Review of 2022

At this time of year, it's rather traditional to look back over the whole year, and review it, so in this post I shall quickly take a look at posts on the blog that have appealed to you, and those that have appealed less! This will be followed by the next blogpost which will look at changes that have happened to Loughborough and its buildings. 

Don't forget here's where you can see a complete list of blogposts, from August 2013 to date! 

If there's something you are interested in reading about, but I haven't yet covered it, let me know in the comments and I'll see what I can do!!

Miller's Bridge, N0.34 along the peaceful canal

These are the least popular lynneaboutloughborough blogposts of the year:

So who was Dr Blackham? - Published in June, 96 views

Loughborough's 801st fair - Published in November 89 views

Remembrance 2022 - Published in November, 84 views

Practical psychology clubs part 1 - Published in August 76, views

Practical psychology part 2 - Published in August, 72 views

Another year on the blog - Published in August, 54 views

Secrets of the supermarket - Published in September, 39 views

Burton Walks or Grammar School Brook? - Published in June, 21 views

Sunset on Beacon Hill - Published in June, 19 views

Queen's Park Platinum Jubilee - Published in June, 19 views

And these are the most popular of the blogposts that appeared on lynneaboutloughborough during 2022:

Rising cost of food 1940s – Published March, 346 views

Property alterations in Loughborough – Published August, 358 views

So who was Paul Pry? – Published March, 366 views

Loughborough's letterboxes Pt 1 – Published October, 377 views

So who was Gertrude Mary Hutton – Published March, 393 views

Walls around Loughborough – Published August, 538 views

Herbert Morris Empress Road – Published October, 553 views

New railway bridge – Published November, 617 views

Developments in Loughborough – Published April, 732 views

Loughborough building demolished – Published April, 816 views

And may I take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year for 2023!

Do pop back to the blog in 2023, as there are set to be some developments here soon!

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posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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

Dyer, Lynne (2022). Review of 2022. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2022/12/review-of-2022.html [Accessed 31 December 2022]

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.

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.  

 

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne 

A strange year in Loughborough

The year 2020 is surely one that most of us will remember forever, when in March the whole country came to a standstill, in order to beat a virus. Life as we knew it changed and after just over nine months later we have not been able to go back to the way things once were, and a new normal has become, well, the norm!

Writing this blog over the past year has been rather interesting, and has been rather different. Originally the intention for the year was to post an article by a guest blogger once a month, and this started well, with a post about what happened to the Captain of the Zeppelin airship that dropped bombs on Loughborough in January 1916. This was followed by a post about art and artists in Loughborough, Leicestershire and Rutland. And then, the pandemic began.

Stuck at home, I struggled to write posts, as my prompts had all but disappeared. No trips out to places that would remind me things about Loughborough that I could then research and write about, so I had to rely on looking through my collection of books about Loughborough, and take my cues from there. And now I say that, there's one I missed, as I actually have a book written in 2000 called "When my cue comes: the autobiography of Rev Sidney Y. Richardson", a methodist minister in Loughborough whom I met when I was having some printing done by Team Print, and it's been 20 years since I last read it, so I should give it another go.

Other blog posts were prompted by friends and acquaintances asking me if I knew anything about something specific, and this led to a series of posts in relation to Fairmount Drive, Arthur Edward Shepherd, and Glebe House, amongst other things.

So, over the past nine months I've done more walking around the outskirts of Loughborough than I would normally have done, so please find below a selection of photographs taken during the year.

Happy New Year to you all.

January 2020

Former Geoff's Toys

Church Gate

February 2020

Flooded Queen's Park

House on Storer Road

March 2020

Former pub on Nottingham Road bridge

Mountsorrel granite, Burton Street

April 2020

Deserted Granby Street car park

Southfields Park, closed

May 2020

Celebrating VE Day

Gate pier on Forest Road

June 2020

New style market

Rainbow stones on Tuckers Road

Poppies on Bowling Green Way

July 2020

Harry Cook's place, Epinal Way

Messenger in the pavement

August 2020

Hopper on Storer Road

Mucklin Lodge

New housing adjacent to the GCR

September 2020

Burleigh Brook Ashby Road

Empty Poundstretcher

October 2020

Autumn leaves on Shelthorpe Road

Gate piers on Forest Road

November 2020

Houses on Toothill Road

Remembrance poppy at the cemetery

Waymarker on new estate Epinal Way

December 2020

Canal near Nottingham Road bridge

Christmas lights in the market place

Winter Wonderland

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

Dyer, Lynne (2021). A strange year in Loughborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-strange-year-in-loughborough.html  [Accessed 3 January 2021]

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             

Review of 2018

So, here we are already at the end of 2018! The year seems to have flown by and has been like no other: last year's major achievement was the 100 Days About Loughborough project, this year's was the publication of a book about Loughborough and the collection of a local history certificate from Oxford University. The blog continues to evolve, but its aim is as always - to promote our lovely town and spread the love for Loughborough!

So, let's have a look at some of your favourite posts of 2018.

* In 10th place is Anniversaries and Names, featuring the years 878 and 918 and a few selected place names

* Coming in at 9 is the Psychogeographic Walk Around Loughborough, featuring Whatton Gardens, Calke Abbey, Beaumanor Hall, Woodhouse Eaves, Maddy Prior, Henry Goddard, W. E. Cooke, an exhibition at the Loughborough Library and an open art house.

* The 8th most popular post is Finding Loughborough Everywhere, comparing Loughborough to the Cambridgeshire town of St Ives. 

* Your 7th favourite post is the Leicestershire County Show 2018, and 2005

* In 6th position is Picnic in the Park and on the Farm, featuring suffragettes and a visit to a local farm. 

* Half way up the table, at number 5, is Loughborough five years ago and now, a celebration of the 5th anniversary of the blog.

* At number 4 is 40 Years in Loughborough, a celebration of living in Loughborough for 40 years!

* In third place is House for Sale, taken from a Loughborough Echo of 1954.

* Runner-up is Loughborough Snow Today, featuring pictures of familiar and unfamiliar Loughborough in the snow in March 2018.

* And, the most popular post of 2018 is another extract from the same 1954 issue of the Loughborough Echo, featuring a local wedding and a local bridesmaid. The popularity of this post is tinged with sadness as the bridesmaid, a good friend, died this year.  

Of course, for all those popular posts, there are an equal number which didn't appeal to you! Here are some of your least favourite posts of 2018:

* In 10th place comes More on Suffrage and the Carillon, featuring Alice Hawkins of Leicester, the Suffragette exhibition at the Charnwood Museum and a talk on the Carillon, given by the Borough Carilloneur as part of the 2017-18 talk season of the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society. 

* In 9th position is Exhibitions and the Ceramics Market, which covered the works on St Paul's church Woodhouse Eaves, and the ceramics market in Loughborough. 

* Coming in at 8th, Lynne Really was About Loughborough this Week, featuring, amongst other things, St Paul's Woodhouse Eaves, the Star Wars exhibition at Leicester, a book launch on Loughborough market, and an exhibition at Loughborough public library. 

* 7th place goes to Pubs and a bit of Art, featuring pubs in other towns with the same name as some Loughborough pubs, and a visit to another art event. 

* Your 6th least popular post is Connecting Loughborough, highlighting similarities between some Welsh towns and Loughborough.

* Halfway up the table, at number 5, is the Parish Church and Christmas Trees, some lovely pics from the very recent Christmas Tree Festival. 

* Coming in at 4 is Armistice 2018, commemorations of the end of the First World War. 

* In third place is Still on the Subject of Remembrance, a follow-up to the Armistice post. 

* Runner-up for the award is Loughborough Trinket Box, reporting on the little box I found at a local antiques market, bearing a local crest.

* Winner of the wooden spoon for the least popular post of 2018 is the Christmas Lights Switch On, pics from the event. 

Bearing in mind that the list above of the least popular posts are also the most recent, so there is still a chance for them to catch up with the others!

It's also been interesting hunting down the top 10 all-time most popular posts, from the start of the blog in 2013, to date. Amazingly, a couple of posts from 2018 make it into this table, which is some feat, considering the posts from 2013 have had 5 years to grow their numbers!!

