U is for Ursula

Looking back through the blog, I can see I’ve already written about Unity House and some of the people and things associated with it (like Gertrude Mary Hutton, Dr Corcoran, and the British Restaurant) many posts about the university, and some posts about Unitarians, which also made an appearance in one of my virtual walks. I also noticed that two of my guest bloggers have been named Ursula!!

Ursula Ackrill is a librarian at the University of Nottingham, working in the Manuscripts and Special Collections area, which is based on the Kings Meadow campus. Ursula’s guest post focused on John Cleveland, a Loughborough poet who was born in 1613. 

My own work with Ursula was on the Loughborough parish library, a collection of books used by the Reverend James Bickham, and left by him to the parish. This was an interesting project which led to me writing many blogposts about the Reverend Bickham, his home, and his library!!

Ursula has given talks on Reverend Bickham’s library, and on parish libraries in our areas, and is currently a committee member of the Loughborough Archaeological and Historical Society, and can sometimes be found down at the Old Rectory on a Saturday during the building’s open season. 

The guest post which Ursula Davis wrote for this blog, was back in the early days of the lockdown in 2020. Ursula was a student at Loughborough University at the time, so it was very interesting to read about what strategies she had for keeping well – both physically and mentally – during that unprecedented situation. Absolutely fascinating to see how the chance to slow down, to stay local really helped with an appreciation of all that Loughborough and its surroundings have to offer – like Burleigh Woods, the old railway lines, Charnwood Water, Queen’s Park and so much more!

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This post is one in a series of posts for the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). U is for Ursula. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/u-is-for-ursula.html  [Accessed 24 April 2024]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

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If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

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You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

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Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

T is for Trees

Well, who’d have thought I’d struggle so much to find you a suitable entry for letter ‘T’?!

So, I’ve plumped for trees! I love trees! I love to photograph trees! I don’t like that tree pollen sets off my hayfever!

Last year I was lucky enough to visit Woolsthorpe Manor, which is where Isaac Newton used to live, and see his apple tree! Even more thrilling was seeing the little cutting off that tree growing on the Loughborough University campus!

Always having known the Cedar of Lebanon outside the old library on the university campus, it’s only relatively recently that I’ve started to notice trees of the same type in the estate of stately homes, but also around Loughborough. Of course, now I’m trying to remember where I’ve seen them, I can’t!! Except the one in the garden of 55 Park Road, and, of course, outside the Cedars at the end of Cedar Road!

 

There are lots of other places in Loughborough to see trees, like in Queen's Park, along Granby Street and Albert Promenade, along Burton Walks, or maybe if you like water too, down at Charnwood Water?

Going out of Loughborough just a little way – why not walk there? – there are plenty of trees to be seen in The Outwoods, or in the Jubilee Woods, or even on Beacon Hill, and if you’re lucky, there might be a willow sculpture event on!

In my book ‘A-Z of Loughborough’ I did manage to talk about trees – oak trees specifically – under the letter ‘Q’ for Quercus! I see I’ve already shared this entry on the blog, only put it under ‘A’ for Acorns! 

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This post is one in a series of posts for the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). T is for Trees. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/t-is-for-trees.html  [Accessed 23 April 2024]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

S is for Swan

Talking to someone the other day, they wondered why there were a lot of swans in Melton Mowbray. I must admit, I wasn’t sure if they were talking about real, live swans, or some other kind of swan, but whichever it was, it got me to thinking about swans in Loughborough!

A couple of really obvious ones, are the real ones that can be seen on the canal, or down at Charnwood Water, or the little pond adjacent to the Tuckers clay pit off Forest Road, called Swan Lake.

Then there’s the swans that give their name to something. So, Swanns Funeral Services on Bridge Street was established in 1892. Then, we’ve got Swan Street, which joins High Street and runs towards Derby Road, via The Rushes. On one of the maps I’ve seen, The Rushes was identified as being called West Street. I can only assume that these street names came from the knowledge that the area was frequently flooded?

Of course, along The Rushes, we also have a pub called the Swan-in-The-Rushes, but it hasn’t always been called this. Previously the pub was known as the Charnwood Forest Railway Inn, then became the Charnwood Inn when the old building was demolished and the new one built in 1931-2. It wasn’t until 1986 that the name changed again, to the Swan-in-The-Rushes.

But this wasn’t the first pub in Loughborough to have the word Swan in its name. In 1831, there appears to have been a new building with a yard built on Wellington Street, which was being used as a public house called the White Swan, and had been recently occupied by George Slater. This advert appeared in the Leicester Journal and Midlands County Advertiser of 10th June 1831. This new building must have replaced an older building which was also used as a pub, but called the Black Swan. Apparently, the White Swan closed in 1959.

On my recent travels, I have seen both White Swan and a Black Swan in Melton Mowbray, and the Three Swans at Market Harborough, all of which had lovely 3D signs!

  

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This is one of a series of posts in the ‘April A-Z Blogging Challenge’

 

 

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). S is for Swan. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/s-is-for-swan.html  [Accessed 22 April 2024]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Ladybird at the Museum

Today I’ve been out on the allotment helping to keep in good shape, and make sure it produces lots of lovely fruit and veg! While I was there, doing a bit of weeding, I spotted a ladybird – and that got me thinking about Ladybird Books!!

I remember going to an exhibition in Leicester Museum and Art Gallery a few years ago, and our own Charnwood Museum has a Ladybird Corner, and has hosted some dedicated exhibitions, as has the local public library. So, it seems like Leicestershire are showcasing Ladybird Books across several of its museums.

I believe Melton Carnegie Museum are also going to feature Ladybird Books in a forthcoming exhibition. This will run from 4th May to 14th September 2024, and will focus on the series Well-Loved Tales. This is s0sre to be an interesting exhibition, and Melton Museum is worth a visit to see its other exhibitions which tell the story of Melton and its surrounding area.

I think the Ladybird Books exhibition at Market Harborough Museum has been and gone, but there is to soon be an exhibition in the community showcase featuring books from the At Work series, and the People Who Help Us series, and the responses of people who live in Market Harborough and around about.

Both Charnwood Museum and Melton Carnegie Museum also have a community showcase: Charnwood’s is called the Spotlight Case, and is currently hosting an exhibition called m’Other Voices. Melton’s is currently about the Observer Corps., but from May will be focussed on the battalions of paratroopers who were stationed in and around Melton Mowbray ahead of Operation Market Garden, which took place in September 1944. Some units of the 82nd Airbourne Parachute Regiment were also billeted near Melton, and in Rutland, as well as being in Quorn.

Anyway I hope you get to have a look around the museums in other parts of the county as they are well worth the trip, especially as the themes are often cahnging!

From the Ladybird exhibition at Market Harborough

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2024). Ladybird At the Museum. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/04/ladybird-at-museum.html [Accessed 21 April 2024]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne