City of Leicester & Leicestershire - The Good and Historical Stuff

[davieG]

[davieG]

 

Made In Leicester

Rob Hubble 

The Palace Theatre High Street.

[davieG]

Story of Leicester

6 January  · 

In 1907 Harry Hardy Peach (1874–1936) founded Dryad Handicrafts, which made and sold cane furniture.

This photo from 1953 shows their main shop which was at 42 St Nicholas Street, Leicester.

It was Harry’s dream to open a museum of good quality craftwork, potentially in conjunction with the Leicester School of Art, as an inspiration for teachers and others. While this dream was never realised, the majority of his collection was given to Leicester Museum and Art Gallery in 1969 and now forms the Dryad Collection, with the finest examples of 20th century cane and basketwork in the UK.

See the collection and a wall-sized mural of their showroom on St Nicholas Street at the museum’s current Dryad Basketry exhibition: https://www.leicestermuseums.org/Dryad-Basketry

Do you or does someone you know have any connections to the Dryad Handicrafts collection in Leicester?

Or maybe they used to shop at their St Nicholas Street store before the area was redeveloped?

Let us know in the comments below…

#StoryofLeicester

[davieG]

Story of Leicester

It's a busy day along Churchgate here in November 1988.

What brings back memories for you in this photo? Do you remember shopping at places like Mays Electrical, or The Good Earth?

[The Fox Covert]

On 06/02/2025 at 19:27, davieG said:

What was the roof box for?

The route number. Bus shown while in London Transport service.

[Foxdiamond]

20 minutes ago, The Fox Covert said:

The route number. Bus shown while in London Transport service.

Good photo. I read that this particular bus was new to London Transport in 1947 then sold in 1971. LT certainly looked after their buses

[davieG]

 

Made In Leicester

Rob Hubble

Hotel Street 1984.

[davieG]

 

Made In Leicester

Rob Hubble  

New Walk 1950s ?

[Free Falling Foxes]

3 hours ago, davieG said:

 

Made In Leicester

Rob Hubble

Hotel Street 1984.

There was a book shop just to the left of that photo, that had a sign in their window claiming they had a search system for out of print books.

This was pre internet days so was quite a bold claim and I thought could help me search for such an out of print volume I was after.

I went in, and asked the chap behind the counter and he thought a moment and said, 'Have you tried Waterstones? I had. 'How about W H Smiths? Yup tried there too. He said, 'Sorry then, I can't help you'.

Some bloody search system.

 

[The Fox Covert]

On 10/02/2025 at 13:04, Foxdiamond said:

Good photo. I read that this particular bus was new to London Transport in 1947 then sold in 1971. LT certainly looked after their buses

I lived in London for several years after I left home in Leicester. RTs were no longer on services in Central London but they were still common on services in less fashionable districts like Edmonton and Walthamstow. LT had a close working relationship with AEC which paid off with bus designs which were exactly what the operators wanted, and had very long lives in service. I had a friend who was a bus nut and I went to see the last service operated by RTs, in Barking. I can still remember the whine of the AEC gearbox and the really quite melodious engine note. And the dark red moquette on the seats.

[Foxdiamond]

1 hour ago, The Fox Covert said:

I lived in London for several years after I left home in Leicester. RTs were no longer on services in Central London but they were still common on services in less fashionable districts like Edmonton and Walthamstow. LT had a close working relationship with AEC which paid off with bus designs which were exactly what the operators wanted, and had very long lives in service. I had a friend who was a bus nut and I went to see the last service operated by RTs, in Barking. I can still remember the whine of the AEC gearbox and the really quite melodious engine note. And the dark red moquette on the seats.

Don't want to highjack the Leicester thread but RTs were the bus I remember most from childhood though I still have a soft spot for Routemasters. Going back to Leicester City Transport thought both the Maroon/Cream and reverse liveries were good. Perhaps Maroon is a lucky Leicester colour as per 2021 Cup Final kit!

[davieG]

when I was 19ish I used to live with my brother in a flat on the left just pass the next junction which is Cross Road where we had a flat previously.

