Ruddington Fields to the Bridge to the Future - the Betwixtmus Train!

Ruddington Fields almost to the Bridge to the Future - the Betwixtmus Train!

Well, I thought I was in for a quiet Christmas, but no, actually it's been incredibly busy!

Today is my usual day for sharing something about Loughborough with you, so how opportune that I happened to have travelled on the Great Central Railway this morning! Not the usual trip from Loughborough Central to Leicester North, via Quron & Woodhouse, and Rothley, but rather from Ruddington Fields, in the Rushcliffe Country Park, through Rushcliffe Halt at the Nottingham end of East Leake, all the way to what the heightened railway bridge over the A60 by The Brush in Loughborough - not quite as far as what I still call the Bridge to the Future, which is closer to the civic amenity site!

I can't wait for the day when the line is totally joined up, and the journey will run all the way from Rushcliffe to Leicester North!!

I've been to Rushcliffe Country Park many times before, mostly for children to play in the park, or to wander around the lake. I was also there on Christmas Day this year, for the parkrun - no, I didn't run, I was there to support those who were running!!! I have stood on the bridge over the railway many times before, also, but had not realised that actually down in the station there was also a collection of old buses, a model railway, a miniature railway, and a very miniature railway, and a cafe!!! I can see I will have difficulty staying away now!!!!

Here's a few photos of my journey. Some pictures didn't come out well, as they were taken from the train, through the windows!

The start of the journey, at Ruddington Fields

Rushcliffe Halt at East Leake, next to British Gypsum

Arriving at the recently heightened bridge over the A60

The return journey

Back at Ruddington Fields

 

      

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

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). Ruddington Fields almost to the Bridge to the Future - the Betwixtmus Train! Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/12/ruddington-fields-to-br  [Accessed 29 December 2024]

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Q is for Q 30541

In ‘Loughborough A-Z’ for the entry under letter ‘Q’ I chose to write about Charles Quastel, the head of the Spiritualist movement who came and opened Loughborough’s Spiritualist church on Steeple Row in the 1960s; the Queen’s Anniversary Prize, which our university has won numerous times; Quercus Petraea, because we in Loughborough are surrounded by these oak trees, and the Quorn Hunt, because so many of Loughborough’s gentry were part of this.

So, for today’s Q I contemplated writing about a local family going by the surname Quail, but eventually decided to appeal to the railway enthusiasts, by writing – very briefly – about the Q class locomotive, most especially Q 541, also known as Q 30541.

Apparently, the Q class was designed by Richard Maunsell, and was actually his last design. Q 541 was built in 1939 at Eastleigh for Southern Railway, and began its life at Guildford, but only stayed there for 8 years, before being moved to Three Bridges, which I believe is in Crawley. The railways were nationalised in 1948, following The Transport Act of 1947, and Q 541 was re-numbered to Q 30541.

In 1953 the loco moved briefly to Stewarts Lane in Battersea, before spending the next 10 years in Bournemouth. In 1963 it moved back to Guildford, after a few months in Basingstoke, but its life in it the place of its original home was short-lived as the engine was withdrawn in late 1964, and found itself at the scrapyard in Barry.

I don’t know what happened to it for 8 years, but in 1973 it was bought by a group of enthusiasts, and restoration took place at an engineering factory in Gloucestershire. Once some of the work was completed, the loco moved to the Bluebell line in Sussex, where restoration was continued, and finally completed in 1983. It was re-numbered with its original 541 number, and painted in Southern Railways black as it had been originally.

Sorry if I’m preaching to the converted, but railway locomotives have a kind of MOT test for engines, which once issued last for 10 years, after which the engine has to be fully overhauled, a process which can take some time, and indeed this is what happened next to Q 541. Withdrawn for its 10-year overhaul in 1992, it actually took 22 years until the engine was ready to run again, and in 2015, painted in BR black and numbered 30541, it returned to service on the Blubell Line.

So, what exactly does this have to do with Loughborough, other than the fact that we have the wonderful Great Central Railway in our town? Well, Q 30541 has paid many visits to other railways across the country, like Nene Valley, Severn Valley, and Mid-Hants, and on 4th and 5th February 2017 the engine visited Loughborough! As far as I know it was returned safely, but is now again subject to an overhaul.

