Powerflush nearby to Loughborough
Loughborough is a market town in Leicestershire, England, and the home of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. Its population of 59,933 in the 2011 census was estimated to be 67,956 in 2019, making it the county’s second largest settlement. It is near the Nottinghamshire border and only a short drive from Leicester, Nottingham, East Midlands Airport, and Derby. It is home to the world’s largest bell foundry, John Taylor Bellfounders, which produced bells for the Carillon War Memorial, a landmark in the town’s Queens Park, of Great Paul for St Paul’s Cathedral, and of York Minster.
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HISTORY
Medieval
Loughborough was first mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 as “Loughburne.” It appeared as Loughburga in a charter from Henry II’s reign, and as Loughburc in the Pipe Rolls of 1186. The name derives from the phrase “Lough’s borough or fortified place.”
Industrialisation
The first signs of industrialisation in the district appeared in the early nineteenth century, when John Heathcoat, a Derbyshire inventor, patented in 1809 an improvement to the warp loom known as the twisted lace machine, which allowed the production of mitts with a lace-like appearance.
Heathcoat, in collaboration with Nottingham manufacturer Charles Lacy, relocated his business to Hathern, just outside Loughborough. This “Loughborough machine’s” output became known as English net or bobbinet. However, in 1816, the factory was attacked by Luddites who were thought to be paid by Nottingham competitors, and 55 frames were destroyed. This prompted Heathcoat to relocate his company to a decommissioned woollen mill in Tiverton, Devon.
In 1888, a charter of incorporation was obtained, allowing for the election of a mayor and corporation. In the ten years that followed, the population grew from 11,000 to 25,000.
Among the factories established were Robert Taylor’s bell foundry, John Taylor & Co, and the Falcon Works, which produced steam locomotives before being taken over by Brush Electrical Machines. Herbert Morris established a factory in the Empress Works in Moor Lane in 1897, which grew to become one of the leading crane manufacturers by the mid-twentieth century.
A new sewage works was built in 1895, followed by a waterworks in Blackbrook and a power station in Bridge Street in 1899. In 1900, the corporation purchased the Loughborough Gas Company.
Tourism In 1841, Thomas Cook organised the first package tour for a temperance group from Leicester, and Loughborough was the destination.
History of the present
Loughborough gained new suburbs as it expanded in the twentieth century. Thorpe Acre, located to the north-west of Loughborough, was a hamlet of about twenty houses until the mid-twentieth century. A 19th-century church – All Saints Church, Thorpe Acre with Dishley, built in 1845 and extended in 1968 – and a pub, The Plough Inn, are among the earlier survivors. The population is counted in Charnwood Council’s Loughborough–Garendon Ward. Many of the roads in the area are named after poets. Following WWII, some of Thorpe Acre was developed further, primarily in the 1950s for Brush Engineering Works employees, with 100 dwellings constructed of no-fines concrete. Thorpe Acre gained a new estate that absorbed the old village in the 1960s and early 1970s. Two of Loughborough’s secondary schools, Charnwood College and De Lisle College, are within its boundaries, as is Garendon Park, an 18th-century deer park. The original Dishley, off Derby Road, was heavily developed in the 1970s, along with Thorpe Acre. Dishley Church on Derby Road is no longer standing. There is a memorial to the agriculturalist Robert Bakewell (1726–1795).
Shelthorpe and its surrounding area are new suburbs in Loughborough’s southwestern outskirts. The original Shelthorpe began construction in 1929, but was halted by World War II and resumed in 1946. The town centre of Shelthorpe has a variety of shops, including a Tesco Extra, which is likely Loughborough’s largest supermarket.
The estates on Hazel Road and Fairmeadows Way to the west of Shelthorpe and to the south of the university were built in the 1970s. They run from Holywell Drive all the way to Hazel Road. Rainbows Hospice, a children’s hospice, and Woodbrook Vale Secondary School are located on the outskirts of the suburb. They were followed by the Haddon Way estates to the south, and then by Grange Park, just south of Shelthorpe and north-west of the hamlet of Woodthorpe, whose construction began in 2006 following the completion of Terry Yardley Way to One Ash Roundabout, the final phase of Loughborough’s A6004 ring road.
A planning application by William Davis Homes to build 30 new homes drew criticism in 2018 from residents who claimed they had been promised public amenities such as shops and a place of worship but were instead living on “a construction site”; the site was originally intended to house shops, a church, a community centre, and a health centre. Despite the criticism, the plans were approved by Charnwood Borough Council. The majority of the housing schemes in the area have been completed; however, Willowbrook, a 33-home development, has begun, and plans for another 120-home development to the east of Woodthorpe have been registered.
Persimmon Homes and William Davis Homes unveiled plans for 3,200 new homes on Garendon Park as part of the West of Loughborough Sustainable Urban Extension in 2013. In 2018, these were approved. On the A512, a new roundabout is being built to connect the new development to the north with a new Science and Enterprise Park to the south. The A512 between M1 Junction 23 and Snells Nook Lane is being widened.
