Lynne About Loughborough: snow

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Sunday, 29 December 2019

Review of 2019

So, here we are saying goodbye not only to 2019, but also to a decade, and welcoming in a new year. This past year has been so eventful, both in Loughborough, and for the blog: what follows is a review of 2019 through the blog posts, including a note of your favourite posts from the year, and from the life of the blog.

The blog began 2019 with a number of posts in January featuring buildings that had been demolished in 2018 - The Royal George pub, the goods shed associated with the Charnwood Forest Railway, and the former bed shop on Granby Street.

In February, the Local Studies department of Loughborough public library re-launched as the Local and Family History Centre, hosted an exhibition of the work of William Railton, and released a book about Robert Bakewell.

There was much excitement in Market Street in March as a Leicestershire green plaque was unveiled in honour of John Heathcoat who had a factory on the spot now occupied by Iceland.

The Garendon estate was opened up at the beginning of April for the annual Loughborough half marathon - an opportunity for lynneaboutloughborough to take some photos of one of the lodges, designed by Railton, from a different angle! This was also the month of the bluebells!

The Victoria County History project landed in Loughborough in May 2019, and research has been on-going ever since, with a view to producing a 'red book' of the history of the town, since the last Leicestershire volume was produced in the late 1890s.

June 2019 was a very busy month, with Picnic in the Park (taking place indoors, because of the waterlogged park), the Armed Forces Day in the town centre, and the unveiling fo the Songster armature in Queen's Park.

I'm not sure what happened in Loughborough in July as I spent two weeks on holiday, but while I was away I was constantly reminded of Loughborough - through bells, milestones, pubs, workhouses, clocks, war memorials, and the Civil War.

The same was true of my visit to Blenheim Palace in August, where I saw so many things that reminded me of Loughborough, including mention of Baron Muncaster. August was also the month when the Ladybird Books exhibition was held at the New Walk Museum in Leicester.

September was a great month when lynneaboutloughborough went on a guided walk of the Civil War on the edge of Loughborough at Cotes. They also led a walk from the Carillon to the Bellfoundry as part of the Heritage Open Days events, and took a BBC podcaster on a walk to discover some local secret places.

The Great Central Railway had one of their murder mystery evenings during October, which was great fun and came with some wonderful food!! The Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society hosted a brilliant talk in October, on houses on the Paget and Storer estates.

November saw the return of the annual street fair, the poignant Remembrance Day service, the parish church Christmas tree festival, the Christmas lights switch-on, street festival and craft fair, and the unveiling of a Leicestershire green plaque honouring two suffragettes from Loughborough.

Although during December, as one might expect, the focus has been on Christmas, there was a book launch event at the Carillon. The blog also covered the journey made, 200 years ago, by Mr Samuel Yates, of Loughborough, who walked daily from Loughborough to Nottingham and back for a bet - which he won!

And so to your favourite posts of 2019!

10th place - Old Railway and Woods - 359 views
9th place - Picnic in Queen's Park and more - 371 views
8th place - Garendon and the marathon - 380 views
7th place - Knocking on the door to the past - 382 views
6th place - Loughborough and Shughborough - 395 views
5th place - Lost buildings of 2018 Charnwood Forest Railway Goods Shed - 455 views
4th place - Loughborough is the best town in the world! - 510 views
3rd place - Lost buildings of 2018 the Royal George - 776 views
2nd place - Lost buildings of 2018 Granby Street - 801 views
1st place - Loughborough in Nottingham: pubs and stuff! - 841 views

The blog has now been going since August 2013, and was in response to lynneaboutloughborough training to be a tour guide and looking for another way to share the history of Loughborough more widely, and to promote the town, which had been in danger of being labelled a 'crap town'.

Here are your favourite all-time posts:

10th place - Loughborough is the best town in the world eva! - 1607 views
9th place - 40 years in Loughborough - 1650 views
8th place - Loughborough snow today! - 1662 views
7th place - Disasters in Loughborough - 1720 views
6th place - Weddings - 1767 views
5th place - Snowy Loughborough - 1773 views
4th place - Ghost signs of Loughborough - 1910 views
3rd place - Spotlight on Ashby Road - 1993 views
2nd place - Plague and Dead Lane - 2062 views
1st place - Disasters and plague houses - 2108 views

The blog posts are a bit like diary entries, but the pages are more static. Here are your all-time favourites:

6th place - Books & Bibliography - 1551 views
5th place - Loughborough Zeppelin Trail - 1760 views
4th place - 100 days about Loughborough - 1886 views
3rd place - Loughborough Luddites and Lace Trail - 2027 views
2nd place - About Me - 2451 views
1st place - Loughborough Sculpture, Art & Architecture Trail - 2558 views

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). Review of 2019. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/12/review-of-2019.html [Accessed 29 December 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

Sunday, 30 December 2018

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:

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Sunday, 5 August 2018

Loughborough five years ago and now

In all the excitement of the last couple of weeks - holidays, graduations and book publication - it almost escaped my notice that exactly 5 years ago yesterday I started this blog!!

My first post was all about how wonderful Loughborough was and highlighted its attractions, its shops, cafes, pubs, restaurants, night life, architecture, parks and markets. Additionally, at the time we had the support of retail guru Mary Portas, so there was no way we deserved a place in a book about rubbish towns!!! And, posts that immediately followed showcased Loughborough in Bloom.

Since that first post, there have been many more - 329, to be precise - on various topics, including the streets of Loughborough, the buildings of Loughborough, the people of Loughborough, the pubs of Loughborough, the events of Loughborough, the connections between Loughborough and loads of other places across the UK, amongst other things! Some of the posts have been a bit text-heavy, others have almost been photoblogs! Sometimes getting the balance right has been hard!

I've been surprised by how popular some of the posts have been, and how unpopular some of the others have been! It stands to reason that older posts are more likely to be the most popular, as they've been available to read for longer, but actually, the 10 most popular posts come from every year except 2015. Here they are:

* Your 10th favourite post was one from 2016, From Loughborough to Melbourne (Sept 2016)

* In 9th place was Bradgate Park (Oct 2016)

* Coming in 8th place was Disasters in Loughborough (Oct 2017)

* 7th place was taken by Loughborough Snow Today (Mar 2018)

* Taking 6th place was Snowy Loughborough (Dec 2017)

* In 5th place was Weddings (Mar 2018)

* Your 4th favourite post was Plague and Dead Lane (Oct 2017)

* In 3rd place was Disasters and Plague Houses (Oct 2017)

* Runner-up, in 2nd place was Ghost Signs (Mar 2014)

* In 1st place the winner was Spotlight on Ashby Road (Oct 2013)

And here are some recent photos of Loughborough:

Site of the former Charnwood Forest Railway (Aug 2018)

I&R Morleys (3M) July 2018

Royal George Pub (July 2018)

Loughborough In Bloom (Aug 2018)

Carillon renovation (July 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). Loughborough five years ago and now. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2018/08/loughborough-five-years-ago-and-now.html [Accessed 5 August 2018]

Take down policy:

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Sunday, 18 March 2018

Loughborough snow today!

So, over the last couple of weeks I've been a bit busy, gadding about, but today I managed to get out and about in Loughborough - in the snow! Here's some pics of my journey from Loughborough Road cemetery, to Charnwood Water, past the Great Central Railway, onto the Grand Union canal, up to the parish church, the Old Rectory, along Fennel Street and into the Market Place. Enjoy!