* Coming in at 10th is one of the posts covering Swithland Slate, an ever-popular topic.

* In 9th place is a review of some of the recent archaeological work that's been happening over at Bradgate Park. 

* At 8th position is Disasters in Loughborough, including plague and fire!

* At number 7 is Loughborough Snow Today, featuring pictures of familiar and unfamiliar Loughborough in the snow in March 2018.

* In 6th place is another Snowy Loughborough,this time from December 2017

* Making it to halfway, to number 5, is an extract from a 1954 issue of the Loughborough Echo, featuring a local wedding and a local bridesmaid. The popularity of this post is tinged with sadness as the bridesmaid, a good friend, died this year.

* In 4th place is the Plague and Dead Lane. Thankfully, the plague has been eradicated, but Dead Lane is now part of a shopping centre.

* Coming close to the top, at third is Disasters and Plague Houses - disasters and plague proved to be popular!

* Runner-up in the all-time popularity stakes is Ghost Signs of Loughborough, featuring some of those faded painted signs on the sides of shops and buildings.  

* And the winner of the most popular post over the last 5 years is an early post from October 2013, Spotlight on Ashby Road. Probably well overdue for an update too!

All three walks have been updated for 2018, and this is the leaderboard:

* 3rd place goes to the Loughborough, Luddites and Lace trail

* 2nd place goes to the Loughborough Zeppelin trail

* The winner is the Loughborough Sculpture, Architecture and Art trail
And here are a few of my favourite photos from 2018:

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). Review of 2018. Available from:  https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2018/12/review-of-2018.html  

[Accessed 30 December 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

Review of 2017

2017 has been an interesting year both for me and for the blog! 

I finally finished my local history course in July, and the results eventually came through in November!! I've been more involved in the Old Rectory Museum of late, and started a blog and a Twitter feed for them, as well as sending in reports of activities and meetings to the Loughborough Echo. I've also been a little more involved with the Loughborough Library Local Studies Volunteers Group, and wrote 100 words about Loughborough every day for 100 days. 

As for the blog, I promised an update to the format, and a few extra interesting pages, but in reality I've been a bit side-tracked by other things, so this hasn't materialised. Never mind, you still seem to enjoy reading some of my posts, so here's the usual end-of-year review - the most popular posts and pages, the least popular posts and pages, and the all-time most popular posts and pages!

Your most favoured posts are: 

* Coming in at 10th place, was Swithland Slate in Local Churchyards

* Placed at 9th was The Loughborough Legend

* In 8th place was Swithland Slate Gravestones

* The 7th most popular post was The Silence of Loughborough Fair

* Placed at 6th position was Why Have I Never Visited Before?

* In 5th position was From the Rooftops, Part 1

* And in 4th place was Snowy Loughborough
 
* And in medal position 3rd came Disasters in Loughborough

* 2nd place was taken by Plague and Dead Lane

* 1st place was awarded to Disasters and Plague Houses!


Your least favourite posts included:

# Your Favourite Posts

# Loughborough local history rooted in Charnwood

# Loughborough in 100 Words

# Bridges, buses, trains, balloons and runners

# Taylors Bells Sent off to Ypres

# Windmills

# Cheltenham, Harpury, Malvern and Loughborough

# Pamphlet Day and Newsletter Time

# Nanpantan reservoir

# Churchyards

When it comes to your all-time favourite posts, here's the list:

10th - From the Rooftops of Loughborough Pt 1

9th - Bradgate Park

8th - Cinema Memories

7th - Obelisks everywhere

6th - Snowy Loughborough

5th - Disasters in Loughborough

4th - Ghost Signs of Loughborough

3rd - Spotlight on Ashby Road

2nd - Plague and Dead Lane 

1st - Disasters and Plague Houses


There aren't as many pages associated with the blog as there are posts, so here's the top 5:

5th - Loughborough Zeppelin Trail

4th - Books About Loughborough

3rd - Loughborough, Luddites and Lace Walking Trail

2nd - Loughborough Sculpture, Art & Architecture Trail

1st - About Me

Anything you particularly want to read about in 2018?

Thank you for reading the blog!

Happy New Year to you all!

Lynne