Around town

Having been a bit under the weather this last week, I haven't researched much of Loughborough's history, but did at least manage to get out into town to see some of the sights and some of the Christmas light switch-on. There may be some clues to future posts in the pics that follow!

Through a chink in the smoked glass

What will this Ladybird Collective turn into?

Ghostly goings-on at Russell Smiths

Party goings-on in the Town Hall

The bright passage

Christmas market

Christmas market

Festive food

Festive music

More festive music

Festive Freeman!

Festive singing

Market stall

The BIG TV!

The Christmas tree

The indoor craft market 

A rare quiet moment at the indoor craft market

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

Dyer, Lynne (2019). Around town. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/11/around-town.html [Accessed 24 November 2019]

Take down policy:

 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

              

Loughborough Lichfield and Southampton

Well, what a varied week this has been! After a weekend in Birmingham, I was out 'Loughborough-connecting' in a few other places, including Lichfield and Southampton. In both places I found plenty of things to remind me of home - as well as many differences, of course, like a distinct dearth of yachts in Loughborough!

Lichfield public library has undergone a staggering change, moving from an expansive Victorian building on the site of a former friary, to a small church in the centre of the Market Square. In order to fit, they had to withdraw quite a lot of bookstock, and some of the seating is now in a most odd place. However, they haven't gone smart, yet. Loughborough library goes smart at the beginning of April, I believe, so at certain times access will be by library card only, and there will be no staff within to help. 

Study tables in the former altar area

Stained glass in Loughborough library

Upstairs in St Mary's church in Lichfield, now part of the library, used to house the heritage centre. Some of the information boards had been retained, and I was rather interested in this one, and whether or not there was any connection with the various branches of the family with that name in Loughborough.

The view out onto the market below in some ways reminded me of Loughborough!

Stained glass above, bustling market through the clear glass

Looking down on Loughborough market

I have a feeling that all Burtons stores are closing, or already have. There's been a lot of disgruntlement about the Abergavenny store which still had its original 1930s signs, as during the re-purposing of the building, there was a degree of lack of care over the valuable heritage. The Burtons store in Lichfield has been long gone: like Woolworths stores and Co-op stores, Burtons shops are quite distinctive, but the Lichfield one also has definitive evidence of its former life.

Lichfield Burtons

Foundation stone in Lichfield

Best I could do for the moment!

And finally in Lichfield, I spotted trams - ok, toy trams!!! Wonder if they are models of those connected with The Brush?

Trams in the Toy Museum, Lichfield

Meanwhile, down in Southampton, markers on the roadside that I think were to do with water, reminded me of the milestones in Loughborough.

Milestone on Leicester Road

Down towards the Ocean Village we happened upon the former railway station and the former offices for the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). The station has been transformed into a casino, while what was the hotel, Southwestern House, to its right is now luxurious flats. It was in a small upstairs room that Churchill and Eisenhower planned the D-Day invasions of WW2.  The building was once extensively used by the rich and those travelling on cruises. Apparently, the staircase was influential in the design of the stairs in the Titanic. The dining room was known as the Wedgewood, Ballroom and, as the name suggests, was painted in those iconic Wedgewood colours of powder blue and white. The building is still joined to its neighbour by the original steel structure. Inside the building there is an original document relating to George III. I haven't been able to ascertain what exactly this pertains to, but in my quest for information did discover that a statue of George III was presented to the borough of Southampton in 1809, and placed in a niche on the Bargate: some of my readers will be interested to note this statue was made of coade stone. Not entirely sure what the LSWR offices are now, but probably housing. 

The former railway station with the Imperial flats to the right

The inspiration for the stairs on the Titanic

The former LSWR offices

Along the same road there was a branch of the Wilts and Dorset bank, whose construction reminded me of the lodge to Aingarth, on Leicester Road, which was originally a lodge to The Elms. I might be wrong but the construction looks similar - Aingarth is ashlar (although I can't find my photo at the moment).

