W is for Walking

Back in 2015 I was on a mission to walk more, and I certainly managed to achieve that!! In the process, I discovered just how beautiful our area was and still is, and how lucky we are to have such a variety of countryside surrounding us. Also, of course, as an accredited Leicestershire Tour Guide, I lead groups on guided walks, so walking is fairly central to my life!

Wherever I walk to I usually have my trusty camera to hand, and often stop briefly to take a photo of something interesting – and often the same thing on more than one occasion as the seasons can have a dramatic effect on nature, and on the view! I now find that my pc file directory is full of folders called things like ‘Walk to Beaumanor and back’, or ‘Walk via Woodthorpe to GCR Quorn and back’. Of course, that doesn’t mean I can find the photo I want at the time I want it though!!

While I love walking in the countryside – to the Outwoods, or Beacon Hill – I also love walking along the canal – to Barrow, or to Hathern – and I also love walking the streets of Loughborough, seeing the changes to buildings happening, seeing interesting things I might not have noticed before. Oh, and I love bumping into friends and people when I’m out on a walk.

As for my guided walks, I have put a few of these on this blog – the Luddites and Lace Trail, the Zeppelin Trail, the Three Towers Trail, the Sculpture, Art, and Architecture Trail, and the Walking the Plaques Trail, although I admit at least one of these does need to be updated.

Some of my real life walks include a general walk around Loughborough town centre, an Art Deco walk, and a pubs walk, as well as bespoke walks covering something specific. In September for the Heritage Open Days I shall be leading an Art Deco walk, and a general walk for the Loughborough Library local Studies Volunteers, and two others from the group will be leading a Suffragette walk and a Zeppelin walk. Keep an eye on the HODs website for more details of these walks!

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This post is one in a series of posts for the 'April A-Z Blogging Challenge'

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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.

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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). W is for Walking. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/back-in-2015-i-was-on-mission-to-walk.html [Accessed 26 April 2024]

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Spotlight on Fairmount Drive

Fairmount Drive

We have seen from a previous blogpost that Fairmount Drive was one of a number of roads developed by the partnership of Arthur Edward Shepherd and Walter Mounteney, which included Holywell Drive, Highfields Drive, Benscliffe Drive and Shepherds Close. These streets and houses were created around the late-1920s-early-1930s, and by 1933, Arthur Edward Shepherd was living at Highcroft (1), no.1 Holywell Drive, a detached house at the summit of Fairmount Drive, practically opposite the home of Bernard Nixon Wale, who you may remember lived at no.40 Fairmount Drive.

Highcroft, No.1 Holywell Drive, the home of Arthur Edward Shepherd

Walter, the lime and coal merchant, who was the brother of Hilda Pick Mounteney, the second wife of Bernard Nixon Wale, and Arthur, the painter and decorator, had joined forces after the First World War, and in 1926, when Arthur bought shares in the building company of Corah, following the death of Edgar Corah, Arthur’s three sons joined their father’s business. Their early work saw the development of Park Road and Parklands Drive, followed by the demolishing of some Market Street properties. The creation of roads around Fairmount Drive were as a result of the selling off of some lands associated with the Burleigh Estate, some of which Arthur had bought and sold, and re-bought.

Many of the houses in the surrounding streets are easily recognisable as what we know today as typical semi-detached and detached 1930s houses. At the time they were built, Art Deco was really catching on as a type of art and architecture, so it is not surprising that there is a short row of striking Art Deco houses on the beginning of Shepherds Close.

Art Deco houses at the beginning of Shepherds Close

Fairmount Drive comprises mostly semi-detached houses on one side, and more extensive and substantial detached houses on the other. However, today, like many other streets, wherever a space has been found between houses, infill has taken place, so there are some unexpected, newer properties nestled between the original houses. Perhaps because of its position on the former Burleigh Estate, Fairmount Drive is lined with trees, and perhaps because of its straight ascent to the place where Burleigh Hall once stood, and towards the Iron Age Hill Fort, this is why the street is so called. Or perhaps, it is simply named after the house in which Arthur Edward Shepherd’s brother, Albert Marshall Shepherd, was living from around 1927 – ‘Fairmount’ on Westfield Drive?

Fairmount on Westfield Drive, home of Albert Marshall Shepherd

So, what news of Fairmount Drive over the years??

Secret of Loughborough's newest streets

You may have caught me on BBC Radio Leicester on Wednesday (listen again, available until 25th October 2019)? This was an extract from a podcast recorded by Becca Bryers for her award-winning podcast, Multi Story, which was released on 25th September 2019 (available forever!). Becca and I chatted about some of Loughborough's secrets, and decided we would visit Queen's Park, the former St Peter's Church and Beaumanor Hall. We had a great walk around Loughborough's town centre, and spoke to some really interesting folk at St Peter's and Beaumanor.

