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Books > Leicestershire Villages Photographic Memories
Castle Donington, High Street c1955 (ref. C430011) | The leafy High Street rises away from
the village to become the main road
to Ashby-de-la-Zouch. In this
peaceful scene, the fact that the
village has a longstanding domestic
industry tradition in framework
knitting and basket making is not
immediately apparent. In medieval
times the town also supported the
Hospital of St John the Evangelist,
founded in 1189 for a chaplain and
twelve poor people. To the right is the
only visible building earlier than the
19th century, with its large timber-
framed panels of the late 16th
century. Further up the hill is Key
House, a timber-framed building of
some architectural merit, dated 1636.
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Castle Donington, Borough Street c1955 (ref. C430006) | In the far north-west of
the county, and almost
in Derbyshire, this
village must deserve
small town status.
The rare dedication of
the parish church to
St Edward King and
Martyr gives a valuable
clue to its pre-
Conquest origins,
referring as it does to
the young King Edward
who was murdered in
978 at the age of 16 by
his brother Aethelred's
supporters. The
photographer stood
with his back to the
impressive medieval
castle motte to look
across The Hollow into
Borough Street and the
town, with its excellent
array of mainly
18th-century and
earlier buildings.
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Castle Donington, the Methodist Church c1955 (ref. C430013) | Situated in Market Street and close to Apiary Gate,
the church design echoes that of Non-conformist
chapels up and down the country. It was designed in
1905 by Albert Edward Lambert in standard red
brick Gothic style, as opposed to the Art Nouveau of
his contemporary George Baines. A local architect,
Lambert was quite versatile, designing the Albert
Hall Methodist Mission in Nottingham (1909) in the
form of a music hall, and Nottingham's Midland
Station in a fashionable Edwardian manner.
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Kegworth, Ashby Road c1965 (ref. K139016) | Ashby Road becomes the High Street at the crossroads (centre); to the left is Packington Hill,
and to the right Broadhill Road. Beyond the crossroads is the old village, with its three-
storey, flat-fronted late 18th-century houses, while towards the camera the quality of the
secondary layer of houses, including those of the 1930s on the right, deteriorates.
A proliferation of television aerials never enhances the skyline.
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Kegworth, St Andrew's Church c1965 (ref. K139039) | Dragwell, adjacent to A R Tarlton's
chemist's shop (left), runs between
Derby Road and Nottingham Road
on the north side of the church,
which stands prominently above
the River Soar. It is said that the
building, an almost perfect
example of mid 14th-century work,
was financed by Judge Sir Henry
Greene, lord of the manor. The
church is built of a grey sandstone;
the scraping of the interior has left
it somewhat dull, but relieved by
the royal arms dated 1684 above
the chancel arch. The church was
restored in 1861 by Sheffield
architect Joseph Mitchell.
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Kegworth, High Street c1960 (ref. K139005) | The camera looks east down the High
Street, which opens onto Church
Gate and Derby Road. Kegworth's
origins lay in its medieval weekly
market and annual fair. The arrival of
framework knitters heralded a dour
expansion of red brick housing and
hosiery factories, but some nice
examples of vernacular architecture
are to be found in the village. In the
photograph, a butcher's shop front
(left) with its rather flimsy canopy has
been built into a rather good 17th-
century cottage. Further on towards
the parish church are a selection of
early 19th-century houses, matched
on the opposite side of the road by a
later three-storey brick terrace.
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Measham, The School c1965 (ref. M234008) | In the mid to late 1950s, this pattern of school
building was springing up everywhere. The standard
plan puts the main entrance up two steps, with the
assembly hall on the left under a low pitched roof,
the boiler chimney in the middle, and classrooms to
the right. Most of the building is under a flat roof,
which doubtless very soon began to leak! Dustbins
arranged along the front of the building might today
be considered a health hazard. The Singer saloon
and its counterpart, the Hillman Hunter, were two
of the popular family saloons of the decade.
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Measham, Car Auctions Ltd c1965 (ref. M234013) | Basically a colliery village, Measham
owes a small debt to businessman John
Wilkes (1732-1805), who built
warehouses by the canal as a
distribution outlet and manufactured
his own oversized bricks, known as
'Wilkes Gobs', in his local brickworks.
His bricks were his reply to Government
proposals to tax bricks after the costly
War of American Independence in 1782.
His warehouses survive, and so does part
of his brickworks, and a single building
from his cotton mill also survives in the
car auction complex. Interestingly, the
building was an outpost of cotton mills
at Burton and Fazeley in Staffordshire,
owned by the family of Prime Minister
Sir Robert Peel. The car auctions were a
magnet to young drivers from miles
around looking for a good bargain.
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Measham, Magna Motors c1965 (ref. M234014) | This is not a beautiful scene, but some effort has been put into designing the brick boundary wall, flagpoles and railings.
Behind is the car park for the cars to come under the hammer, and the fully mechanised tuning, repairing, and testing
service of Magna Motors.
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Ab Kettleby, St James' Church c1955 (ref. A357039) | On the exposed Wolds, the
ironstone church is situated on
the south side of the village street,
away from the main A606
Nottingham to Stamford road.
