A fantastic little book this - Jane's letters, with observations on social life, the state of the roads, the practices of the parish church and much else - add insights into a village now completely different to the one she knew. Pretty much the only building left from her time is the church. 🗃️

Thornton is also one of the Leicestershire places our first group of volunteer history researchers will be investigating as part of a project funded by Charnwood Forest Geopark and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. More at www.charnwoodforest.org/new-local-hi... @vch-home.bsky.social

Victorian Entertainment. On this day in 1865, in this Sunday school room in #Loughborough, the Revd C.C. Coe read Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol 'without intermission for two hours'. (British Newspaper Archive) #localhistory @vch-home.bsky.social

Our latest Newsletter is now available to download. See leicestershirehistory.co.uk?page_id=3681 Find out more about our new project in the Charnwood Forest Geopark area (and thanks to them and to National Lottery for funding this).

A great blog from @ihr.bsky.social director, @clairelanghamer.bsky.social advocating 'History by Doing', bridging the gaps between the histories of people and places where we live, and work and those universities teach/research and delve into: they're all one. 🗃️ You want examples? A short 🧵

#Talk: 'From Nation to Local: Re-Discovering England’s Places through #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems'. What happens to our understanding of the nation when we start at the very smallest scale? Friday 28 November, 3pm, University of Leicester - all welcome! www.englishlocalhistory.org/wp/2025/09/2...

We had a great pilot session for our new school workshops! If your KS3-5 students would enjoy a free workshop exploring Magna Carta & the Making of History (&featuring fab primary sources) contact [email protected]. Scheme kindly supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Farrer & Co.

Bit of a competition going on yesterday among the fallen oak leaves in Victoria Park - who will collect the most acorns?

We have amazing minerals in Charnwood Forest! 🔷 Azurite 🟩 Malachite They both contain copper, but with vividly different colours! 📍 New Cliffe Hill Quarry 🏛 Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Can be those more than a century old too - e.g. school log book started in the 1890s that continues until the book runs out of pages in the 1930s.

Was just wondering when #Sainsbury's opened in Loughborough, and found the wonderful Sainsbury archive online, with press release from Jan 1985, brochure and lots of photos www.sainsburyarchive.org.uk/catalogue/se...

I love the feeling of stillness in the Outwoods, and the birdsong (but perhaps not so much birdsong in the rain).

Manorial rolls are vital sources for medieval settlement history, and many survive, but unfortunately many are now in the USA. Documents recording the medieval history of several Leicestershire settlements are in the Huntington library, California.

This is really interesting - taking the sort of work we do (analysing historic documents and landscape elements, buildings, and place names), and using that to attempt to reconstruct a village, a place, as it was 700 years ago. #Skystorians

👩🏫 Are you involved in a school or educational group in and around Charnwood Forest? 📆 Join us on Nov 20th for our next Education Hub Event, with networking and workshops on Geopark resources. 🌐 Learn more and book your place: www.charnwoodforest.org/event/autumn...

Wonderful photos, past of the historic record of a changing industrial landscape

Very pleased to be supporting this project with a talk about our experiences in Leicestershire and sources for 19th- and early 20th-century local history

💥12 months ago Britain's last coal-fired power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, shut down after 50 years powering the national grid. We can now confirm that C20's listing application for Ratcliffe's 8 cooling towers has been rejected by DCMS, while their demolition has been approved.

This is good news. There's a huge amount of very useful information in there but the Record Commission version takes a while to understand. With the outreach activities too this is a very welcome project

It's amazing to think that there are different products from Loughborough to be found all over the world! lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2021/04/loug...

#ICYMI - a neglected (day we say actually forgotten?) history of inland industrial tourism in rural #Leicestershire. This work, the result of community collaboration with @leicsvcht.bsky.social takes in the little crossroads community of #Nanpantan, its farms, pubs and attractions before WW1. 🗃️

Come & hear me speak in Leicester on Fri 28 November, 2025. 'From Nation to Local: Re-Discovering England's Places through #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems'. Thanks to my friends at the Centre for Regional and Local History + the Centre for Urban History for the invitation. All welcome! Link in AltText.

A tiny snapshot of a tiny community that had - as it happens - forgotten this element of its past. Working with @leicsvcht.bsky.social, the people of Nanpantan, have rediscovered its heritage as a place of leisure for the growing town of Loughborough and its labouring people. #LocalHistory 🗃️

What were holidays like before statutory holiday entitlements and modern transport enabled workers in the middle of the country to get to the seaside? Our recent work at Nanpantan (towards our forthcoming Loughborough history) threw light on this. Find out more at blog.history.ac.uk/2025/09/the-...

There are lots of things happening in Loughborough, the home of my #OnePlaceStudy for Heritage Open Days 2025 #HODs2025 Most are listed on my blogpost, but pop over to the Heritage Open Days website to find events just outside Loughborough. lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/08/heri...

Loughborough 1678 and an unusual request in a will - That my Body be buried in my Garden (and it may have been, as there's no burial in the parish registers)

St Peter's (Anglican) church Loughborough, built 1910-12, was high church, with many images of saints in windows, not all well known, e.g. St Polycarp (of Byzantium, bishop of Smyrna, now Izmir, modern Turkey). I especially like the windows showing (1/2)

🟠 Copper is one of the only metals that can be found in its pure form in nature. ⚖️ Known as 'native copper', it is notably heavier than other rocks of a similar size. 📍 This specimen is from New Cliffe Hill Quarry, Charnwood Forest.

#ICYMI - a reminder that we are currently recruiting for a fixed term post focusing on architecture and the built environment. There's still plenty of time to apply! #HistoryJobs

🌳 An ancient oak from Bradgate Park is on the shortlist for Woodland Trust Tree of the Year - and your vote could make it the winner! 🌐 Read more and vote now: www.charnwoodforest.org/charnwood-fo...

even has a pub named after him (10 miles from Thurcaston)

Pleased to hear that Charnwood Forest will be applying for UNESCO Geopark status this year. Some of the rocks contain fossils of some of the oldest living creatures we know about (that lived 560 million years ago). Other rocks have trees almost growing out of them or resting on them

Better still, it can be fun!

An unusual map. Mountsorrel's 'geology' sounded particularly loud this morning, perhaps because the noise of quarrying carried further on the very strong wind.

An exhibition for those old enough to remember 'July fortnight' or young enough not to know what it was.

Our City Explorers are gathering this Sunday (29 June) to explore Granby Street. Meet outside the Merchant of Venice cafe at 2pm. It's at the station end of the street.

🔥 Visit our Old Man of Beacon Hill geosite, and learn how geological processes have shaped this unusual rocky outcrop. 🌐 Plan your visit on our website: www.charnwoodforest.org/location/old...

Sound or place? Or both, the word heard here? Goadby Marwood church (Leic), part of a former pulpit tester.

What do you get if you cross a unique bellfoundry with a unique double-track steam railway?The most exciting day out!! Taylors have teamed up with the GCR in a special offer for anyone wishing to visit both attractions! #Loughborough #OnePlaceStudy lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/06/bell...

My latest blogpost covers the commemorative service held at the old Dishley church in celebration of the 300th anniversary of the birth of agriculturalist Robert Bakewell #OnePlaceStudy @themerl.bsky.social Enjoy! lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/05/robe...

This looks excellent. Spotted that there's a new board at Bradgate Park too, about the fossil Bradgatia Linfordensis

Many congratulations to Karima Shirfield for her BALH publication award for her prize-winning article on Eleanor Frewen Turner published in Leics Arch & Hist Soc journal Leicestershire Historian in 2003 @balhnews.bsky.social

📗 Our Geopark has a range of free educational resources that celebrate Charnwood Forest in ways that connect to the curriculum - including science, history, english, maths, and geography. 🌐 Discover more on our website: www.charnwoodforest.org/geopark-publ...

Very sorry to hear of the death of Professor Charles Phythian-Adams, an inspirational scholar and historian who will be greatly missed. May he rest in peace. Obituary at www.englishlocalhistory.org/wp/2025/02/1... and a memoir at www.englishlocalhistory.org/wp/2025/05/1...

Wonderful to see this tribute to Air Vice Marshal "Johnnie" Johnson CB, CBE, DSOx3, DFCx2, DL (1915-2001) on the end on a terrace in Loughborough. He was the most decorated fighter pilot in WWII and a former pupil of Loughborough Grammar School.

A little reading to sit back and enjoy over any seasonal break you may be having

Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas

We're delighted to welcome Jess Vollar Bell as the new Chief Executive of The Generator Loughborough! A Loughborough local and former Rawlins pupil, Jess brings together her experience from London's theatre scene and a decade in arts venue management.

We've been silent because we've been busy! Just started a new volunteer project in #Nanpantan. This will feed into our #Loughborough research.