Bellfoundry and church bells

Taylors Bellfoundry and the bells of the Loughborough parish church

One of the sounds that one can’t fail to have missed during the past 9 months is that of church bells ringing out – for all sorts of occasions, as well as calling people to a regular service. Whether or not you are a member of a church, whether or not this is your religion, the ringing of church bells is something that would normally permeate every village, town and city in the country. This is the first time since the Second World War that church bells have fallen silent.

In Loughborough, the irony of the silence of the church bells is that the town is home to the country’s last remaining bellfoundry, Taylors, as the Whitechapel bellfoundry closed in May 2017. Taylors has been an integral part of Loughborough’s industrial history since 1839, when the foundry moved here. Initially, the yard behind the Packhorse pub (now the Organ Grinder) served the bellfounders well, when they arrived in the town to re-cast the bells of the parish church, but by 1859, a larger, purpose-built factory had been created in the area around Freehold and Cobden Streets.

As a working factory, the bellfoundry has an extensive private archive and some of the history of the bellfoundry is shared on the internet, via the bellfoundry website, and that of the Loughborough Bellfoundry Trust. The trust has been in existence since about 2016 and was created to protect the buildings, the archives, and the museum within the bellfoundry for future generations.

A visit to the museum is a real treat as the work of the bellfoundry is showcased not only in a dedicated museum space, but also through an organised tour of the actual foundry where on casting days it’s possible to observe bells being made.

Although church bells may have fallen silent during this pandemic, work at the foundry has continued, and work to create a new museum for the 21st century has also forged ahead, with the appointment of a new museum director:

The new Museum Director for the Bellfoundry Trust, courtesy of Twitter

Also during the pandemic, the bell foundry has been in receipt of grants from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund, and, just before Christmas it was announced that the bellfoundry’s application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a substantial grant had finally been approved. This success made the national news, and was reported on the BBC website, as well as being featured on the Heritage Fund website, and on the website of Ingham Pinnock the economic and regeneration consultants who have been working with the bellfoundry since about 2014.  

The last time I visited Loughborough parish church, in February 2020, was to assist with keeping the church open whilst a ringing event took place, from 2pm, with an expected completion time of 5.45pm. This was a successful challenge - for the bellringers and myself!

Loughborough parish church tower

Inside the parish church Feb 2020

Inside the parish church, Feb 2020

Inside the parish church, Feb 2020

 

More recently, on Christmas Day, 2020, a small band of bellringers were able to ring the bells of the parish church. This was a momentous occasion as it was the first time the bells had been rung since 15th March 2020, just before the national lockdown. Several important safety inspections were carried out before this COVID-safe peal was allowed to go ahead, but those involved were absolutely thrilled to be able to ring, and people in the neighbourhood were thrilled to hear that iconic sound of church bells.

Let’s hope 2021 brings more opportunities for bellringers to ring, for townsfolk to hear the familiar sounds, for the bellfoundry works to flourish, and the bellfoundry's museum plans to develop.  

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough 27 December 2020

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). Bellfoundry and church bells. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/12/bellfoundry-and-church-bells.html [Accessed 27 December 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.

You can leave comments below, but do check back as my reply will appear here, below your comment.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne        

Museums libraries books talks and archives!

Apologies for not blogging last week. Well, I say apologies, but I did blog, only not here!!! I was lucky enough to attend the Leicestershire and Rutland Heritage Conference, run by Museums Development East Midlands for people who work or volunteer in the heritage sector. It was held in the National Space Centre, and you can read my account of the event over on the Old Rectory Museum blog.  






On Tuesday I popped into our public library because they were having an ancestor hunt day, where people came along and had a bit of help tracing their elusive ancestors. The library has access to Ancestry and Find My Past, as well as to a lot of other resources that can really help with family history. Having said that, I was in the library on Thursday too, for the launch of the renamed Local Studies Library which is now called the Local and Family History Centre, and the latest exhibition. The new name really describes succinctly the kind of information that can be found in their resources. 

The launch was well-attended, with about 30 people enjoying the talks and the exhibition - oh, and the tea and cakes too!! We were told about many of the things the Loughborough Library Local Studies Volunteers (LLLSVs for short) have done over the past 5 years, and heard about their plans for the future. Their latest book is a faithful transcription of a book by Herbert W. Cook entitled Robert Bakewell of Dishley: the pioneer of English stockbreeding, which was originally published in 1942. The 2019 reprint is now available to purchase from the Local and Family History Centre for a minimum donation of £7. Do try and get along to the exhibition if you can - it's about William Railton, the architect behind Nelson's Column, and his work in Leicestershire.






