City of Leicester & Leicestershire - The Good and Historical Stuff

[Parafox]

On 12/12/2021 at 10:10, davieG said:

 

Wimpy Menu 1970s used to like these more than the McDonalds and Burger King before they came to town.

 

Used to be one on Granby Street and one opposite the ABC Cinema 

OMG. I loved Wimpy as a teenager. The Special Grill was awesome but totally unhealthy (in today's world). 42p  for all that cholesterol. The tomato was always grilled, though, lol.

[PAULCFC]

wimpy used to be the goto place for kids birthday partys when i was a kid.There also used to be another restaurant called The Golden Egg on Granby street i think.Course if you were posh you would go to Swiss Cottage.

[davieG]

ON THIS DAY IN HINCKLEY

Saturday 18th December 1965

Tonight at the George - THE STEAM PACKET

[davieG]

On this day , 20 December 1926 the City of Leicester adopted its new Coat of Arms following its restoration of City Status in 1919. 
The Arms of the Town of Leicester, the Cinquefoil and Wyvern were confirmed on the town at the Heraldic Visitation of 1619. The Cinquefoil and Wyvern come from the earlier motifs of the first Earl of Leicester, Robert De Beaumont (1040 - 1118). 
The city status was granted in 1919 and following application by the City Council in 1926, the College of Arms allowed two supporters to be added to the design. The two Lancastrian Lions were added on either side of the Cinquefoil and above the towns motto  “Always the same”. 
When the Duke of Lancaster  inherited the Earldom of Leicester, he held land within the town and hence the Lancastrian connection.

 

[davieG]

Belgrave Lib Club 1900.

[SemperEadem]

9 minutes ago, davieG said:

On this day , 20 December 1926 the City of Leicester adopted its new Coat of Arms following its restoration of City Status in 1919. 
The Arms of the Town of Leicester, the Cinquefoil and Wyvern were confirmed on the town at the Heraldic Visitation of 1619. The Cinquefoil and Wyvern come from the earlier motifs of the first Earl of Leicester, Robert De Beaumont (1040 - 1118). 
The city status was granted in 1919 and following application by the City Council in 1926, the College of Arms allowed two supporters to be added to the design. The two Lancastrian Lions were added on either side of the Cinquefoil and above the towns motto  “Always the same”. 
When the Duke of Lancaster  inherited the Earldom of Leicester, he held land within the town and hence the Lancastrian connection.

 

The crest is beautiful.

[davieG]

On 21 December 1853, Leicester became one of the first towns to offer a municipal water supply, when piped water was re-established for the first time since the Romans. The water of medieval and early modern Leicester was supplied by the River Soar, Willow Brook, wells and rainwater cisterns, with the later addition of a local conduit (Conduit Street) which carried water from a spring near St Margaret’s church to the marketplace. But in the rapidly growing town, the wells risked contamination from seepage from cesspits and the overall water supply was inadequate. Town officials quickly realised that the present arrangements were damaging to the overall health and sanitation of Leicester’s population. In 1846, the Leicester Waterworks Company was set up and in 1847 an Act was passed which allowed the construction of a reservoir at Thornton, 7 miles from Leicester. But Leicester Waterworks was unable to raise the capital it needed. So the borough council agreed to provide £17,000 of the required £80,000. Eighty acres of land were purchased and a dam built to create a reservoir for 333,000 gallons of water. The water was filtered at a works built on the site and piped to Leicester. On this day, the first of that water reached the town, with the Temperance Hall the first building to receive it.

 

[davieG]

American GIs watch a baseball match Abbey Park 1940s.

[davieG]

The George Pub ( Clock Tower ) 1980 next door when this photo was taken the Grumbleweeds were on stage.

[davieG]

Inside a Demontfort Hall dressing room 1964.

[davieG]

Just to clarify none of these are my photos I'd say if they were.

[Smudge]

On 21/12/2021 at 06:54, davieG said:

On 21 December 1853, Leicester became one of the first towns to offer a municipal water supply, when piped water was re-established for the first time since the Romans. The water of medieval and early modern Leicester was supplied by the River Soar, Willow Brook, wells and rainwater cisterns, with the later addition of a local conduit (Conduit Street) which carried water from a spring near St Margaret’s church to the marketplace. But in the rapidly growing town, the wells risked contamination from seepage from cesspits and the overall water supply was inadequate. Town officials quickly realised that the present arrangements were damaging to the overall health and sanitation of Leicester’s population. In 1846, the Leicester Waterworks Company was set up and in 1847 an Act was passed which allowed the construction of a reservoir at Thornton, 7 miles from Leicester. But Leicester Waterworks was unable to raise the capital it needed. So the borough council agreed to provide £17,000 of the required £80,000. Eighty acres of land were purchased and a dam built to create a reservoir for 333,000 gallons of water. The water was filtered at a works built on the site and piped to Leicester. On this day, the first of that water reached the town, with the Temperance Hall the first building to receive it.