Wilts and Dorst Bank

The final thing that reminded me of Loughborough was a pub called the London Hotel. Nothing to do with the name, more to do with the construction material again. The upper storeys look like Hathern tiles, but further investigation reveals that both the upper and lower floors are constructed of tiles made by Carter and Co. of Dorset. 

The London Hotel, Southampton

Detail of the London Hotel, Southampton

Hathernware on Loughborough's Lloyds Bank

And there I must stop, otherwise I'd go on all night! 


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

Dyer, Lynne (2019). Loughborough, Lichfield and Southampton. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/03/loughborough-lichfield-and-southampton.html [Accessed 24 March 2019]

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

Fairs and markets come to the library!

I mentioned in last week's post about Tiverton and its market charter on display in the Tiverton Museum of Mid-Devon Life, and compared this to Loughborough's own market charter. So, I popped down to our market on Saturday and took a couple of pictures. It was late in the day, and most stalls were packing up, if not already packed away:

Loughborough market, Saturday 6 August 2016

Loughborough market, Saturday 6 August 2016

On the Friday I had popped into the local public library as I'd heard there was an exhibition about Loughborough's markets and fairs, put on by the Local Studies Volunteers, and I wasn't disappointed. There were some great displays, and some interesting information so, here's some pictures of what I saw:

And here's a bit more information about the exhibition - do pop along if you can:

If you're interested in Loughborough's markets and fairs, you may be interested in re-visiting a couple of my blogposts:

• Spotlight on Loughborough fair, 2013
• Loughborough fair, 2014
• Loughborough pottery market, May 2014

Loughborough to Tiverton Pt 1

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I talked about the Ludd Hub, where information about the Luddite attacks of 1816 on Heathcoat's lace factory was presented as a part of this year's Picnic in the Park event? Possibly as a result of the attack, Heathcoat took his business, his expertise and many of his local workers to Tiverton, setting up a business that is still trading today under the name of Heathcoat Fabrics. At the Picnic in the Park we welcomed visitors from Tiverton and cheered them on their way as they re-enacted the 200-mile walk that Loughborough folk would have made 200 years ago when they migrated from Loughborough to Tiverton.

Our annual summer holiday sees us heading to the southern most point of Britain, a journey of some 330 miles, which means a stop somewhere along the way. Usually that stop is somewhere beyond Exeter, and previous stops have included Tavistock, Launceston, Tintagel and Boscastle. This year, the journey was so arduous, with lots of accidents, many, many roadworks, and hence, long delays, we broke with tradition and decided to stop off at Tiverton. I'm glad we did!

Already having made an association with staff from the museum, I knew there were a lot of connections and similarities between our two towns, and I was keen to explore these. Hmmm, it does, however, mean that I may have to split this blogpost into two as there is so much to cover!

So, we headed off to the town museum and were pleased to be so pleasantly greeted and welcomed when we got there. What I hadn't quite realised was that we'd arrived a couple of days before a big Heathcoat 200 exhibition launch, but luckily it was all there and ready to be viewed. As well as this temporary exhibition, there is also a permanent Heathcoat Gallery. Just a quick note here to say how disconcerting it was to hear the name Heathcoat as I would pronounce it, pronounced as Hethcutt!

Anyway, the museum was also choc-full of lots of other Tiverton history, and it was great to see all the things that Loughborough and Tiverton had in common. I suppose when one is looking at the local history of one's own town, it's sometimes too easy to forget the national context, so Tiverton's museum collections reminded me of many things. Let's see, where shall I start?

The populations of the two towns at 2011 are quite different: Loughborough's population was around 59,000 while Tiverton's only 19,500, so Tiverton is about the size of Shepshed and Barrow-upon -Soar combined, and about 6,000 more than Ashby-de-la-Zouch, but 6,000 less than that of Melton Mowbray. 



Both Tiverton and Loughborough are market towns, and their original market / fair charters were granted in the 1200s, during the reign of Henry III. Loughborough's was first being granted around 1221, extended to three days to include the Feast of St Peter (29 June) in 1228, and then shortly after it was extended to include the November fair, to be held around the Feast of All Souls (2 November). The Tiverton charter was first granted in 1257 for a three-day market around the Feast of St James (5 July), starting on a Monday. This was later modified by Oliver Cromwell, changing the first day to Tuesday to avoid market traders working (i.e. preparing their goods) on Sundays. 