Later that same evening I went to the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society talk on Elizabethan and Stuart turbulence in Leicestershire, given by Richard Bullock of Nottingham Trent University. Before I went along, I admit I knew very little about the Elizabethan age, or the age of the Stuarts, and really couldn't imagine what turbulence there might have been in the peaceful county of Leicestershire, although given what I knew about the Luddite attacks, the Chartists Uprising of the early-mid 1800s etc. it was always likely that Leicestershire had never been peaceful!

Anyways, it was great to learn about the arguments and disputes, the trials and tribulations and relationships between the local landowning and influential families - the Hastings, the Greys, the Shirleys and the Faunts. What a complicated set of circumstances, what a complex web of relationships, but I certainly came away knowing more than I had before.

So these busy few days were then followed by a visit to a fascinating archive, like most fledgling archives, kept in a tiny room and a basement, but housing some truly fascinating documents and resources. I was also lucky enough this day to happen upon some Tuckers bricks, with the header end facing forward and embossed with "Tuckers Newstyle". What a treat!!! Sadly, no photos though. I also tried to find out if the radiators were from Messengers, but there was nothing obvious, so perhaps on my next visit I should take my plumbing kit with me and disconnect one so I can get round the back and find the evidence!!!!!






This weekend I've spent a great couple of days walking the length and breadth of Loughborough looking for suitable photo opportunities for my forthcoming book, and trying to hunt down more blue enamel street signs (I've only found 4 so far, but I'm pretty sure there are more out there)!

Anyway, must go and prepare for another week at work!

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). Museums, libraries, books, talks and archives: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/02/museums-libraries-books-talks-and.html [Accessed 10 February 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  

Loughborough and the holiday connection

So, every time I go on holiday I encounter something that reminds me of Loughborough! How odd!

In October 2015 I found myself in the tiny town of Pembroke in South West Wales. Given that Pembroke is on the coast, has a wonderful castle and a connection to Henry VII, you wouldn't think there would be anything here that could possibly evoke anything to do with the little market town of Loughborough, slap bang in the middle of the country, would you?

We decided to visit the museum/heritage centre of the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust, housed in the former Dockyard Chapel. There was an extremely interesting collection of artefacts concerned with battles (particularly those of the second world war) and especially with the Sunderland flying boats, as Pembroke Dock was Britain's largest base for flying boats during WW2. When we'd finished wandering around, we exited the grounds onto Meyrick Owen Way, and I was surprised to see on the corner of that road and the B4322 an old-fashioned looking shop, called - the Maypole Dairy!  

The Maypole Dairy in Pembroke Dock, October 2015

Of course, this looked familiar, because there used to be a similar place in Loughborough Market Place:  

The Maypole in Loughborough Market Place, 1960s

If you look closely to the right of the Maypole Dairy in Pembroke Dock, you might be able to work out that the attached building is called the White Hart! 

The White Hart in Pembroke Dock, October 2015

Ok, I grant you, that's a pretty common name for a pub, so it's not surprising that there is also one of these in Loughborough! 

The White Hart, Loughborough, 2015

So, I doubt it would surprise you to learn that whilst on holiday in Dorset last week, I spotted another White Hart, this time in Wimbourne:

The White Hart, Wimbourne, February 2016

Now, if this building in Wimbourne, pictured below, wasn't originally in use as a pub, I'd be surprised! I'd also be surprised if these weren't Hathernware tiles:

An Indian restaurant in Wimbourne, February 2016

Compare this to many 1930s buildings in Loughborough town centre, for example, the former offices of the Loughborough Echo:

Former offices of the Loughborough Echo, Swan Street, Loughborough

A visit to Dorchester County Museum not only reminded me of the place where I grew up, where there was a roman amphitheatre, but also of Loughborough, in the shape of church bells in the county museum. Ok, so they were not made by Taylors, but bells, to my mind, are closely associated with Taylors Bellfoundry on Freehold Street:

Bells in Dorset County Museum, Dorchester, February 2016

And as if that weren't enough, in one of the museum display cabinets was a fragment of an alabaster plaque, of the Nottingham School (and therefore, probably from Chellaston). In the nineteenth century folk in Loughborough carved ornaments to sell, probably at Skegness, from such alabaster: 

Fragment of an alabaster plaque in Dorset County Museum, Dorchester, February 2016

Of course, being in Dorset, we were near Portland, so it was no surprise to find some Portland Stone in a display case:

No.12, Portland Stone, Dorset County Museum, Dorchester, February 2016

But I must say, Portland Stone looks far better around the base of our Carillon, than it does in little chips in a glass display case!