One of the reasons we chose to visit Beaumanor was because we knew of the links with Bletchley Park during the Second World War, when Beaumanor was a "Y" listening station. The other reason was because of the naming of the streets on a new estate on the outskirts of Loughborough, off Epinal Way, and close to Beaumanor. I covered these streets, and the background to their names in my book, 'Secret Loughborough'. Sadly, there wasn't enough room in the book to write everything I wanted to, so below is a slightly extended version.







Alongside thematically named groups of streets, like those after trees, or flowers, or stately homes, there are other thematically named groups of streets in Loughborough that are rather more complex than those named after trees, or birds, and an understanding of these really does point to some interesting history. A relatively recent example of one such theme is that to be found on a newish estate, on the edge of Loughborough, close to the hamlet of Woodthorpe and the estate of Beaumanor, where one can find roads names like Hugh Foss Drive, Leslie Yoxall Drive, Peter Twinn Drive, Peter Laslett Close, John Tiltman Drive, which are clearly named after people, and the less obvious ones like Knox Drive, Boyle Drive, Aitken Way, Watkin Drive, Wilson Drive.

The one that really cracks the code, is Alan Turing Road, as these roads are named for people who were associated with the intelligence operations at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Beaumanor Hall, in Woodhouse close to Loughborough, was a “Y” listening station during that war, and had regular contact with people working in cryptography or cryptanalysis at Bletchley Park, many of whom went on to have distinguished careers.

Peter Laslett lectured at Cambridge University, reaching the position of Reader in Politics and History of Social Structure before retiring in 1983. He was a founder member of the University of the Third Age (U3A) of which there is a branch in Loughborough. Hugh Foss retired from GCHQ in 1953. Leslie Yoxall joined GCHQ, retiring in 1974. Dilly Knox, a graduate of King’s College Cambridge, had been a codebreaker during the First World War, and died in 1943 whilst working at Bletchley Park as chief cryptographer.

Edward Boyle went on to study at Christ Church Oxford, graduating in 1949. When his father died in 1945, Edward inherited the baronetage, becoming Baron Boyle of Handsworth. He later became an MP, and died in 1981.

Peter Twinn was the first person to read a German military Enigma message just before the secret operations moved from London to Bletchley Park in July 1939. He later became associated with institutions like the Royal Aircraft Establishment and the Natural Environment Research Council. In 1980 he was appointed a CBE and died in 2004.

John Tiltman, an army officer in the First World War, was wounded and received the Military Cross. At Bletchley Park he was considered to be one of the best at his job, and in 1944 he was promoted to Brigadier, a position from which he earned his nickname – The Brig.. He died in 1982.

One or two of the road names on this estate cause a little consternation.

Was Watkin Drive named for Vernon Watkins, a Welsh poet and friend of Dylan Thomas, who attended Repton School in Derbyshire before going on to Cambridge to study for a degree in modern languages, although he left before he completed this. Whilst working at Bletchley Park Watkins met his future wife, and at the time of his death in 1967 he was seriously in the running to become Poet Laureate. Is it possible that the name Watkin Drive was chosen in order to simplify what would otherwise have been a bit of an awkward name to spell – Watkins’ Drive?

For a similar reason, it could be concluded that Wilson Drive is named for Angus Johnstone-Wilson, rather than Harold Bernard Willson, the former being a graduate of Merton College Oxford, who worked as a code-breaker in the Naval section at Bletchley Park. Harold Bernard Willson graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in modern languages, working at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, being the first person to decrypt the Italian Navy Hagelin C-38 code machine. But why not Johnstone-Wilson, or Willson?

Aitken Way could refer to either: James Macrae Aitken, a Scottish chess player, who worked at solving German Enigma machines, from Hut 6 at Bletchley Park, and seems to have spent much of his life playing (and winning) championship chess; or to the New Zealand mathematician, Alexander Craig Aitken, who also worked from Hut 6 during the Second World War, also decrypting the Enigma code.

  

Finally, perhaps the most well-known of the Bletchley staff is Alan Turing, whose story was told in the recent film, ‘The Imitation Game’. He is perhaps best known for being a cryptanalyst and designer of the Bombe (a mechanical device to help decipher Enigma messages) as well as being the head of Hut 8. Turing died a few days before his forty-second birthday.

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). Secret of Loughborough's newest streets. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/09/secret-of-loughboroughs-newest-streets.html  Accessed 26 September 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     


    

Morley's

Well, over the years I've skim read a lot of local history material, some of which I later look at again in more detail, some things I do a bit more research on, and other things I forget. Or, at least, I think I've forgotten about things, but then something happens and all becomes clear to me!

Something like this happened to me earlier this week. I had spotted an advert for a talk happening in Heanor, being presented by the Heanor & District Local History Society. I don't know why, but I thought it might be interesting to pop along and listen to a talk about a hosiery factory in Heanor, so I might compare it with what I knew about hosiery factories in Loughborough. 

