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davieG

City of Leicester & Leicestershire - The Good and Historical Stuff

By davieG, in General Chat

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davieG

davieG

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Abbey Park. Leicester.
Abbey Park is a public park in Leicester, England, through which the River Soar flows.
It opened in 1882 on the flood plain of the River Soar, and expanded in 1932 to include the area west of the river that had formerly been the medieval St Mary's Abbey, still bounded by large medieval walls. The park includes the archaeological sites of the Abbey and the ruins of Cavendish House, along with a wide range of decorative and recreational parkland features.
History
In 1876 Leicester town council bought 57 acres (23 ha) of marshy ground between the river and canal from the Earl of Dysart in order to develop flood prevention plans. Planning for this first incarnation of the park was underway by 1879, as part of designs by the borough surveyors for the relief of flooding in the area. However the design for the park itself was opened up to a competition. The winning design, with its bandstand, rustic bridges and planted gardens, was the work of William Barron, a celebrated landscape designer. It was Leicester's first public park of significant size, and was opened on 29 May 1882 by the Prince and Princess of Wales, an event commemorated by an ornate plaque at the Abbey Park Road entrance. The park was created in an area that had previously been described as "marshy ground in a poor district" at a cost of over The works included the widening and deepening of the river over a length of around a mile, with the excavated earth used to create mounds within the park, as well as the construction of stone weirs and locks. Three new bridges were constructed crossing the river. An artificial lake was created and over 33,000 trees planted. Excavations as part of the work discovered remains of animals including elephants and rhinoceros. The resulting park occupied 57 acres of land between the River Soar and the Grand Union Canal. Two lodges designed by architect Mr. J. Tait were built at the Abbey Road entrance to the park.
Although the new park was called Abbey Park, the site of the abbey itself, bounded by substantial medieval masonry and brick walls, was not within the park, but was in agricultural land on the other side of the River Soar. The exact location of the Abbey was unknown, with no standing remains other than the boundary walls and the ruins of the sixteenth century Cavendish House. Archaeological investigations of a limited nature began in the 1920s, and popular enthusiasm was fueled by the 1922 discoveries in Egypt of Tutankhamun's tomb, and a hope that Cardinal Wolsey's tomb might be similarly discovered. After assorted modest excavations, the 32 acre Abbey Grounds site was donated to the city by the Earl of Dysart at the end of 1925. Several years of preliminary works, and sporadic attempts to pin down the site of the Abbey buildings, were followed by more thorough work undertaken in 1929-30. With the rise in unemployment culminating in the Great Depression the city council attempted to alleviate local poverty by employing a team of workmen to clear pernicious weeds from the overgrown site, and the architect W K Bedingfield was able to utilise this process to also search for, and then uncover the buried foundations of the Abbey buildings. A variety of graves were found, but no magnificent tomb of the sort popularly hoped for. Having exposed and mapped the extent of the Abbey Church and a variety of monastic buildings, the workforce built low walls to mark out the foundations and pier bases. They also carried out extensive repairs to the stonework and brickwork of the medieval boundary walls particularly along the north and western sides of the site, traditionally ascribed to Abbot Penny and Abbot Cloune. Paths were laid out across the grounds, tennis courts were built, a large oval was levelled for use as a cricket pitch, and a new stone bridge in a classical style, was built across the River Soar to link the two parts of the park.
Despite the absence of a tomb, the abbey ruins received a memorial slab to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. He died while en route from York to London on 29 November 1530. A statue of him also stands next to the Park's cafe. Alongside the site of the 12th century Leicester Abbey, which was marked out with low stone walls, are the substantial ruins of Cavendish House (built in the 17th century by William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire incorporating the Abbey Gatehouse, and by tradition built using stone from the abbey). The house was used by Charles I after the siege of Leicester during the English civil war in 1645; after he left, his soldiers set fire to it leaving the house gutted. The charred stone window frame is still visible today.

 

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davieG

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ON THE 8th NOVEMBER 1967
BBC Radio Leicester, which was the first of the new BBC Local Radio stations, began broadcasting at 12.45 p.m. from Epic House in Charles street using a transmitter located on Gorse Hill.
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kushiro

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2 hours ago, davieG said:

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ON THE 8th NOVEMBER 1967
BBC Radio Leicester, which was the first of the new BBC Local Radio stations, began broadcasting at 12.45 p.m. from Epic House in Charles street using a transmitter located on Gorse Hill.

