbles” [sic.], specifically, baubles that were made in Leicestershire, and referred to as spar ornaments. Here's a summary of the article, with a few extra additions from my own research.

Spar ornaments were made from alabaster (whether that was the gypsum type or the calcite type I’m not sure, but presumably the latter, as the gypsum type would be too soft?) Apparently, this alabaster was supplied from Chellaston in Derbyshire, and delivered particularly to the Whitwick / Swannington / Thringstone / Coleorton area of what is now North West Leicestershire. The alabaster would be made into an ornament by a local man, ornaments like candlesticks, watch stands, pots, bowls, grottos and ink wells. These ornaments were popular as souvenirs in coastal towns and seaside resorts, so the makers from Leicestershire would often travel to the coast to sell their wares. Other ornaments were sold to the local monastery as mementos, whilst still others were sent abroad, particularly to the US where they were very popular.

The heyday of the local spar manufacturing industry seems to have been around 1836-1900; the industry in the UK struggled around the turn of the century, as imports, particularly from Germany, became available more cheaply than ornaments could be produced in this country.

Those people active in the business in North West Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire included:

• Joseph Ashton – active around 1870 – 1900 – Whitwick
• James Peters and James Peters jnr. – active around 1846 - 1909 – Whitwick
• George Peters (son of James and brother of James jnr.) - active around 1871 - 1891 - Griffydam 
• John Tugby – active around 1846-1863 – Whitwick
• Leonard Palmer – active around 1861 - 1900 – appears on the 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 censuses as a spar manufacturer in Griffydam
• John Goodacre – active around 1890-1900 – Zouch
• Charles Platts - active around 1861 - 1900 - appears on the 1861, 1871 and 1881 census as firstly a plasterer, then as a spar manufacturer, and on the 1901 census as a retired bauble maker, Griffydam 
• Oliver Farnsworth - active around 1881 - appears on the 1881 census as a spar manufacturer, Griffydam

You may be wondering what this has to do with Loughborough. Well …  although the Whitwick area was the main focus for such work, there were also a few spar ornament manufacturers in Loughborough itself. They included:

• Thomas Spinks who was active around 1841-1846 and is listed in the 1841 Pigot’s Directory as a “spar ornament manufacturer” based on Pleasant Row.

• Thomas Brook was active around 1849, being listed in the Post Office Directory of 1849 as working on Woodgate.

• John Cunningham was first mentioned in the Post Office Directory of 1849 as a “spar manufacturer” based in Mill Street. In White’s Directory of 1863 he is listed as a “spar ornament manufacturer” working in Churchgate. In White’s Directory of 1877 John Cunningham is working at 7 Warner’s Lane, Churchgate, and is listed as a “spa ornament maker”.

• Henry Moore appears on the 1851 census as a “maker of plaster ornaments” and is lodging, with his wife, in Wheatsheaf Yard, presumably the yard of the Wheatsheaf pub on Ward’s End, now the Orange Tree.

• William Polkey is listed on the 1851 census as living on Fennell Street and being a “spar turner’s apprentice”.

A suggestion of another spar ornament maker who was either born in Loughborough and had moved away, or who was working in Loughborough has yet to be verified, but he is:

• William Ford of Loughborough, spar ornament maker, listed on the 1841 census (although I have not been able to find the entry).

Other areas of the country were also involved in the manufacture of spar ornaments, but these are more often focused on material other than alabaster, so for example, Blue John is often called Derbyshire Spar, but it’s a semi-precious mineral, a form of fluorite has bands of blue, purple and yellow in it, and numerous products - ornaments and jewellery, for example - have been made from it. Much of the fashioning of Derbyshire Spar took place in areas like Matlock.

So, the British industry of spar making in Leicestershire ceased to be profitable at the beginning of the twentieth century and the craft thus died out.