Hubby used to work throughout the whole of Derbyshire, and he had taken me to Heanor twice as there is a lovely antique shop there, but he was away this particular evening, so I filled the car with petrol (I have a phobia of running low on petrol, never mind running out!), braved the sudden cold spell, typed the postcode into the satnav and headed off up the M1. About 40 minutes later I arrived in Heanor, parked the car, and then promptly got lost, and had to go and ask for directions in the local corner shop!

Eventually I found the venue, arriving about 10 minutes later than planned, but approaching I thought, no, this can't be it! In front of the reception desk was a queue, a queue for a local history talk! Looking beyond the queue into the room, I could see it was full! It wasn't a small room, but it was crammed with people who had come to hear the talk. All in all I counted about 150 people! Heanor only has a population of just over 17,000, so this was a brilliant turnout the likes of which I've never seen at a Loughborough heritage talk: maybe I just don't go to the right places in Loughborough?!

Anyway, I eventually found a seat in the crowded room and prepared to listen to a knowledgeable lady talk about the firm of I & R Morley, hosiers. 

Awaiting the talk!

They had a big factory in Heanor, and it seemed that half the population of the town worked for them I think the figure of 1200 was suggested). We were told about the origins of the firm, the working conditions and the life and death of the owners of the firm. 

It was during the middle of the talk that it suddenly dawned on me that I knew Morley's! Now, I don't think Morley's have been in their factory on Nottingham Road since I've been living in Loughborough (since 1978) or at least, not since I've been more aware of buildings etc., so I think I only remember the building being Riker, but you know the one I mean, on the Nottingham Road canal bridge, the L-shaped building with the chimney that is now 3M.

Once I'd realised why I had been attracted to the talk in the first place, I really paid very close attention to the story of the Morley family. Apparently, as well as the Loughborough and the Heanor sites, they also had factories in Nottingham, Leicester (on Bonners Lane, which is very near where I work today!), London, Paris, Daybrook, Sutton-in-Ashfield and Grenoble.

The company was established in 1795 by John Morley and his brother Richard. So the company ought to have been J and R Morley, but actually was known as I and R Morley. This was because since Elizabethan times the letters I and J were interchangeable (apparently there were only 24 letters in the Elizabethan alphabet). 

Perhaps the most prominent member of the Morley family was Samuel, born 1809, died 1886. He was the one who built up the company, such that on his death, he left about the equivalent of £93m in today's money (I think that was the figure the speaker mentioned!). He was, apparently, a good employer, which was evidenced by the fact that he paid employees when they went to war, and in his will he left money to each worker, a sum dependant upon the number of years they had worked for the company.

In common with many men of the era, Samuel Morley was a philanthropist, an abolitionist, and a member of parliament. A further point of interest (for investigation at some later date!) was that he may have worked with someone by the name of Paget. There is a statue of Samuel Morley in Nottingham Arboretum: bizarrely, I visited this park for the first time ever at the beginning of September this year when we went on a guided D H Lawrence walk around Nottingham, and I stopped and looked at this statue, but at the time had no idea who the man was, nor what his significance was! Strangely, I didn't even take a photograph of him. 

When the speaker at the talk was introducing us to Samuel Morley, she spoke of things that were happening at the time he was born: so, in 1809 the first Indian restaurant opened in London, and 1886 was the first year that coca-cola became available.

Other little snippets I picked up were that a lady called Ann Birkin who worked for Morley's, had embroidered stockings for Queen Victoria (and I have a strange feeling that I saw these earlier this year when I paid a visit to Ruddington Framework Knitter's Museum), and that it was Morley's who made the stockings for Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her marriage. The talk was quite interactive, and imagine the surprise the speaker had when someone showed her the pair of Morley stockings, still in their box, with a price label of 2/6, that they had brought with them!

So, it was a very interesting evening, and I picked up a lot of information, both about Morley's and Heanor itself. 

Here's a link to some information about a project that's been going on to discover more about Samuel Morley and his factories. 

Much work has been going on at Morley's Nottingham factory, which is now, partly, a gallery space run by Backlit. 

There are a couple of videos on youtube - interviews with Heanor people who used to work at Morley's and a film about the inspiration behind the renovation of the Nottingham factory.

Apparently, like Loughborough, Heanor used to have a cinema called the Empire, although ours still exists as The Odeon, and the car park I used was opposite the King of Prussia pub (of which there is also one near Abergavenny in Wales, where I used to live)! The street signs in Heanor were also very, very interesting:

A Heanor street sign

Here's a link to a picture on the inloughborough website of the Morley factory from the canal towpath taken in 1968. And below are some pictures of the 3M Factory today:

Approaching from Leicester along the canal towpath

From the canal towpath

Bridge Number 38, 3M to the right

Looking up from the towpath

Looking along the building from the towpath

The frontage onto Nottingham Road

A view from the opposite side of the towpath

The chimney from the opposite side towpath

From the opposite side towpath

Anyway, that's enough from me for one day!!

See you next week!

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). Morley's. [Online] Available from: http://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/morleys.html [Accessed 16 October 2016]