 

What I can't figure out is how Conduit St carried water from St Margaret's Fields. Conduit Street, I would have thought, is at a higher elevation.

 

[Paninistickers]

20 hours ago, davieG said:

American GIs watch a baseball match Abbey Park 1940s.

What a photo that is. So many subtle interesting aspects to it, not least that it is in colour

 

 

[Free Falling Foxes]

5 hours ago, davieG said:

Inside a Demontfort Hall dressing room 1964.

John and Paul discuss a De Montfort Hall gig in the recently released Get Back film.

They mentioned how nervous they were.

[davieG]

On 21/12/2021 at 11:54, davieG said:

On 21 December 1853, Leicester became one of the first towns to offer a municipal water supply, when piped water was re-established for the first time since the Romans. The water of medieval and early modern Leicester was supplied by the River Soar, Willow Brook, wells and rainwater cisterns, with the later addition of a local conduit (Conduit Street) which carried water from a spring near St Margaret’s church to the marketplace. But in the rapidly growing town, the wells risked contamination from seepage from cesspits and the overall water supply was inadequate. Town officials quickly realised that the present arrangements were damaging to the overall health and sanitation of Leicester’s population. In 1846, the Leicester Waterworks Company was set up and in 1847 an Act was passed which allowed the construction of a reservoir at Thornton, 7 miles from Leicester. But Leicester Waterworks was unable to raise the capital it needed. So the borough council agreed to provide £17,000 of the required £80,000. Eighty acres of land were purchased and a dam built to create a reservoir for 333,000 gallons of water. The water was filtered at a works built on the site and piped to Leicester. On this day, the first of that water reached the town, with the Temperance Hall the first building to receive it.

 

Following on from the blue plaque of the town conduit.....The water was gravity fed from a spring in a field near where Moat college is nowadays into a cistern that stood on Cheapside in The Market Place.....When Thornton reservoir opened the conduit(cistern) 
was replaced by a tap in the pedestal of the Duke of Rutland`s statue.There were many wells supplying water but many were contaminated....Here`s a history in piccies starting with the original (1612)/The replacement of the original (1709)(Shown in Wigston Magna) which ended up in Thomas Ingrams garden in Wigston Magna as a garden feature.It was destroyed when the land was used to build a school/The one with a lamp standard on top(1841) that was replaced only 11 years later with the tap on the statue(1852)....The main pic is the plaque on the replacement of the original conduit...

 

 

 

[Smudge]

4 minutes ago, davieG said:

Following on from the blue plaque of the town conduit.....The water was gravity fed from a spring in a field near where Moat college is nowadays into a cistern that stood on Cheapside in The Market Place.....When Thornton reservoir opened the conduit(cistern) 
was replaced by a tap in the pedestal of the Duke of Rutland`s statue.There were many wells supplying water but many were contaminated....Here`s a history in piccies starting with the original (1612)/The replacement of the original (1709)(Shown in Wigston Magna) which ended up in Thomas Ingrams garden in Wigston Magna as a garden feature.It was destroyed when the land was used to build a school/The one with a lamp standard on top(1841) that was replaced only 11 years later with the tap on the statue(1852)....The main pic is the plaque on the replacement of the original conduit...

 

 

 

That makes a lot more sense than the source coming from St Margaret's Fields. I think you should nip down town and write an addenda to the blue plaque.

[Brizzle Fox]

On 16/12/2021 at 19:24, Parafox said:

OMG. I loved Wimpy as a teenager. The Special Grill was awesome but totally unhealthy (in today's world). 42p  for all that cholesterol. The tomato was always grilled, though, lol.

When we were in town my mum would never take me to Macdonalds but she'd take me to Wimpy as you got your burger and chips on a proper plate. Felt so much classier 

[davieG]

Graham Hulme
· 
Old postcard showing Gallowtree Gate. The card was posted in August 1904 and must therefore be just after the completion of the electrification of the tram network that year. Kemp’s jewellers shop can just be seen at the far left of the picture and behind the first tram is the Pelican pub.

[boots60]

On 22/12/2021 at 17:03, Brizzle Fox said:

When we were in town my mum would never take me to Macdonalds but she'd take me to Wimpy as you got your burger and chips on a proper plate. Felt so much classier 

It was classier. Steel cutlery & your drinks in a glass.

Fast food was more eco friendly back then before anyone knew what eco friendly was.

