Great Oxendon

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.
An extract from from"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.
An extract from from"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.
An extract from from"Loughborough - A History & Celebration".

The name of Thomas Burton will forever be strongly linked to the story of the grammar school but his claim to that association is rather tenuous. In fact, the rise of the grammar school and the end of Garendon Abbey came about at approximately the same time. When Henry VIII closed down the monasteries, he usually confiscated the land and money that they held. Wealthy men like Burton set aside money in their wills for priests to pray for the salvation of their souls. Burton’s bequest escaped the king’s confiscation thanks to three local men. One of them was Burton’s own relative, Ralph Lemyngton. They diverted the money so that it was used for educational purposes. The school continues to acknowledge its gratitude to Lemyngton by using his coat-of-arms as its distinctive red and white badge. It was only several hundred years later, when a new stone was carved for Thomas Burton’s grave that he was mentioned as the benefactor and founder of the grammar school. The original inscription for the tombstone is unknown. (By kind permission of Loughborough Grammar School Archives) School uniform had not been introduced when this photograph was taken and the variety of pupils’ dress ranges from straw boaters to tweed suits.
An extract from from"Loughborough - A History & Celebration".

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.
An extract from from"Loughborough - A History & Celebration".