 

MrsG used to live in one on the left just before where the picture was taken from

 

 

History of Leicestershire in Images

Graham Hulme 

An old postcard view of Clarendon Park Road, looking west towards the junction with Queen’s Road. The card was posted in Leicester to “Gimson Rd The Fosse” in March 1907. The street going off to the right of the picture is Central Avenue. The buildings shown here still exist. The prominent tower seen in the distance is that of the Clarendon Park Road Wesleyan Methodist Church which was built in 1900. It became the Christchurch Baptist-Methodist Ecumenical Church in the early 1990s. The Wesleyan Church had first opened in October 1900 and had been designed by the prominent Leicester architect Alderman Albert Edwin Sawday (1851-1923) who was himself a Methodist. He served as Mayor of Leicester in 1903-04. The church is designed in a free Perpendicular Gothic style and is of red brick with stone dressings. The tower is octagonal and has a top stage of stone. Above the main entrance, the frontage has a large 5-light window with gothic panel tracery. The church originally accommodated about 950 people and the cost of the site together with the building was about £8,400. In addition to the church, classrooms, a large church parlour and a lecture hall to seat 400 were provided (The Methodist Times, 18th October 1900). The first Minister of the new church was the Rev. John Ernest Rattenbury who, in 1902, became Minister of the Albert Hall Wesleyan Mission at Nottingham (the hall burnt down in 1906 and Nottingham’s present Albert Hall was built in 1909-10). In 1907 the Rev. Rattenbury moved to be Superintendent Minister of the West London Methodist Mission which post he held for 18 years and during this time the Mission’s new base, Kingsway Hall, was built in 1912 (a later Minister of Kingsway Hall was the famous Donald Soper). The Rev. Rattenbury moved in 1925 to take up a post as a minister at Southport. He died in 1963 aged 92, having been hailed as “the Grand Old Man of Methodism”.

 

[davieG]

 

British Railways Steam 1948 -1968  · 

Join

 

Carl Buckley  ·

Ashby-de-la-Zouch

A Leicester to Burton train calls on 29 June 1952 with tender-first 43048 at the head.

Info: kevin Lane (flickr)

Photographer:

the late Harry Townley, now the copyright of the industrial Railway Society.

[davieG]

Mervin Wallace contributed to the album LADY JANE GREY - THE NINE DAYS QUEEN  in History of Leicestershire in Images.

 

ON THE 12th FEBRUARY 1554

At the tender age of 17, the ‘Nine Days Queen’, Lady Jane Grey (1537-1554) and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley were beheaded at the Tower of London; he on Tower Hill, she on Tower Green, after being implicated in the Wyatt's rebellion. The rebellion arose out of concern over Queen Mary I's determination to marry Philip II of Spain, which was an unpopular policy with the English.

It is believed that Lady Jane was born at Bradgate House* in Leicestershire and spent the greater part of her short life there.

Lady Jane Grey was born in 1537, the oldest daughter of Henry Grey and Lady Frances Brandon and the great-granddaughter of Henry VII. Her parents saw to it that she received an excellent education, intended to make her a good match for the son of a well-positioned family. At the age of 10, Jane went to live with the conspiratorial Thomas Seymour, Edward VI’s uncle, who had only recently married Catherine Parr, the widow of Henry VIII. Jane was raised as a devout Protestant and proved to be an intelligent and engaged young woman, remaining close to Thomas Seymour and Catherine Parr until Parr’s death in childbirth in 1548. Seymour was executed for treason in 1549. Lady Jane Grey's life began with promise and high expectations but ended tragically, due in part to the ambitions of her father and the religious strife of the times. The great-granddaughter of Henry VII, Grey was named the successor to Edward VI during a tumultuous competition for the throne. She was deposed as Queen of England by Mary Tudor on the 19th July 1553.

*The ruins of the Bradgate House we see today in my photographs are not thought to be the original house Lady Jane Grey was born or lived in. I have included this lovely piece of artwork by the Hinckley artist Cicely Pickering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Foxdiamond]

1 hour ago, davieG said:

Mervin Wallace contributed to the album LADY JANE GREY - THE NINE DAYS QUEEN  in History of Leicestershire in Images.

 

ON THE 12th FEBRUARY 1554

At the tender age of 17, the ‘Nine Days Queen’, Lady Jane Grey (1537-1554) and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley were beheaded at the Tower of London; he on Tower Hill, she on Tower Green, after being implicated in the Wyatt's rebellion. The rebellion arose out of concern over Queen Mary I's determination to marry Philip II of Spain, which was an unpopular policy with the English.

It is believed that Lady Jane was born at Bradgate House* in Leicestershire and spent the greater part of her short life there.

Lady Jane Grey was born in 1537, the oldest daughter of Henry Grey and Lady Frances Brandon and the great-granddaughter of Henry VII. Her parents saw to it that she received an excellent education, intended to make her a good match for the son of a well-positioned family. At the age of 10, Jane went to live with the conspiratorial Thomas Seymour, Edward VI’s uncle, who had only recently married Catherine Parr, the widow of Henry VIII. Jane was raised as a devout Protestant and proved to be an intelligent and engaged young woman, remaining close to Thomas Seymour and Catherine Parr until Parr’s death in childbirth in 1548. Seymour was executed for treason in 1549. Lady Jane Grey's life began with promise and high expectations but ended tragically, due in part to the ambitions of her father and the religious strife of the times. The great-granddaughter of Henry VII, Grey was named the successor to Edward VI during a tumultuous competition for the throne. She was deposed as Queen of England by Mary Tudor on the 19th July 1553.

*The ruins of the Bradgate House we see today in my photographs are not thought to be the original house Lady Jane Grey was born or lived in. I have included this lovely piece of artwork by the Hinckley artist Cicely Pickering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 1986 film Lady Jane with Helena Bonham Carter is worth a look

[The Fox Covert]

15 hours ago, davieG said:

when I was 19ish I used to live with my brother in a flat on the left just pass the next junction which is Cross Road where we had a flat previously.

 

MrsG used to live in one on the left just before where the picture was taken from

 

 

History of Leicestershire in Images

Graham Hulme 

An old postcard view of Clarendon Park Road, looking west towards the junction with Queen’s Road. The card was posted in Leicester to “Gimson Rd The Fosse” in March 1907. The street going off to the right of the picture is Central Avenue. The buildings shown here still exist. The prominent tower seen in the distance is that of the Clarendon Park Road Wesleyan Methodist Church which was built in 1900. It became the Christchurch Baptist-Methodist Ecumenical Church in the early 1990s. The Wesleyan Church had first opened in October 1900 and had been designed by the prominent Leicester architect Alderman Albert Edwin Sawday (1851-1923) who was himself a Methodist. He served as Mayor of Leicester in 1903-04. The church is designed in a free Perpendicular Gothic style and is of red brick with stone dressings. The tower is octagonal and has a top stage of stone. Above the main entrance, the frontage has a large 5-light window with gothic panel tracery. The church originally accommodated about 950 people and the cost of the site together with the building was about £8,400. In addition to the church, classrooms, a large church parlour and a lecture hall to seat 400 were provided (The Methodist Times, 18th October 1900). The first Minister of the new church was the Rev. John Ernest Rattenbury who, in 1902, became Minister of the Albert Hall Wesleyan Mission at Nottingham (the hall burnt down in 1906 and Nottingham’s present Albert Hall was built in 1909-10). In 1907 the Rev. Rattenbury moved to be Superintendent Minister of the West London Methodist Mission which post he held for 18 years and during this time the Mission’s new base, Kingsway Hall, was built in 1912 (a later Minister of Kingsway Hall was the famous Donald Soper). The Rev. Rattenbury moved in 1925 to take up a post as a minister at Southport. He died in 1963 aged 92, having been hailed as “the Grand Old Man of Methodism”.

 

Thanks for finding and posting. Copied and sent to my mum who used to live round the corner and was a member of Clarendon Park Methodist Church - as I was many decades ago.

[Electric Yetis]

3 hours ago, davieG said:

Mervin Wallace contributed to the album LADY JANE GREY - THE NINE DAYS QUEEN  in History of Leicestershire in Images.