 

 

[davieG]

Jan Smith
· 
Leicester, Burley’s Way/Vaughan Way. St Margaret’s Church top right & the bus station centre left. 1974.

[davieG]

 

The oldest house in Leicester
Wygston’s House is the oldest house in Leicester. It has been here since medieval times and the road it stood on, High Street, was the widest and busiest thoroughfare in the town.

We don’t know why this house survives when others, which may have been significantly grander, have not. It would have been close to the meeting houses of two powerful medieval guilds, Corpus Christi and St. George, and the house may have had a religious role.

 

The House
The house comprises a timber hall of around 1490; a brick block of 1796 which replaced an earlier timber shop and chamber; and a Victorian (1800s) wing standing on the site of the medieval kitchen.

The oldest part of Wygston’s House, the timber-framed part, comprises a ground floor hall (living space) and upper chambers for sleeping and storage. Originally it had a shop at the front and kitchens at the rear. The upper floor of this part projects out over the ground floor, known as a jetty. At intervals there are ornamental brackets.

The front of the timber hall has a range of windows which were once filled with panels of painted glass, facing onto a courtyard. You can see a number of these glass panels dated to 1495-1500 at Newarke Houses.

Glass panels in the ground floor room, indicates the hall was the most important room, but at the end of the 1700s this room had come down in the world and was divided with one of the halves being a kitchen. Glaziers’ engravings in the glass tell us it was re-leaded in 1764 and 1796. The date and style of the glass is very similar to the fragments of glass in the Mayor’s Parlour at Leicester Guildhall close by.

The painted glass from the windows was removed by Rev. Richard Stephens who sold the house and moved the glass to his new house in Belgrave around 1824.

The upper room of the half-timbered section of the house was divided by four main upright timbers into three bays, each about 5 metres. When the house was reconstructed in the early 1970s, a tie beam was revealed. This was finished internally with laths which were plastered over with mud mixed with grit, hair and feathers. Large flat stones were wedged into slots in the sides of the vertical timbers as infilling on the outer surface, so it was probably an outside wall at one end of the building.

In the roof, rafters from either side met at the top. Each main beam across the room has two uprights or Queen posts supporting the collar beams above. Diagonal braces lie flat against the underside of the roof keeping the structure square. There was wall painting on the plaster of the north and south walls of this upper room but it is now too faint to make out.

 

Roger Wygston
The house may have belonged to Roger Wygston, a member of the rich and important local family who were part of Leicester’s highest faith and corporation circles in the later 1400s and early 1500s.

Roger Wygston was born about 1430. His father, William, made the family fortune from the wool trade in the first half of the 1400s. Roger was elected chamberlain in 1459 and mayor of Leicester in 1465, 1471 and 1487. He was Member of Parliament for Leicester in 1473 and 1488. He died at Whitsun 1507 and was buried in the Lady Chapel in St. Martin’s church. Roger’s nephew, William is better known to later generations of Leicester citizens. He founded Wygston’s Hospital in 1513 and his money was later used to found the Wyggeston Schools.

The initials RW intertwined appear many times in the panels of painted glass that were in the house – the W more prominent than the R - which could belong to Roger Wygston or to another rich merchant of the period, but the nature of the glass suggests association with the highest levels of Leicester’s society, which was certainly true of the Wygston family.

Ownership of Wygston’s House can be traced without a break from 1557 when Richard Chettle, constable of Leicester, owned it. It passed to his son Rafe, who became mayor of Leicester. Both men were members of St. Martin’s church. A lawyer, William Topp lived in the house in 1708, but paid rent to the Corporation and it is recorded that John Stephens was living there in 1750 and 1813, followed by the Rev. Richard Stephens.

In 1796 the east front of the building in the former High Street was taken down and a fashionable Georgian brick front added instead with an elegant doorway. After the Rev. Richard Stephens, a number of surgeons lived in the house in Victorian times: Robert Wingate, William Ashley Cox-Hippisley and William Pemberton Peake. It then became the antiques emporium of R. B. Renals & Sons. There are objects in the museum collection acquired from the emporium including a parasol and a barometer.

After restoration, Wygston’s House opened as a museum of costume in 1974. It is currently a bar and restaurant.

[davieG]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/history/gallery/way-worked-archive-images-life-6033193?fbclid=IwAR0-Dcwi7vsmKGRMcgnuXPBIv1VAxGReAn31ApaIXU5-DBTc8W6ifIL5eeQ

 

The way we worked: Archive images of life inside Leicester's Corah factory

 

 

[davieG]

Southgate St with Blue Boar Hotel in the background - demolished 1966 - photo by Tom Bassett.

[davieG]

[Parafox]

5 hours ago, davieG said:

Another lovely building in the centre of the pic demolished to make way for a soulless tower block of flats.