Loughborough Carillon 

Walking around Dorchester, we found a lovely park, Borough Gardens, which was created in 1896, presumably in some way a celebration of Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee, rather like our very own Queen's Park. Borough Gardens had a lovely bandstand which rather reminded me of Loughborough's:

The bandstand created in 1897, Borough Gardens, Dorchester, February 2016

The bandstand in Queen's Park, Loughborough, 2014

Back in the town of Dorchester itself, I happened upon a beautiful post box which reminded me of the one that used to be on the corner of Burton Street and Park Street, before it was damaged by a car:

Post box in Dorchester, February 2016

By now it was getting rather late in Dorchester, so we made our way back to the car. What we hadn't seen on our way down into the town, was the bronze statue of a horse.

Bronze horse, Dorchester, February 2016

It was pretty dark so I didn't get to read what exactly he was doing there, but he reminded me of three things about Loughborough: the bronze sockman in Market place

Shona Kinloch's sockman, Loughborough

Songster, the replica war horse in the Carillon Tower and War Memorial Museum

Songster, the was horse

and the new cinema complex that is being built on the site of the old General Hospital. The Dorchester complex was on the site of the former brewery, although the building was renovated rather than demolished, but the range of eateries seemed to be similar

The development on the site of the former General Hospital

During our trip to Dorset we also visited Tolpuddle and the Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum. You may wonder what on earth I could possibly find to remind me of Loughborough, but the whole experience brought to mind the Chartist risings in the Market Place (1848) and the Luddite attacks on Heathcoat's lacemaking factory (1816). 

The Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum, February 2016

Information on the Chartist Movement in the Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum, February 2016

On our final day in Dorset we visited Cerne Abbas, the village with the giant chalk man on the hillside, and the site of an old abbey. Information provided by the Cerne Abbas Historical Society is available on the web and includes a variety of pictures. This is more-or-less what we saw:

This, of course, reminded me of our own Garendon Abbey, the Chapterhouse of which was excavated by the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society in about 1965. Garendon Abbey no longer exists, but the archaeological remains are on the Garendon estate and can be seen in this flyover.

On our last day we travelled to Swanage, passing near Corfe Castle with its Greyhound Pub:

Greyhound pub near Corfe Castle

Strangely, I've been through my photograph collection, but can't find a picture of our former Greyhound pub, on Nottingham Road, which used to have an athletics ground behind it.

Anyway, our last port of call in Dorset was Swanage. Even I couldn't find much of a connection with Loughborough here, as Swanage is a seaside resort with a pier, beach huts and amusement arcades. One or two comparisons could be made though! Their war memorial was quite different from ours (see Carillon above):

The War Memorial at Swanage

I was also pleased to see that they had a steam railway, a teeny bit like our own Great Central Railway, which I wasn't expecting (I really hadn't done my homework at all!):

The platform at Swanage steam railway, February 2016

The platform at the GCR Loughborough

The Town Hall at Swanage was a pretty impressive stone building with an interesting clock on the front:

Swanage Town Hall clock

similar to the one on our Town Hall, although not designed to be seen from all directions like ours:

Loughborough Town Hall clock

I was also interested to see that new houses in Swanage were given names inscribed on stone tablets, just like on some of the older houses in Loughborough. This one was built in 1989:

Stone plaque on newly built houses in Swanage

House plaque on Chestnut Street, Loughborough

Finally, I can't resist posting this picture of Victorian street furniture on the pier at Swanage:

On Swanage pier, February 2016

Sorry, did I say finally? One last one, I promise! Yesterday I went shopping in Loughborough, and picked up some books on our local area at the Age Concern bookshop. Apart from one, which was about pubs in London. Which was odd. I leafed through it before going to sleep last night and read the following passage: 

"The Clanger. The Clanger is a new pub and it has taken the Great Fire of London as its theme ...There are also some interesting items concerning insurance companies. In those days these insurance companies each had a special crest which was displayed on the wall of insured premises and the fire brigades were only allowed to put out fires where these crests were to be seen."

