About the Earl of Moira's sale, and the forthcoming exhibition at the library ...
Down at the
Local and Family History Centre in the public library on Granby Street, the
Local Studies group have put together a fantastic exhibition about a fascinating
period in the history of Loughborough.
In the early
1800s, much of the town was owned by the Earl of Moira, but in 1808 he decided to
sell up, and had several sales in 1809-10! These sales changed the ownership of
many buildings and land in the town, and I believe the Lordship of Loughborough
passed to Thomas Denning upon the death of the Earl of Moira in 1826.
 |
| An item from the library shelves |
Since writing
about the Earl of Moira’s sale for ‘Secret Loughborough’ all catalogues for the
three separate sales have emerged, and an extract from ‘Secret Loughborough’ about the Earl of Moira is reproduced below.
Many of the
public houses, inns, taverns, coaching houses etc. that I researched and
included in a forthcoming book [1], ‘Loughborough pubs’ were sold during the Earl’s
first sale, in November 1809. Today, many of these premises are owned by large
companies who own properties across the country, but some are still locally
owned, although the actual buildings may have been demolished and re-built, for
example, the Bell Foundry on Swan Street.
 |
| Saracen's Head, now the Bell Foundry, in 2017 |
And of the houses that were sold in
1809-10, many no longer exist, but much of the land sold has since been built
on. Although many of today's residential properties in Loughborough are owned by
private individuals, there do seem to be many owned by a few local companies.
So, here's that extract from ‘Secret
Loughborough’:
"Francis
Rawdon Hastings (1754-1826) was the Earl of Moira from 1793-1816. He took the
surname Hastings as decreed by his uncle, the Tenth Earl of Huntingdon, thus
becoming the Marquess of Hastings at the end of 1816. It was in 1809 that the
Earl of Moira had his great sale of lands, dwellings and properties in
Loughborough.
The
Earl of Moira owned land across the country, but at a time of economic
expansion realised the potential value in exploring coal mining in the area of
his properties in North West Leicestershire. Loughborough was becoming
increasingly prosperous, and the Earl thought that by selling much of his land
and buildings here he could raise the money needed, as burgeoning prosperity meant
people would be able to afford to buy them.
However,
personal circumstances dictated that the only way for the Earl to be able to
effect such sales was by putting forward a private members bill to parliament.
The Earl of Moira’s Act of 2 July 1808 was successful, and his properties
auctioned at the Bull’s Head Inn on High Street, in late 1809 and January 1810 [there
were actually three sales: shops, pubs, cottages and gardens on 14, 15, 16, and
17 November 1809; mostly land and building ground on 23, 24, and 25 January
1810; and a wider variety (including the worsted and corn mills, arable, meadow,
pasture and building land) on 9, 10, and 11 May 1810] Many of the properties were already leased
out to the people who bought them, and the sales particulars are a great source
of information about the town, for example, the people who were using the
properties, their occupations and where the properties were situated.
Lot
51, a house and yard on Sparrow Hill, occupied at the time of the sale by the
architect Christopher Staveley who had worked on the nearby Old Rectory around
1800, was bought by Staveley for £75. Lots 154-157 in Market Place were several
shops - a glover’s, a hatter’s, a grocer’s, a drapers. Lot 162, the Griffin
pub, was situated on Bear Place, today known as Ashby Square. The street we now
know as Market Street was in 1809 known as Maltmill Lane, with a brook running
across it as mentioned in Lot 150, and outbuildings and a yard backing onto it
from Market Place as described in Lot 151.
The
scale of this sale was so successful that the Earl of Moira was able to develop
the coalfields of North West Leicestershire, and the village of Moira therein,
is named in his honour."
Do make sure you pop in to see the exhibition in the library, which runs from 9 January to 27 February 2023!
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Notes
[1] Manuscript written and submitted May 2021, due for publication November 2023.
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posted by lynneaboutloughborough
With apologies for typos which are all mine!
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