 

ON THE 12th FEBRUARY 1554

At the tender age of 17, the ‘Nine Days Queen’, Lady Jane Grey (1537-1554) and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley were beheaded at the Tower of London; he on Tower Hill, she on Tower Green, after being implicated in the Wyatt's rebellion. The rebellion arose out of concern over Queen Mary I's determination to marry Philip II of Spain, which was an unpopular policy with the English.

It is believed that Lady Jane was born at Bradgate House* in Leicestershire and spent the greater part of her short life there.

Lady Jane Grey was born in 1537, the oldest daughter of Henry Grey and Lady Frances Brandon and the great-granddaughter of Henry VII. Her parents saw to it that she received an excellent education, intended to make her a good match for the son of a well-positioned family. At the age of 10, Jane went to live with the conspiratorial Thomas Seymour, Edward VI’s uncle, who had only recently married Catherine Parr, the widow of Henry VIII. Jane was raised as a devout Protestant and proved to be an intelligent and engaged young woman, remaining close to Thomas Seymour and Catherine Parr until Parr’s death in childbirth in 1548. Seymour was executed for treason in 1549. Lady Jane Grey's life began with promise and high expectations but ended tragically, due in part to the ambitions of her father and the religious strife of the times. The great-granddaughter of Henry VII, Grey was named the successor to Edward VI during a tumultuous competition for the throne. She was deposed as Queen of England by Mary Tudor on the 19th July 1553.

*The ruins of the Bradgate House we see today in my photographs are not thought to be the original house Lady Jane Grey was born or lived in. I have included this lovely piece of artwork by the Hinckley artist Cicely Pickering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I reckon the age is a bit out on that family tree! 117!

[PAULCFC]

22 hours ago, Foxdiamond said:

Don't want to highjack the Leicester thread but RTs were the bus I remember most from childhood though I still have a soft spot for Routemasters. Going back to Leicester City Transport thought both the Maroon/Cream and reverse liveries were good. Perhaps Maroon is a lucky Leicester colour as per 2021 Cup Final kit!

One of my highlights as a kid was going on holiday and seeing the different colours of buses where we went....Dorset and IOW were green,Kent blue....simpler times.Now it's just First and Ariva every where!

[Foxdiamond]

3 minutes ago, PAULCFC said:

One of my highlights as a kid was going on holiday and seeing the different colours of buses where we went....Dorset and IOW were green,Kent blue....simpler times.Now it's just First and Ariva every where!

Yes. Funny how these things register as a kid

[davieG]

16 minutes ago, PAULCFC said:

One of my highlights as a kid was going on holiday and seeing the different colours of buses where we went....Dorset and IOW were green,Kent blue....simpler times.Now it's just First and Ariva every where!

We used to play on the street whilst looking at car registration plates as back then you could tell where they were registered as each area of England had it's own register., one place was on London Road and on Sundays you could be waiting a while for a car to pass.

[davieG]

 

Bod James Cox

The Who live at the Il Rondo

Silver street LEICESTER

63/64

[davieG]

Born and Raised in Leicester

WINSTONS Silver St Leicester 1982

 

It was The Churchill before that and was where I met MrsG

[Free Falling Foxes]

8 hours ago, davieG said:

We used to play on the street whilst looking at car registration plates as back then you could tell where they were registered as each area of England had it's own register., one place was on London Road and on Sundays you could be waiting a while for a car to pass.

Myself and a couple of mates, decided to carry out a survey of vehicles that travelled down our road. We planned to jot down the type, make, model and colour.

After half an hour only the one car had gone by, so we gave up.

I remember wishing at the time, that we lived on a busier road. Must have been mad.

[davieG]

51 minutes ago, Free Falling Foxes said:

Myself and a couple of mates, decided to carry out a survey of vehicles that travelled down our road. We planned to jot down the type, make, model and colour.

After half an hour only the one car had gone by, so we gave up.

I remember wishing at the time, that we lived on a busier road. Must have been mad.

I’d have thought London Road would have been one of the busiest but Sundays were pretty much dead apart from church and Sunday school and most people would’ve walked as they would’ve been local. I remember having relatives visit on a Sunday and the only place open to eat was a Banners Restaurant on the corner of St Albans Road opposite Victoria Park Gates. 

[Kinowe Soorie]

Keep up the great work @davieG