Loughborough, Market Place c.1965
Photo ref: L197101X
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Photo ref: L197101X
Photo of Loughborough, Market Place c.1965

More about this scene

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.

A Selection of Memories from Loughborough

For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our website to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was, prompted by the photographs in our archive. Here are some from Loughborough

Sparked a Memory for you?

If this has sparked a memory, why not share it here?

My father would take me to watch the Brush football team play at home matches, one of my relatives played for them; his name was Stan Hodges. The ground was behind the Queens Park, I remember a narrow foot to the entrance where it opened out, near the turnstile to get into the ground. Years later it was closed and a leisure centre was put in its place.
This was a wonderful delicatessen (although it would have described itself as "general provisions" or something like that, It had huge cheeses and whole sides of smoked pork and giant hams in the window. It had a unique smell - a mixture of spices, coffee, smoked meat and cheese. NO modern deli comes anywhere near it - apart possibly from Volpetti in Testaccio, Rome.
In my final year at Mountfields we were led up to the swimming baths in a long crocodile to be taught how to swim, if we couldn't already. I'd just about learnt to swim the previous summer holiday in Wales, but it felt much easier (& a lot warmer) in the swimming pool. The changing areas were quite primitive. Some of us used to go swimming here on Wednesday afternoon when I was at Loughborough Grammar School (when we worked Saturday mornings, but not Wednesday afternoons).
Clemersons was a great toy and model shop. I used to go in the 60s upstairs to their model section.