MacLaren, R. (1977). London pubs & inns. St Ives: James Pike Ltd., pp3-4

Fire insurance crest on a house in Swanage, February 2016

Now, I'm pretty sure I've seen one of these somewhere in Loughborough, but I can't for the life of me remember where. Can anyone help?

Hope you've enjoyed this post! And with huge apologies for the changes in type size :(

See you soon

The Great Central Railway Museum

A visit to the GCR

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the wonderful museums we have in our town: I hope you’ve managed to visit and experience them for yourselves.

The Charnwood Museum has now got an even lovelier Ladybird corner than before, complete with talking chair. And, incidentally, there’s a Ladybird exhibition in the public library at the moment, until the end of May.

 

 

 

What I missed from that blogpost was mention of the small but perfectly formed museum at the Great Central Railway, this, probably because I’ve never actually been in! When the other half and I decided to go for a walk on May Day, I little thought we’d end up at the GCR, but end up there we did! Splashing out £3 on platform tickets, we excitedly skipped down the steps (only because we weren’t allowed to slide down the luggage ramp!) eager to see what train enthusiasts found so inspiring!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, we walked along Platform 2. We’d been walking along the canal for nearly two hours, and I’d promised OH a drink, but we walked past the café and headed off towards the engine sheds, passing strategically placed stacks of suitcases and steamer trunks (stacks in which Charles Deeming’s steamer trunk wouldn’t have looked out of place), old metal advertising signs and various other things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing I noticed when we reached the engine shed, and were greeted by one of the volunteers, was the smell of grease! I don’t know why, but the smell of grease always appeals to me: Maybe it reminds me of events from my childhood. Anyway, the engine shed was full of, ummmm, engines, in various states of repair, and there were tools and bits of stuff everywhere! I was fascinated by the pits too, something that I loved from my Nan’s old cottage and her 1930s house. Lots of voluntary contribution boxes too: Restoration is not cheap.

Outside there were all sorts of wooden carriages, caravans, and piles of indistinguishable things that would probably have meant something to people in the know.








Walking beyond the end of the engine shed, I came to the end of the line. Some of you might know that the GCR are raising money to replace the bridge at this point, and somehow connect the Loughborough line to the Ruddington steam line, so it was good to see where the current line ended and realise what the aspirations were. If I’ve got my bearings right, then I think I saw the horses who graze in that triangular piece of grass opposite the entrance to the Brush, which I think Sid Powell used to use.

Along the way I also think I passed the Jacksons Coachworks place that is on Queen’s Road.

Walking back towards the platforms, I couldn’t help stopping to wonder at the signal box and the signal wires that were operated from the box, and the Grade II listed water tower! I also find red, white and black signals against a blue sky quite stunning! I’m wondering if this is an improvement on taking pictures of electricity pylons?

So, back on the platform, I paid a visit to the “facilities”, mostly because I wanted to see if they were anything like I remembered, and then we went and hunted out the tea. We timed it perfectly, and while we were sitting on the platform-side, supping our cups of tea, a train pulled in, and lots of excited people alighted. It was a joy to see train staff, including the stationmaster and the chef rushing around organising things, to be ready for the next departure.









Tea drunk, we headed off to the museum. Inside was a joy to behold with old railway signs reaching from floor to ceiling, a working model train, display cabinets full of interesting railway memorabilia, pictures of trains on the walls, and train bells and whistles on the window ledges. There were a couple of exhibits that really interested me, one of which was the advert for a journey to Stratford-on-Avon, the home of “England’s greatest poet” - Shakespeare (another subject of a recent blogpost). A friend recently told me of another Shakespeare / Loughborough / GCR connection, which I shall quote in full for you:

“Loughborough GCR is home to the Standard Britannia Class locomotive 70013 Oliver Cromwell. Another member of this Class that did not survive was 70004 William Shakespeare that appeaered at the 1951 Festival of Britain, was one of two locomotives dedicated to working the famous "Golden Arrow" express train and in the 1960s, when based at Newton Heath in Manchester, was a regular performer through Loughborough Midland Station on the Midland Main Line to St Pancras”.

If you want to read more about the Standard Britannia Class locomotive, there’s a decent article over on Wikipedia. But back to my visit to the GCR Museum -

The other thing that really interested me was an account of payments to W.E. Woolley in connection with the purchase of land for the construction of the GCR line. Read more about Mr Woolley in a future blogpost – but you might have to remind me to write it!

So, we visited the engine shed and the museum, and we saw a train come in and go out again. Now all we have to do is ride the GCR sometime …