Lynne About Loughborough

Saturday, 6 April 2024

F is for fire!

Fire is such a dreadful thing. It can cause death and injury to people, as well as devastation to buildings and their surroundings. Over the years there have been very many fires in and around Loughborough, some of which are well-known and have been well-documented. It wouldn’t be possible for me to research, list, and describe them all, so here are just a few.

Back in 2010, I wrote a post about disasters in Loughborough, which focussed mainly on listing the fires and plagues that took hold of Loughborough from about 1622 to 1999. In the very early days, buildings made of wood and roofed with thatch would have easily caught fire, and these would have spread quickly to surrounding buildings. Here’s a link to that post.

At one time there was a Co-op on Wood Gate. In 1884, there was a fire in the building, and this post looks at the effect of that fire on the shop manager. Luckily the building survived and is now a Chinese restaurant.

Who could forget that in March 2023, Loughborough’s HSBC in Market Place caught fire, and extensive damage was done not only to the bank but also to the adjoining Town Hall. This fire was one reason for the clock on the front of the Town Hall stoppingat 5.10pm!

Back in 1936, not long after the Odeon, latterly Beacon Bingo, had opened, under the management of Clarence George Starkey, there was a fire. You can read a bit about what happened in this blog post;

In 1939 there was a fire at the garage of the Art Deco Co-op on Derby Road

There was again a fire in Wood Gate, at the Lecture Rooms belonging to the Baptist church, in 1930.

As I mentioned above, I cannot possibly cover them all, so I am sorry not to have mentioned the fire at the Caldwell factory on Church Gate, the fire at the Adorna factory in Swan Street, and so many, many others.

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This post is one in a series of posts in the 2024 'Blogging from A-Z April Challenge'.

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I'm not sure if the below will work, but if you use this blog in web mode, rather than mobile mode, you will see a set of hyperlinked tags down the right-hand side. These are taken from those tags that begin with 'F', although, as I say, I'm not sure if they will work as hyperlinks.

Fab Friday (1) facing bricks (1) factory (1) fair (17) Fair 800th (7) fair charter (1) Fairfield (1) Fairground (2) Fairground rides (3) Fairground rides.Sockman (1) Fairmount Drive (1) Falcon Works (1) fallen (1) Falmouth (1) farm open days (1) farming (3) Farnham (1) Father Vincent (1) Fats Sam's (1) favourites (1) Fearon Fountain (10) Fearon Hall (8) Fearon Street (3) Fenian (1) Fennel Street (5) Festival of Britain (2) Festival Players (1) Field House (4) Fielding Johnson building (1) fieldwalking (1) fire (3) Fire Brigade (1) fire service (1) fire station (1) First World War (1) Fishguard (1) fishing (1) Fishpool Head (1) Fisons (2) flappers (1) floods (1) Florence Mary Goodman (1) flying boats (1) folklore (1) Football (1) footpaths (2) Forest Canal (1) Forest Green Belt (1) Forest Rise (1) Forest Road (6) Foresters (1) Forge Mill Needle Museum (2) fountain (1) fountains (1) fox (1) Fox Hunter (1) framework knitters (2) Frances Louisa Eddowes (1) Frances Scott (1) Francis Beaumont (1) Franz Stabbert (1) Frederic Stubbs (1) Freeman of the Borough (1) Freeman of the Borough of Charnwood (1) Freeman of the Borough of Loughborough (2) Freemasons (4) Freemen (1) front garden (1) fundraising (1)

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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.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). F is for fire. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/f-is-for-fire.html [Accessed 6 April 2024]

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Friday, 5 April 2024

E is for Eagle

So, for my letter 'E' I'm sharing an easy puzzle with you!!

In 1864, the licence of a Loughborough pub was transferred from John Henson to Harry Harridge, who had come from the Griffin on Ashby Square, where he had been the landlord since leaving the Rose and Crown on Baxter Gate in 1852. Harridge decided to change the name of the pub he took over in 1864, which thence became The Eagle Inn.

The new name endured through the time of landlords, James Lord, William Webster, Charles Fisher, John Henry Walker, and Frank Sykes. In 1935 Mrs Annie Sykes, the current licensee, transferred the licence of the Eagle Inn to Mrs Gent. There was no danger at this changeover, of another name change, but rather there was a danger that the pub might close altogether! The brewers, James Eadie Ltd., proposed to transfer the licence of the Eagle Inn to an expected new pub on the recently built Holt estate. Luckily, the transfer didn’t take place, as the proposal to build the pub was turned down. The new pub would, however, later be built on the corner of Holt Drive and Forest Road, and be called the Forest Gate, now the Toby Carvery.

And so, the licence for the Eagle Inn transferred to Mrs Gent, and during her time at the pub the premises was used as the location for the sale of various animals, ranging from goats, through ponies, to puppies! There then followed several more licence transfers ... and another change of name!

Don't be misled by the photograph, which includes two local hostelries, but only one of these used to be called the Eagle Inn!

You can find out more about the Eagle Inn, and its other names, prior to 1864, and post 1958, in ‘Loughborough Pubs’!

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This post is part of a series in the April A-Z Blogging Challenge!

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). E is for Eagle. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/e-is-for-eagle.html [Accessed 5 April 2024]

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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

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Lynne

Thursday, 4 April 2024

D is for Domesday

One of the oldest written records of Loughborough is the entry in the Domesday Book of 1086. Of course, over the years there have been many variations of the spelling of the town's name (as indeed there still are today!) so the Domesday entry refers to Lucteburne.

If I've understood it correctly, the above transcription of the Domesday Book entry for Loughborough suggests that Loughborough has a population of about 39 households, which is actually a record of the head of the household, so by the time you add in a wife, and offspring, that means there were probably about 180-200 people living in Loughborough. When compared with other settlements, this means Loughborough falls within the largest 20%.

Further, there are 8 villagers; 15 freemen, and 16 smallholders. Ploughland is 5 lord's plough teams, and 12.5 men's plough teams. There are 45 acres of meadowland, and woodland of 7 furlongs long, by 3 furlongs wide. There are two mills, valued at 10 shillings.

In 1086, there were about eighteen towns with a population of over 2,000, and around 112 smaller towns. Thinking of Loughborough's 39 households, here's the number of households in some other places, as a comparison:

Dishley 47; Barrow-on-Soar 8; Hathern 14; Rothley 23; Shepshed 76; Ashby-de-la-Zouch 21; Hinckley 69; Leicester 71; Nottingham 165, and Birmingham only 9!

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This post is one in a series of posts in the 2024 'Blogging from A-Z April challenge'

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). D is for Domesday. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/d-is-for-domesday.html [Accessed 4 April 2024]

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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

Wednesday, 3 April 2024

C is for Canal mile markers

If you know Loughborough at all, you might have expected me to write about our unique Carillon for the April Blogging A-Z Challenge, but I have written extensively about this on the blog, and the most recent post was only in February this year – but well worth a read if you missed it!!

Or, I might have written about the Corcoran family – a local doctor, his son, and his two daughters, the latter being active Suffragettes – but again, I’ve already shared their story with you!

So, instead, I am writing about our canal! I could have shared a walk along the canal with you, or a trip on a narrow boat, but instead, I am sharing our canal markers …

A selection of mile markers from the canals across our region that I have seen

If you know our canals at all, you’ll know that we are lucky enough to have a fabulous stretch of canal running through our lovely town, but you’ll probably also have noticed that we don’t have any mile markers! So, why am I writing about them, you ask? Well, years ago, I’m supposing we did have some!

When our Grand Union canal towards the Trent was built in 1778, and called at the time the Loughborough Navigation after its founders, the Loughborough Navigation Company, it was apparently the most profitable waterway in Britain. At the time, the canal would not have been the tranquil place we know today, frequented only by holidaymakers and day trippers, walkers and cyclists, but would have been dirty, smelly, noisy, and a hive of activity. Barges would have been transporting goods like coal, from one place to another – the quickest and easiest way, before the coming of the railways, and the improved roads that we know today.

The Loughborough Navigation began in what is today called Loughborough Basin, close to the road junction of Bridge Street, and The Rushes. The Leicester Navigation came about 20 years later, and ran from the Chain Bridge, which is on the right-hand side just after you come out of the basin, to Leicester and beyond.

Rather like the turnpike roads that required a traveller to pay a toll to use them, some of which was used to maintain the routes, the people using the canal also had to pay a toll for their use. In order to help both the bargees and the toll keepers know what the charge would be, (which was based on distance travelled and weight of cargo), mile markers were installed along the routes. And this is why they show the distances between places, rather than being used for directional help.

The Chain Bridge was once a bridge with a chain across it. This was to ensure that bargees didn’t pass from the Loughborough to the Leicester Navigation (or vice versa) without first paying the toll, as these canals were maintained by different companies, so some of the money paid in tolls would go towards the upkeep of the canal.

The two tollhouses on the Loughborough Navigation were situated at what we now call Loughborough Lock (referred to by a local history expert as the Thorpe Fields or Town Lock), and just beyond the Chain Bridge. I would imagine (meaning, I don’t know for sure) that the properties that are still in those two locations are likely to be the original lock-and-tollkeepers cottages. So, there were sure to have been mile markers along our canal.

Of course, the term ‘mile markers’ is in some cases a misnomer as many existing mile markers that I’ve seen include quarter miles as well! There is a good example of this in the Melton Carnegie Museum. The marker came from the Melton Navigation at Ratcliffe-on-the-Wreak, which had been canalised in 1797, and is a branch off the Leicester Navigation.

