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!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

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

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Old Rectory Museum Parish Library Exhibition

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited along to the opening of what proved to be an exciting exhibition! This event was held at the Old Rectory in Loughborough, down on Rectory Place.

When the Home Front 1939-1945 Exhibition, held from late April until 15th June, closed, the Old Rectory travelled back in time, to the period when the Reverend James Bickham was rector of Loughborough, 1761 to 1785. 

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you will have heard of the Revd. Bickham featured here back in early 2023, when we investigated who he was, and where he lived.

What was special about the Revd. Bickham was that he was an avid reader and a collector of, and subscriber to many books, and he left his vast collection (originally amounting to nearly 650 volumes) to subsequent rectors of Loughborough. Indeed, the collection did remain with the rectors of Loughborough, although at some point, and until 1950, the collection was housed in a small room above the porch of the parish church, and virtually inaccessible. Subsequent to this, and by 1975, the collection had moved to Loughborough Technical College, which ran a librarianship course, although it appears they arrived here via a stay in a nearby hall. Anyway, the library moved from the technical college to the university (possibly when the librarianship at the tech college closed), before being transferred to the University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections department.

The current exhibition at the Old Rectory, curated by Ursula Ackrill one of the librarians at Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections, is a result of work done by Ursula and the department to catalogue the books that remain today in Bickham’s library. Sadly, some items have been lost, and the collection has been added to by subsequent rectors, and now amounts to around 540 volumes. The exhibition serves to showcase some of the items from the collection (with the help of facsimiles) and to put the collection in the context of the time, focussing on contemporaneous literary works, religious works, and those showing developments in science. In addition, there is information about the circles in which Bickham moved, as well as artefacts like Wedgewood pottery, and toile de Jouy printed fabric.

So, I will stop here, as if I tell you any more of the exhibition, there will be no need for you to visit and!! But, you must go along and experience the exhibition, the Old Rectory, and the atmosphere for yourself!!! And remember to go upstairs, too! Hurry, as you only have a few Saturdays left in which to do this!

As I spent the whole time chatting to friends, or people I was introduced to, I didn't actually take any photographs of the event myself, so here's a selection taken by a member of the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society, which is the organisation that runs the Old Rectory Museum. Enjoy!

About the Reverend Bickham

The display of classics!

The case of elegies!

The science of the day

Printed Toile de Jouy

Part of the archive held at Nottingham University Manuscripts and Special Collections

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Old Rectory Museum Parish Library Exhibition. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/07/old-rectory-museum-parish-library.html [Accessed 16 July 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Art in Loughborough

Well, this weekend there was certainly a lot of art on show around the town!!

First I popped into the public library to have a look at the Ladybird exhibition in the local studies area: this was excellent, and a lot of research had gone into producing the history of the main players in the firm.

Then I walked down Derby Square towards Swan Street to see artists decorating the wooden hoardings where the Amateur Swimming Association and Da Francos used to be. Wow! Lovely smell of paint! So fascinating to watch the artists in action! Here's a few photos:

After this I went across to the Old Rectory Museum where the NHS 70th anniversary exhibition had been replaced by a display of work by two local artists, Liz and Adriana. How absolutely fantastic to see the art work hanging from the rafters, mounted on the display boards and in the display cases! Here's a few photos:

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). Art in Loughborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2018/10/art-in-loughborough.html [Accessed 13 October 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