East Leake, Leicestershire

Loughborough - A History & Celebration

Just by way of a little more variety, Bill has been director of Birmingham’s Christmas light switch-on, and directed a large performance by school children at the Millennium Dome as well as performances for 10,000 children.

Loughborough - A History & Celebration

There also used to be a lake on what is now the site of the school’s sports hall. Just over 100 years ago the school caught fire and the waters of the lake were used to douse the flames. Fire was not the only threat. Some Victorian Loughburians do not appear to have been particularly well behaved. Vandalism to the trees in Burton Walks became such a problem that, at the governors’ request, a police officer patrolled the area on Sundays and a reward was offered for information as to the miscreants. Loughborough Grammar School has gone from strength to strength. It has grown in size as well as in reputation. Collectively, there is now a ‘family’ of schools - the Grammar School itself, the High School and Fairfield, and the pupils of Loughborough Endowed Schools, as they are known, remain a familiar sight in the town. When Colgrove arrived in 1876, there were just eight members of the teaching staff. Today they number in the dozens. The social links between the school and the town are also strong, with open-air concerts and firework displays amongst popular shared attractions. Loughborough students are probably no more given to bad language than those of other universities. They are nonetheless frequently known to refer to ‘the Bastard’. This is not a description of a particularly difficult assignment but of a very distinctive part of the campus. The Ashby Road entrance to the university lies through a wide stone archway with gates bearing the institution’s coat-of-arms. These are the Bastard Gates, named after the man who donated the money for their erection, William Bastard. He was chair of the college governors and a man whose courage is confirmed by the fact he never changed his name. Step through these gates and you enter a scene with an almost theatrical sense of what a university is believed to look like. Nearby, physically proclaiming Loughborough’s credentials in engineering innovation and technological advance, stands one of James Watt’s steam- driven beam engines.

Loughborough - A History & Celebration

Barclays Bank’s Dutch gable in Market Place gave way to concrete. Woolworths moved across the Market to occupy larger premises and in so doing swept away the 19th-century frontage of Keightleys which, amongst many other things, sold agricultural equipment.