Travel – UK – Loughborough

This is an excerpt from my book Travels through History : Leicester, Lichfield, Lincoln, and Loughborough currently available at a discount.

The Charnwood Museum is a free attraction and gives a lovely overview of the Borough of Charnwood. This borough covers 100 square miles and came into existence after local government restructuring in 1974. In May 1982, someone told a curator of the museum about a shop that had been boarded up for 20 years in the village of Belton a few miles from Loughborough. Some of what the curator found in that shop – a true time capsule of products – are now on display in one corner of the museum. The last owner of the shop had been a J Gilbert, Baker & Grocer, Tea Dealer & Provision Merchant, and a Dealer in Patent Medicines. Some products on display included Thompson’s Dandelion Coffee, Colman’s Mustard, Hudson’s Dry Soap, Colman’s Starch, and Lambert & Butler’s Waverley Mixture. I wondered whether the Dandelion Coffee would have counted as a patent medicine.

Next door to the time capsule shop is a small exhibition dedicated to Ladybird books, produced in Loughborough between 1916 and 1998. The books displayed included a swimming manual in the Arabic language (it didn’t look waterproof), British Birds and their Nests, and a book called Tootles the Taxi. I used to have a copy of the birds book and I wondered what had happened to it. My favourite was a book called Bangers & Mash Eggs is Eggs with cartoons by the wonderful artist Ed McLachlan, who was born in nearby Leicester.

Opposite Ladybird was the trunk of a large oak, made into a chair for Beaumanor house in 1690. Founded in the 13th Century, King James I’s jeweller William Herrick purchased this hunting estate in 1595. The family lived here for over 300 years. Another local house, Rothley Court, mentioned in the Domesday Book, was owned by the Knights Templar for a period. This information was part of a timeline showing how people would have lived in Charnwood from the iron age via the Romans to the Norman invasion and beyond. There was also a “rot or not?” quiz. If 10 items were buried in a Leicestershire field for a thousand years which ones would survive? The action man would survive, the leather jacket would not (apart from the zip), and the only part of the paper money that wouldn’t rot is the silver strip.

There were features about the church of St Mary, Wymeswold and Mount St Bernard Abbey both in Charnwood Borough plus an overview of the present day beliefs found in the locality; these included Brahma Kumaris, Baha’i, Jain and Druid. There was even a pagan chalice next to a book of Mormon.

In the Charnwood Gallery were stories regarding the role Loughborough played in the first world war producing Brush aircraft and being bombed by a Zeppelin on January 31st, 1916. This raid killed 10 civilians and injured a further 12. This story surprised me as I thought Zeppelins bombed only certain eastern coastal towns. The next story in the gallery was about Songster, a war horse who served during WWI. In 1920, the Leicestershire Yeomanry were marching past the field where Songster was enjoying the peace. Allegedly, the horse jumped a 5-foot fence to get closer to the soldiers, who then brought him along to their camp. The same thing happened every year whenever the yeomanry marched past until 1936. Songster received a Mons Star Victory Medal for his bravery during WWI.

Outside the museum it’s hard not to see the Carillon Tower & War Memorial built after WW1 to commemorate the men of the town who gave their lives. It is the only purpose-built carillon tower in Britain. On the way to the tower be sure not to miss the bell case of Great Paul, the largest ringing bell in Britain which hangs in St Paul’s Cathedral in London. This bell weighs 17 tons and was cast at the Taylor’s foundry in Loughborough. They had to extend the foundry to build an extra furnace to produce the molten metal required to create Great Paul.