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

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

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). Q is for Q 30541. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/q-is-for-q-30541.html [Accessed 19 April 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Finding Loughborough connections in London!

Last weekend I was very lucky indeed, as I spent a few days wondering around London, something I hadn't done for a very long time. I was thrilled to happen upon some direct Loughborough connections, like products made in Loughborough, and some less direct ones, of course!!

Super to see that Loughborough is trendy! There were numerous buildings in London that were being renovated and refurbished, and it seems a covering with a building facade photographed onto it is the new way to hide what's going on, and to look appealing rather than having the traditional hoarding. You can see this in Loughborough town centre, surrounding the HSBC in Market Place. Since the blog post about changes in the town centre was written, the base of the surrounding of our HSBC is now painted with leaves!

Like all cities, towns, villages, and probably hamlets, London has a selection of telephone kiosks dotted around the city. Many are still operating as telephones, some are a little unloved, one which had a perforated, rather than a solid gold crown on the top (below, bottom right), and, of course, those in the city of London are painted black rather than red! You can read about Loughborough's Grade II listed K6 kiosk in an earlier blogpost. 

Likewise, it comes as no surprise to find that London has letter boxes! We passed very many of these, and there were an amazing number of double ones. I've written loads of posts about Loughborough's letter boxes, which you can find at Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Burton Street box; and Unusual and unreal boxes!

I must admit I was hugely surprised by the number of clocks I saw in London, mostly on the sides or fronts of buildings! One of these reminded me so much of our town hall clock!

On a related topic, in the London Transport Museum, I spotted rather lovely pocket watch - sorry, the photo really doesn't do it justice - which reminded me about one of Loughborough's watch and clock makers - Frederick Stubbs. 

As you'd expect, there were all types of vehicles in the transport museum - like sedan chairs, stagecoaches, trams, trolleybuses, buses, underground trains, steam trains, charabancs - but surprisingly, I couldn't find a single Brush body! 

In another museum, there was a poster from the time of the First World War, which helped the person on the street to identify specific aircraft. One of these was the Zeppelin, and I was reminded about the attack on Loughborough on the night of January 31st 1916, about which I've written numerous blogposts, and shared a virtual walk. 

I've only written briefly on this blog about the Freemasons Hall in Loughborough, which is on Orchard Street, in a building that used to be a congregational chapel. It is quite, quite different from the one in London (which although you can't see it in the photograph, does actually have a clock above the entrance).

As in Loughborough, drain covers bearing the name of their makers were also in evidence in London! This is just one example of the hundreds we saw, and examples of ones in Loughborough are on this blogpost.

Goodness me, it's already time to share this post with you, and all I've managed to do so far is share some of the more generic things with you! Pop back to the blog next week, for some direct Loughborough connections - books, bricks, perfumes, and pharmaceuticals!

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

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). Finding Loughborough connections in London. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/03/finding-loughborough-connections-in.html [Accessed 24 March 2024]

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.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Loughborough and Shugborough

Another exciting week goes by and this time I'm out at the Shugborough Estate, a National Trust property that was once home of the Anson family, and one of their most notable descendants, photographer Patrick Lichfield.

I've never been to Shugborough before, so I was quite looking forward to the trip, and on the journey there I realised how similar were the names Shugborough and Loughborough! Apparently, I'm not the only person who has thought about this, as back in 2011 after her visit to Shugborough, a lady called Katy considered the sometimes bizarre pronunciation associated with English place-names, and quoted Loughborough and Shugborough as examples.  

Idly wandering around the grounds of this magnificent estate, I did actually wonder if I was going to find any connections at all with Loughborough ... but I did, and almost as soon as I entered the grounds, for there were a couple of beautiful long-horned cows, reminding me of the work of Robert Bakewell on the Dishley estate between Loughborough and Hathern. The sheep, however, were most definitely not the Leicester Longwool descendants! Just a quick reminder at this point that Loughborough public library has a Bakewell display on until the end of April!

The house itself was rather splendid, and the servants quarters reminded me of visits I'd made a while ago to Belton House in Lincolnshire, Belvoir Castle and also to the Workhouse at Southwell.

A further connection between Loughborough and Shugborough, which I found after I returned home, in a book called "Follies of Leicestershire & Rutland" are the follies on the Garendon Estate and those at Shugborough. Sir Ambrose Phillipps owned the Garendon Estate, between Loughborough and Shepshed, from 1829-1837. As a direct result of his 'grand tour' of Italy he became a member of the Society of Dilettanti. The author, Gwyn Headley, compares the monuments at Shugborough, created by James "Athenian" Stuart, a fellow member of the Society who was sponsored by the Society to study the remains of classical Greek civilisation in Athens, with those by Phillipps. Shugborough has a shepherd's monument with columns by Stuart, a Doric temple made of coade stone, also by Stuart, a triumphal arch and a structure called the Tower of the Winds, both by Stuart, and a Lanthorn of Demosthenes. As we know, Garendon has the Temple of Venus, modeled on the Temple of Sybil in Tivoli and the triumphal arch emulating the Roman arch of Titus. 

   
Interestingly, in another book, one called "Divergent paths: family histories of Irish emigrants in Britain, 1820-1920" there is an interesting story of the Giltrap family. Henry Giltrap, born in 1827, came to England in about 1846-7, where he and his brother John joined the Staffordshire police and Henry became a railway policeman. He lived about 3/4s mile from the Shugborough Estate, until moving to work at a signal box the other end of the Shugborough Tunnel in Milford, where he stayed for about 12 years. Here he operated the signal box and the level crossing on what was a busy stretch of railway. One of Henry and his wife Ann's sons, also called Henry (born 1850) worked his way up the railway from being a goods clerk to station master, which involved a move first to Llanberis, than to Abergele, but later left the railways to work for the Singer Sewing Machine Company in London. One of the other sons, William, born in 1851, became a footman at Shugborough Hall, where he married a nursery maid and was promoted to butler. After his death, his wife became a dresser to Queen Alexandra at the Sandringham Estate. 

Back to Henry the elder. By 1880 the signal work was getting a bit too much for Henry, so the LNWR moved him to a quieter location, where on 16 April 1883 Henry signalled the first trains into the new Charnwood Forest Railway, Loughborough. After his wife died in 1888, Henry moved to 145 Paget Street where he lodged with the family of a fellow railway worker, clerk Charles Atkinson. Retiring in 1895, Henry moved to live with another of his sons, Thomas in Lancashire, where he died in 1902.

And, back in Shugborough, at the far end of the grounds was a stunning stone bridge which led to another bridge, the latter which went over the canal. Just beyond this was the railway line, which, unlike Loughborough's, was electrified.

What I also hadn't realised until I actually went into the apartments was that Patrick Lichfield had lived here. And what a set of apartments they were too! Dressed in 1950s-1970s style and with his photographs adorning the walls, his personality was plain to see. Now, I've always known this photographer as Patrick Lichfield, but on this visit to Shugborough I discovered that he was actually Thomas Patrick John Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield, and was a descendant of the Anson family of Shugborough. A distant relative was George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, a former First Lord of the Admiralty. Apparently, there have been 7 ships named after Anson, and Horatio Nelson wrote the following letter to William Marsden of the Admiralty:

"Victory in Gibraltar Bay, July 21st 1805 Sir, I herewith transmit you, for the information of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, a copy of an Acting-Order, which I have given to Mr. John Chrystie, Midshipman of the Victory. to act as Lieutenant of his Majesty's Ship Guerrier, in the room of Lieutenant William Tiller, invalided. Mr. Chrystie is an Admiralty recommendation, and received a severe wound in his left cheek in an action between Anson [the ship] and La Loire [a ship], by having a musket-ball shot thorugh it. He is also a very deserving young man. I am, Sir, &c. Nelson and Bronte"

I think the connection here is that the memorial to Nelson in Trafalgar Square was created by WIlliam Railton who was also responsible for some of the lodges to the Garendon Estates, as well as for Beaumanor Hall. 

Further connections to Loughborough include the jewellery maker, Jane Moore, who studied at Loughborough College of Art and Design and has exhibited her work at Shugborough. A couple of artists from Staffordshire, or who have displayed in Staffordshire, who studied at Loughborough also include Sally Matthews and Jonathan Mulvaney.