This year, the charter market was held on July 16, just a few days after my visit. A copy of the later amendment is available in the museum.

The Cromwell market charter

The woollen trade was extremely important to both towns, and there were several information boards in the Tiverton museum, as well as a cabinet of interesting looking tools. Selective breeding of sheep seems to have started around 1808 in Tiverton, whilst Robert Bakewell of Dishley had been one of the early protagonists of this. 

Sheep and wool production

The woollen trade

All about wool merchants

The tools of the trade

In Loughborough there have been small finds of Roman origin, like pottery, some of which was possibly found in Church Gate. At Bolham on the outskirts of Tiverton (coincidentally very close to Knightshayes Court which is the home of the current Heathcoat family) there was a Roman marching camp, a model of which has been constructed, and sits in the museum.

Model of the Roman marching camp

In common with other towns of the time, both Tiverton and Loughborough have endured fires which had a devastating effect on the dwellings and the people of the towns. Reports of fires in Tiverton were so devastating, the one in 1731 was called the Great Fire, and reports of this, and other fires are covered by Wikipedia. One such fire was in about 1598, which was allegedly started by a frying pan fire, and which destroyed most of the town. There was a further fire in 1612 which was apparently started from a furnace. There were at least five known fires in Loughborough, the first of which was in 1622, and in which two people died. The second fire was in 1666, apparently started from a kiln, and in which 200 houses were destroyed. Then, in 1668 there were two fires in October, and in 1761, 13 houses were affected by a fire which started in a malt kiln. When reports of these fires talk of thatched houses and ricks of barley, furnaces, and kilns, it's surprising there weren't more fires, more buildings destroyed and more deaths.

The Civil War in Tiverton

Both towns were affected by the Civil War of 1642-1651. Royalist Tiverton Castle was under siege from Parliamentarians in 1645, and in December of that year Oliver Cromwell paid it a brief visit. On 17 March 1644 there was a minor battle at Cotes Bridge, just outside Loughborough, when Parliamentarians occupied the bridge. 








Bequests to fund schools are also common to both towns. In 1601 Peter Blundell, a man who had gained considerable wealth during his life as a clothier, bequeathed a sizeable sum of money for the creation of the Peter Blundell School, which is still in use as a school, although I believe the original building was replaced in about 1883. Thomas Burton was an English wool merchant who died around 1495, and bequeathed sums of money to a variety of Loughborough causes. One of his trustees, Ralph Lemyngton, decided that some of the money should be used to create a school, and to this day Loughborough Endowed Schools is still active in the town.

In common with many other towns and cities water was made safer to drink in Tiverton and Loughborough by being brewed into beer. I believe there was a brewery at the end of Market Street, and that it wasn't called Malt Mill Lane for nothing! In Tiverton Museum, there was a fine display of brewery paraphernalia and old bottles, as well as a malt shovel, and an apple press.

The cabinet of paraphernalia

The malt shovel

The apple press

And, of course, townsfolk everywhere needed shoes, so cobblers would have been found in each town

Tools of the trade

Interesting to know that at one time there was a branch of the Leicester firm Olivers in the town!

Olivers, who had a warehouse in Leicester

Oh my goodness, time is running away with me, and I haven't even mentioned all the Heathcoat connections, the iron works, the water supply and drinking fountains, the GWR, the cinemas, the Temperance Society and the United Order of Druids, the brick-makers, the police station, the milestones, the canal, the band, the pubs ...

Better save those for next time!

Acknowledgements: I'd like to thank the staff at Tiverton Museum of Mid-Devon Life, for allowing me to take photographs to use in this blogpost .

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

[Dyer, Lynne (2016). Loughborough to Tiverton. [Online] Available from: http://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/loughborough-to-tiverton.html [Accessed 31 July 2016]