Here, in a relatively elaborate
tomb, lies Everard Digby, who died
in 1628, namesake of Sir Everard,
who was executed for his part in
the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. The
weathered stonework of the church
is mainly of the 13th century, with
a later very elegant spire, all over-
restored in 1852 by local builders
Broadbent & Hawley.
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Anstey, Pack Horse Bridge c1960 (ref. A312004) | On the south-east side of the village the five-arch stone bridge, perhaps of the 16th century, steps quietly across the very
reedy Rotherby Brook. The view looks south-east towards the newly aligned A46 trunk road, with all its speed and noise.
This was the original roadway into the village, now reduced in stature to a footpath, as the road now crosses the water to its
north. This is a rather romantic monument to the past.
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Anstey, Bradgate Road c1965 (ref. A312011) | The view shows the centre of Anstey,
as the road drops down from the
heights of Bradgate Park, enclosed
out of Charnwood Forest c1200 as a
hunting park. It was the birthplace
of Lady Jane Grey, the ill-fated nine-
days' queen, who was executed aged
17 in the Tower of London in 1554,
the innocent victim of family
ambitions. Much red brick building
of the 19th century intruded into the
village scene as industry spread
from Leicester, including the
impressive backdrop of factory
buildings we see here. The village
does retain some vestiges of its less
recent past in a small collection of
timber-framed houses.
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Asfordby, Dalgliesh Way c1965 (ref. A211018) | Dalgleish Way is part
of the later 1950s and
early 1960s village
expansion. We are
looking towards Mill
Lane, with
comfortable but
typically uninspired
housing of a sort to be
found on the edge of
many Leicestershire
towns and villages.
Although lacking
hedges and trees, the
gardens are maturing
behind fences and
dwarf walls. The local
council has already
made a start on
digging up the road
and footpaths.
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Asfordby, All Saints' Church and the Rectory c1955 (ref. A211009) | This wonderful photograph could be used
to illustrate any romantic 19th-century
novel. At the end of Church Lane to the
west of All Saints' Church the base of a
medieval cross survives with its new shaft
and head of the 1920s. Inside the church,
remnants of a carved Saxon cross
depicting a dragon and a priest are built
into the south aisle. The building is
impressive: tower and crocketed spire is
15th-century, while the body is of the
14th century. Some reused Norman
stones survive in what appears to be a
small Easter Sepulchre. The red brick
rectory dates from about 1810.
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Barrow Upon Soar, High Street c1965 (ref. B514028) | The camera looks
north-south along the
High Street as it
crosses the Leicester to
Nottingham railway,
and at a not
unattractive group of
houses and shops
ranging in date from
the 18th century to
modern. The modern
intrusions, such as
Kinsell's electrical shop
and the adjacent post
office (left), do little to
enhance the group.
Surviving K6 telephone
kiosks (left) are now of
historic interest, being
designed by Sir Giles
Gilbert Scott in 1935,
based on the tomb of
architect Sir John
Soane at St Giles-in-
the-Fields (1616).
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Barrow Upon Soar, the Bridge c1960 (ref. B514005) | The cows are lying down, a sure sign of rain, the old saying goes, but whether this is true or false they add a picturesque
finishing touch to a watery scene. Situated about 8 miles north of Leicester, by Domesday 'Barhou' was settled. Today, it is
the river and the lime works which are the village's most valuable assets. The lime produced here is considered to be of the
finest quality.
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Barrow Upon Soar, High Street and the Village Sign c1965 (ref. B514025) | This traffic island at the south end of the High Street, with its random stone walling, double yellow lines, and Festival of
Britain-style sign, somehow epitomises a rather unlovely village. Even the church of Holy Trinity, masked here by the
foreground tree, was built in forbidding Mountsorrel granite c1865 by Derbyshire architects, Stevens & Robinson. Internally,
there is a mid 17th-century monument to Theophilus Cave in the chancel, and one from the mid l8th century to Martha
Utber in the south transept.
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Barrow Upon Soar, the River c1955 (ref. B514003) | For many years the river at
Barrow has possessed a
watery magnetism which
has drawn people from the
city to its banks on warm
summer days, either to
enjoy a picnic, or to venture
onto the water in a variety
of craft. It is regrettable that
in our increasingly litigious
21st century, where a
stubbed toe or a sprained
ankle can cost boat hire
firms dear in compensation,
simple boating pleasures
may be slowly but surely
drawing to a close.
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Belvoir Castle, 1890 (ref. 27852) | Here is a wonderfully atmospheric
shot, typical of the best of late
19th-century photography,
illustrating the beautiful view
from which Belvoir derives its
name. The castle was first
recorded in 1130 as Beleder; the
building seen today is a
remodelling in yellow ironstone
by architect James Wyatt in 1801
for the 5th Duchess of Rutland.
Beyond the thick wooded cover,
the more open land of the deer
park is corrugated by the medieval
ridge and furrow of open field
cultivation. In the foreground, the
cottages are roofed in attractive
pantiles, a common material in
this part of the county.
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