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Loughborough - A History & CelebrationSelected extracts and photosReturn to Book | Search for another Book | View all photos for Loughborough | Loughborough homepage |
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 Loughborough, the Rushes Precinct 2005 (ref. L197708k) | 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. |  Add your own Memory Add to your Album |
 Loughborough, the Market Place c1955 (ref. L197020x) | 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. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, Market Street 1949 (ref. L197028x) | Clemersons, the town's one and only department store, had started in the mid 19th century as an ironmongers. It grew both in physical size - occupying a rabbit warren of connected shops on the corner of Cattle Market and Market Street - and in its range of goods. Furniture sales (as well as storage and removals), glass, carpets, china and toys were all part of Clemersons' stock-in-trade. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, Market Place c1965 (ref. L197095) | In the 1920s the future looked very bright for Loughborough, but the Depression of the 1930s came as a cruel blow to the town. Loughburians are, however, very resilient; time after time they have recovered from periods of great adversity, both natural and man-made. They have reinvented themselves and their town in a new and positive way. Continuity has gone hand-in-hand with those changes. Loughborough University is at the cutting edge of science and technology yet, at the same time, it has a high reputation in sports that themselves stretch back to the ancient world of the original Olympic Games. Whilst some aspects of the town alter in the blink of an eye, others have a remarkable constancy. There has, for example, been a garage on the same site in Leicester Road since 1923 in the early days of popular motoring. An older Loughborough is still to be seen today. Look up from Loughborough's modern shop frontages and you will see another age in the windows, brick and stone of the buildings. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, Market Place c1965 (ref. L197101x) | In the 1920s the future looked very bright for Loughborough, but the Depression of the 1930s came as a cruel blow to the town. Loughburians are, however, very resilient; time after time they have recovered from periods of great adversity, both natural and man-made. They have reinvented themselves and their town in a new and positive way. Continuity has gone hand-in-hand with those changes. Loughborough University is at the cutting edge of science and technology yet, at the same time, it has a high reputation in sports that themselves stretch back to the ancient world of the original Olympic Games. Whilst some aspects of the town alter in the blink of an eye, others have a remarkable constancy. There has, for example, been a garage on the same site in Leicester Road since 1923 in the early days of popular motoring. An older Loughborough is still to be seen today. Look up from Loughborough's modern shop frontages and you will see another age in the windows, brick and stone of the buildings. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, view from the Town Hall 2005 (ref. L197704k) | There have been attempts through the years to move the fair out of the streets but this would lessen its unique appeal. A ride called the 'Galloping Pigs' once appeared in the Cattle Market, perhaps emphasising the link with a market town. There has been a fair in Loughborough for nearly 800 years. When King Henry III granted the original charter for the holding of markets and fairs in Loughborough, there were to be two fairs, but now the one in November is the sole survivor. It enjoys a special place in the showmen's calendar because it is, by tradition, the end of the travelling season. For three days, the town is filled with multi-coloured lights, the mingled smells of diesel fuel and frying onions and the screams of those who were delighted to be scared on the ferocious rides. Ah, tradition is a great thing! (Author's Collection) The fanfare is sounded, and the charter granting the fair is read from the balcony of the town hall by the mayor of the borough. By tradition the mayor also arranges for free rides for children from one of the local schools as a part of the ceremony. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, Baxter Gate c1950 (ref. L197006) | The arrival of motor traffic in Loughborough in considerable numbers meant that the town's centuries-old narrow streets were no longer sufficient to accommodate the volume of cars and lorries. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, Pinfold Gate c1965 (ref. L197104) | Cars remained a relative luxury in the 1930s and most people either travelled by public transport or used a bicycle. Cycling became a very popular way for many people to leave the workaday world behind and go out into the countryside. Reid's offered a wide choice at modest and affordable prices. The changes did not, fortunately, lead to a bland uniformity in the way in which the town appeared. Denhams the jewellers has retained its flamboyant, Byzantine-style mosaics. Changing the face of the town was not always done with sensitivity for the surroundings. The High Street building now partly occupied by Argos and Barnado's was designed in the 1960s as a Co-Operative department store. Its stark, rather brutalist concrete shape now proclaims the modern architecture of its time. The shops themselves were changing. Some retained a traditional aspect. 'Johnny' Marrs was a Loughborough institution. The shop, with a wonderful period frontage right to the last, was the pawnbrokers, where local people could 'pop' or pawn anything of value to raise a little hard-needed cash. So far as is known, no one ever tried to 'pop' a weasel but Mr Marr, who was Mayor of Loughborough three times, would no doubt at least have considered its worth. Multiple stores entered the town in the shape of Woolworths. Originally, nothing in Woolworths' stores cost more than 6d (2.5p). It is evidence of the town's growth that a chain store should have come here so early in its own development. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, the Swimming Baths c1955 (ref. L197052) | Before the opening of the swimming baths, the townspeople had only the open-air pool in Moor Lane. That was certainly well used, sometimes by as many as 1,000 people. The council let fresh water flow in once a week. This pool was once the venue for what must have been a spectacular and potentially hazardous swimming race, which was for local police officers. They swam wearing full uniform, including helmets and hob-nailed boots! Some local villains probably went to watch, hoping the local constabulary would be reduced in numbers. Others, no doubt, took the opportunity of police absence to pursue their illegal activities. Although Queen's Park is now the only public park within the town, some very senior Loughburians will remember Burleigh Brook Park on Ashby Road. This was for many years the most popular venue for Sunday school treats and other social outings. It was frequently known as 'Tickle Belly Park' and its many and varied attractions included a lake with boats shaped like swans, an alpine railway and a shooting range. There was also a roller-skating rink, facilities for a range of sports and catering - 'plain tea, meat tea or first class tea' could be provided. This park closed in 1924 when the land was sold. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, Cattle Market 1949 (ref. L197021) | TODAY THE RUSHES seems just a busy stretch of road linking the town centre to the main road to Derby. However, it was here that Loughborough first experienced the horrifying face of modern war. By 1916, Loughburians had already seen many of the town's young men march away to the mud and death of the trenches of the First World War. On the night of 31 January, Loughborough found itself on the front line of that war. There were no anti-air raid precautions. Large, German hydrogen-filled airships were making bombing raids on England but Loughborough was thought to be out of range. New acetylene lights were shining out on Leicester Road. Lights were also blazing at the Theatre Royal in Market Street and at the Empire cinema in the Cattle Market. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, Alan Moss Road c1955 (ref. L197036x) | Bastert was capable of acts of considerable kindness. Finding that one employee was walking ten miles to work due to money problems, Bastert paid the man's train fare. The Morris family lived locally and arranged parties there for all their employees. Cricket matches, sports of all kinds, dancing and a band concert were only some of these occasions. As many as 1,500 people - employees, their wives and children - were invited to these occasions. Barrels of ale, roast beef and cakes were provided, with the Morris family helping to serve the guests. By 1910 Morris cranes were in use all over the world. The catalogue for its products ran to almost 500 pages. Cranes of up to 50 tons were produced. In the years before the outbreak of war in 1914 and during the war itself the company's products were in great demand. The company also built up an important connection with Loughborough College School, the link between practical technology and education being a strong thread running through the story of Loughborough. This association between factory and school produced a supply of reliable recruitment for the company and a training ground for the engineers of the future. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, Town Centre c1965 (ref. L197096) | There was even a bomb plot! The Chartists held meetings behind the Unicorn Hotel and on one occasion a crude explosive device was found there. Fortunately, it was not detonated but it shows how serious matters were. After 1848, Chartism died away but politics continued to be fuel for Loughborough's lawlessness. Despite all the disorder, Loughborough's ratepayers petitioned that the 'new' full- time police should not be stationed in Loughborough. They said it was because there was little crime and adequate watchmen but really they did not want the additional expense of the police. Consequently, the police only came to Loughborough eight years after most of the rest of Leicestershire. Custody facilities were also bad and the 'house of correction' attracted complaints of severe overcrowding. However, it took 20 years before the first police station was built, in Woodgate. The imposing entrance doors were designed so that drunken Loughburians could be pushed straight through the doors on wheeled trolleys and tipped straight into the waiting arms of the station sergeant. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, High Street c1955 (ref. L197008x) | Whilst the open fields still surrounded Loughborough the town could not expand; later they were enclosed by law and the pattern of small fields emerged. The great hunting parks remained, although partly used for farming. Woolcombing and framework knitting became the principal industries in Loughborough. Hundreds were employed in Paget's 'manufactory' but most people worked at home or in small frame shops. Yet the town was still under the control of the one - Hastings - family. The Hastings family owned the majority of the land and hundreds of properties in Loughborough. The Boot, the Royal George, the Rose and Crown, the Unicorn, the Bull's Head, the Griffin and the Black Horse were all a part of the Hastings' extensive grip on the town. But the family needed cash to invest in the new coalfields. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, Emmanuel Church c1950 (ref. L197018) | John Heathcoat and John Boden had a factory in Mill Street (now Market Street) making lace by powered machinery. This mill became the focus of the lacemakers' pent up anger in 1816. Heathcoat seems to have expected trouble. He had armed watchmen and some special constables at the mill. The intending attackers spent much of the day in the Duke of York on Nottingham Road, drinking and singing revolutionary songs. Unsurprisingly, they attracted a certain amount of attention. By midnight, the drunken and rowdy attackers had assembled on the corner of Green Close Lane, making no attempt at stealth. They kidnapped one woman they encountered and ordered another to blow out her candle before they blew out her brains! At the mill, shots were exchanged, resulting in a watchman being wounded. The gang overpowered the other watchmen and factory workers and then smashed over 50 machines. Strangely, they wanted to shake hands with the wounded watchman before they left but it is not clear whether in fact they did so. The gang escaped via the ferry at Zouch but forgot to remove the blacking used to disguise their faces. The alarmed ferryman remembered them and the leader, James Towle, was arrested shortly afterwards. He was tried and executed in Nottingham; six more of the attackers were later hanged in Leicester. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, All Saints Parish Church c1950 (ref. L197013) | In the 19th century the church was heavily 'restored and improved in a hearty manner' by Sir George Gilbert Scott, a nationally famous architect, but the building still retains its medieval appearance. Close by is Loughborough's Manor House, now a hotel and restaurant. Whilst the main fabric of the present building is known to date from the 16th century, there is internal evidence in the roof beams and fireplaces, and in the large use of timber on one of the external walls, of a much earlier house. Fire was an ever-present danger with so many premises built from wood. Disease, specifically bubonic plague - the Black Death, carried by the fleas on black rats - killed between a third and a half of the population of England in the 14th century. It gets its name from causing abscesses which turn black. Bad weather and poor harvests may well have left the local people with little resistance to the virulence of the plague. Conditions in Loughborough helped to spread plague. Much of the town was either marshy or near to standing water. Garendon Abbey records five outbreaks in and around Loughborough in the 14th century. The worst epidemic is described as 'the Great Pestilence'. No one knows how many died, but the little community was doubtless affected as badly as most others. Many survivors saw the epidemic as the Judgement of God upon the world. The face of England would never be the same again and the plague would return to haunt Loughborough many more times. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, Church Gate c1955 (ref. L197001) | The characteristics of a real country market town were being established. A handsome stone church was built, originally dedicated to St Peter and St Paul but later to All Saints. There was a guildhall and a manor house, a weekly market and twice- yearly fairs. The splendour of the church reflects the comparative wealth of medieval Loughborough from wool production. Loughborough's guildhall, sometimes described as the 'Great House', continues to be a familiar landmark. For many years it has been the premises of Charles Lowe's furniture and antiques business. It is believed that Henry VII stayed here in the 1480s. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, Baxter Gate c1950 (ref. L197002x) | ALL SAINTS' CHURCH ZZZ04971 (Author's Collection) Much of the prosperity of Loughborough was built on sheep farming and the export of wool to France and Flanders where it was made into cloth. This dependence on the wool trade is recalled in the coats of arms above the door of All Saints' tower. They depict the arms of Ralph Lemyngton, who was a prosperous wool merchant, and the Staple of Calais, the French port to which most wool was sent. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, c1955 (ref. L197060x) | Towards the north-west lies the mound of Beacon Hill. The earliest origins of Loughborough may be here. No one can truly say when man first settled in this area, but there was certainly an Iron Age settlement at Beacon Hill c400 BC. Even today, when the bracken on the Beacon dies down in the autumn, the terraces tilled by farmers of long ago can still be seen. Iron Age smiths forged tools and weapons here. Corn was ground in stone 'querns' made from the rock to be found at nearby Quorndon, a name meaning 'hill of the querns'. Industry, technology, commerce and agriculture all came early to this area and found a home here. The oldest rocks in Britain have been found locally. The very name Charnwood comes from 'caern', the Celtic for 'rock'. The river valley of the Soar lies to the south of Loughborough. Water, and waterpower, have played important roles in the founding and development of Loughborough. Northwards the ground rises a little towards Burleigh. Did the Romans ever find their way to this corner of Leicestershire? As yet, there are clues but no conclusive evidence of Roman occupation. When the Romans left Britain, the Saxons arrived. They were experts at 'reading' the landscape to discover the best places to settle. That skill was essential because the survival of the whole group depended on it. The first essentials were water and a place which could be defended against enemies. The Saxons found both at Loughborough. Gravel deposits meant the existence of clean, fresh water. Rising ground gave a lookout and a natural fortress. The alarm could be sounded from Toot Hill if enemies were sighted. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
 Loughborough, c1955 (ref. L197056) | MANY MORE people know the name of Loughborough than know the town itself, or even where it is. That name is read, said and rings out across the world. Loughborough is unique. It is a small market town in the East Midlands of England, yet it has a university with an international reputation for excellence in sciences and sports. It is home to the largest bell foundry in the world. For generations, children in every corner of the globe have seen the words 'Ladybird Books, Loughborough, England' on the brightly coloured books which helped to shape their lives. Cranes and hoists, some of giant size, designed and built in Loughborough have been employed from the docks of New Jersey to the shipyards of Korea. Turbines, trams and transporters have all been made at the Falcon Works of the strangely named 'Brush' Electrical Company. If you visit Loughborough, the evidence for this wealth of industry and knowledge is not easily seen. Far less apparent still is the long and often turbulent past of the town. I approached the writing of this book with some trepidation. There are, already, many books about Loughborough from the seriously academic to the purely anecdotal. The difficulty in the end was not what to include, but what to leave out. The choices, and the faults, are the writer's, but, if your favourite place or story is missing, there will hopefully still be much to enjoy. Many famous and noble families were involved in Loughborough's past - De Spensers and Beaumonts, Herricks and Hastingses and, most poignant of all, Lady Jane Grey, litter the past of Loughborough. Many of them came to a sad and savage end. The town lies next to the wild landscape of Charnwood Forest, is surrounded by ancient hunting parks and was, for centuries, 'owned' by one family. It may appear a quiet place to the casual observer, but Loughborough hides a fascinating story just under that placid surface. | Add your own MemoryAdd to your Album |