Older connections include some entries in The Monthly Magazine on 1st August 1817 (Vol.44, No.301) all appearing on page 90, where it is reported that "At Loughborough, Lieut. Land, late of the Devonshire-militia married Miss Susannah Harley; Mrs Spittlehouse of Loughborough, aged 39, died; and Mr Kent of Shugborough married Mrs Allen of Radford-bridge, Berkswich."

If I think of any more connections, I'll be sure to let you know!!!

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 and Shugborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/03/loughborough-and-shugborough.html

[Accessed 31 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

Trains rhododendrons and peace!

Another exciting week in the Loughborough area, but one that is tinged with a bit of sadness and regret. Every time I talk to friends, or meet someone new, or happen upon another interesting book, I learn more about our lovely town, and I wish I'd started learning earlier! It doesn't matter how much you know, or how much research you do, there will always be a million and one things you don't know. Sad isn't really the way to describe it, I suppose, but it is sad when each of us knows such a lot, but that knowledge remains implicit, and we take it to the grave with us.

Oh dear, that sounds a bit morbid, but was brought home to me on a trip to Ulverscroft Grange, to donate some "stuff" to the charity shop. The model railway room was open, so I eagerly popped in to have a look and marvel at the workmanship and dedication that went into creating this model. I've mentioned before (although I simply can't find the post at the moment), about David Clarke and the Shuttlewood Clarke Foundation up at Ulverscroft Grange, and the work of his charity. So, talking to one of the volunteers it seems that when the model railway was moved to Ulverscroft, it was expected to take about 3 years to get it back up and running, but, since much of the knowledge associated with it wasn't written down anywhere, but was in the heads of people no longer with us, it actually took 10 years to rebuild. Hmmm ...

A small part of the model train layout

Also whilst I was there I took a buggy ride! Now, I've looked longingly at the buggies before, but had not considered they might be for me. When I pop to Ulverscroft, I walk the footpath until it meets the road, and then I turn round and walk back along the same path. Two, what I would consider to be very good reasons for this: i) I have absolutely no sense of direction, so if I turn a few corners I'm likely to end up lost, so if I'm on my own, I usually go one way and then retrace my steps (I do this in both town and countryside!) and ii) to cross the road would take me to Ulverscroft Manor, and the signs at the beginning of the driveway advise you it's private, so, not being one for trespassing, I'd always assumed you couldn't enter!

The path I normally walk down

Seeing the buggy advertising rides to see the rhododendrons (I absolutely love these flowers), I decided to ask if I could join the trip - and to my joy, it was a yes! Oh, and it was fabulous! The driver didn't think I was mad, and in fact said that he encouraged people to take the buggy ride first, so that when they then went to walk around the grounds they had a good idea of where they were allowed to go and how to get there and what they might see!! He was a kindly soul who also paused the buggy when he saw cameras coming out!! And, he was very knowledgeable, telling us all about the estate, the woods, the wildlife, the events and the house. 

Our knowledgable guide!

The house itself is gorgeous, and was built around 1830 for Thomas Pares of the Leicestershire Banking family, who lived there until his death in around 1867, when the estate was bought by the Lillingston family, who lived there until about 1944. After this the estate passed through a number of owners, being an equestrian centre immediately before being purchased by David Clarke in 1990. 

The house

The lodge

The buggy driver told us that a couple of important stained glass windows had been found and these were now in the Stained Glass Museum in Ely, a museum I tried to visit in March this year, but which was closed on the very day I went along. So, now I know I must re-visit!

When I got home, I had a look for that blog post I thought I'd written about Ulverscroft before, but had no luck finding it. What I did find, however, was a mention of the Lillingston family in a post I wrote about Loughborough's own Dr Eddowes ... !

Anyway, here's a few more pictures of Ulverscroft on what started out as a misty and noisy day, but ended in bright sunshine and peace and tranquillity:

Misty morning

Doing some work on part of the garden

In the woods

In the woods

In the woods

Rhododendrons and the yurt

Through the buggy window

Back at the Grange

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). Trains, rhododendrons and peace. Available from:https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2018/06/trains-rhododendrons-and-peace.html       [Accessed 3 June 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