During World War Two, the mile markers along the Melton Navigation were removed as part of the government’s plan to make it more difficult for any enemy invaders to find their way around the country, in a similar way that road signs were removed. It is also possible that as the mile markers were likely to be cast iron, they may have been melted down to aid the production of aeroplanes like Spitfires and Hurricanes, or to make parts for ships and submarines, or ammunition like ‘pineapple’ grenades and firearms.

One wonders if the mile markers on the Loughborough and Leicester Navigations were also of cast iron, and thus removed during World War two? However, it is known that concrete mile markers were installed in 1939, and were placed at half-mile intervals along the towpath, from the mouth of the River Soar, near Trent Lock. These markers were apparently made in Loughborough, so perhaps it is safe to assume that they were placed on the route into as well as out of Loughborough. Come to think of it, I believe I’ve seen one along our canal somewhere, possibly under the Great Central Railway bridge. The next time I walk along the canal I will take a photograph to share with you!

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This post is part of a series in the 2024 ‘Blogging from A to Z April Challenge’.

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Canal mile markers. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/canal-mile-markers.html [Accessed 3 April 2024]

Take down policy:

External Links:

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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

Tuesday, 2 April 2024

B is for Brooks

Just recently I've found myself discussing Loughborough's brooks with a few different friends. We have very many brooks in Loughborough; you could probably say we were awash with them (except that the Wash is in East Anglia, I think!). The brooks and their tributaries are one, among many of the reasons Loughborough is prone to flooding.

These are some of the brooks in Loughborough, or on the edge of Loughborough:

The Black Brook; this is the biggest of Loughborough’s brooks, and it flows from nearby Shepshed into the River Soar. It was built to feed the Charnwood Forest Canal in 1796, and a dam made from earthwork was created, but failed in 1799. The brook was later dammed successfully in 1906. The brook passes along by Morrisons, and through the Garendon Estate.

Black Brook Reservoir

The Burleigh Brook; this runs along Ashby Road, besides the site of the university, and some arms of the brook actually run through the campus. There was once a pond approximately where Cotswold Close is now, which was known as Burleigh Brook Park, or Tickle Belly Park. The brook passes under the Ashby Road and Garendon Road, and then runs alongside Alan Moss Road, and joins the Wood Brook close to the fire station and Loughborough hospital at the end of Epinal Way. Together the Burleigh Brook and the Wood Brook pass under the canal, right across to close to Bishop Meadow Lock, where they meet the Summerpool Brook, before then joining the River Soar, which itself then joins the canal.

The Grammar School Brook; this brook is relatively short and runs parallel with Shelthorpe Road, crosses under the Leicester Road, under and around the area around Tuckers Road, and then under the canal, close to the Peter Le Marchant moorings, to join the Hermitage Brook.

The Hermitage Brook; this is joined by the Grammar School Brook, and together they join the River Soar, where it runs parallel to Stanford Lane.

The Summerpool Brook; this appears to start at the Meadows, close to the Adey Steel factory, and is joined by the Wood Brook, and together they flow into the River Soar, before they all join the canal.

The Willow Brook; the route of the Willow Brook is very much harder to find! It is around and on the opposite side of the derby Road, where the Willow Brook Retail Park is now, and where the Willow Brook Coach Works was previously. I’ve written a bit more about this in ‘A-Z of Loughborough’, published in 2021.

The Wood Brook; this brook is probably the best known in Loughborough and joins with another brook around the bottom of Valley Road, then runs parallel to Forest Road, alongside the Home Farm sports field, across Outwoods Drive, through the Forest Green Belt, down the middle of Forest Road, skirts the leisure centre, passes the Queen’s Park entrance gates at New Street, crosses under Granby Street, then under Market Street, alongside Brookside, under The Rushes, alongside the canal, then under Jubilee Drive, and out towards the River Soar, close to Bishop Meadow lock, where it is joined by the Summerpool Brook!

As brooks in Loughborough are so important, there have been a number of streets named to reflect our brooks. These include:

Beck Crescent

Brook Lane

Brookside

Brookside Road

Summerpool Road

Woodbrook Road

Woodbrook Way (footpath)

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This post is part of a series in the 2024 ‘Blogging from A to Z April Challenge’.

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). B is for Brooks. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/b-is-for-brooks.html [Accessed 2 April 2024]

Take down policy:

External Links:

Blog archive and tags:

Searching the blog:

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

Lynne About Loughborough

Pages

Saturday, 6 April 2024

F is for fire!

Friday, 5 April 2024

E is for Eagle

Thursday, 4 April 2024

D is for Domesday

Wednesday, 3 April 2024

C is for Canal mile markers

Tuesday, 2 April 2024

B is for Brooks

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