 

In the early days of the station, Radio Leicester conducted a survey asking people to choose five ‘local celebrities’ – the people chosen were comedian Bill Maynard, actor Norman Bird, cricketer Tony Lock, footballer John Sjoberg and Englebert Humperdinck.

 

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davieG

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13 minutes ago, kushiro said:

 

In the early days of the station, Radio Leicester conducted a survey asking people to choose five ‘local celebrities’ – the people chosen were comedian Bill Maynard, actor Norman Bird, cricketer Tony Lock, footballer John Sjoberg and Englebert Humperdinck.

 

that's when Leicester were still considered a place to start new things rather than Nottingham, I believe we had the 1st Traffic Wardens outside of London for example.

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Parafox

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6 hours ago, davieG said:

that's when Leicester were still considered a place to start new things rather than Nottingham, I believe we had the 1st Traffic Wardens outside of London for example.

"To deal with increasing problems caused by parked cars in the city, a traffic wardens unit was established and in April 1961 the new team took to the streets of Leicester. This was the first use of traffic wardens outside of London and the scheme was soon adopted across the country

 

Source: Former City Police Headquarters - Story of Leicester

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kushiro

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2 hours ago, Parafox said:

"To deal with increasing problems caused by parked cars in the city, a traffic wardens unit was established and in April 1961 the new team took to the streets of Leicester. This was the first use of traffic wardens outside of London and the scheme was soon adopted across the country

 

Source: Former City Police Headquarters - Story of Leicester

I'm reading Robert Mark's autobiography at the moment - he was Chief Constable of Leicester in the 60s and it was his decision to introduce traffic wardens. A large part of his chapter on Leicester is devoted to dealing with the city's traffic problems. There was a massive backlash because he removed the right of people to basically park anywhere they like in the city. It was a 50s/60s version of the 'war on the motorist' scare stories. Of course, it only took a couple of years for people to realise 'wow, we can now drive through the city centre fairly smoothly' and everyone said they'd been in favour all along.

 

Mark is more famous for what he did in his next job - as head of the Met, where he tackled the endemic levels of corruption in the CID. And people of my age know him for this:

 

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davieG

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15 minutes ago, kushiro said:

I'm reading Robert Mark's autobiography at the moment - he was Chief Constable of Leicester in the 60s and it was his decision to introduce traffic wardens. A large part of his chapter on Leicester is devoted to dealing with the city's traffic problems. There was a massive backlash because he removed the right of people to basically park anywhere they like in the city. It was a 50s/60s version of the 'war on the motorist' scare stories. Of course, it only took a couple of years for people to realise 'wow, we can now drive through the city centre fairly smoothly' and everyone said they'd been in favour all along.

 

Mark is more famous for what he did in his next job - as head of the Met, where he tackled the endemic levels of corruption in the CID. And people of my age know him for this:

 

He was very prominent always in the news because of his progressive ideas.

 

My sister was a traffic warden in Wigston in the the 60s but was asked to resign because she didn’t book enough people. She used to patrol the main road through South Wigston but instead of booking them used to search the shops for the drivers to tell them to move rather than booking them.😀

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Free Falling Foxes

Free Falling Foxes

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14 hours ago, davieG said:

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ON THE 8th NOVEMBER 1967
BBC Radio Leicester, which was the first of the new BBC Local Radio stations, began broadcasting at 12.45 p.m. from Epic House in Charles street using a transmitter located on Gorse Hill.

A few weeks after R Leicester began, I had a request for my 10th birthday read out on air. They refused to play the record I had chosen though, saying it wasn't suitable for a childrens show.

The record was Fire, by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

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davieG

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13 minutes ago, Wymsey said:

It has claimed a few lives in recent times..

 

One of the most despised buildings in Leicester.

Not sure a building can be said to claim lives and it's not liked because the owners fail to maintain it properly.

 

It was the first of it's kind in the UK and was well used both with the Supermarket and the 36 lane bowling alley the largest single floor alley in the UK.

 

As I said above we were always a forward thinking contemporary City, although on the downside it did lead to the destruction of many fine buildings sadly that's all we seem capable of claiming fame for doing these days.

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davieG

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https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/bid-build-new-motorway-service-8893213

 

Bid to build new motorway service station in Leicestershire would be first for M69 after almost 50 years
Starbucks, KFC, Burger King and more could be headed to the M69


ByJulia BreensLocal Democracy Reporter
07:52, 11 NOV 2023


The M69 could be about to get its first motorway services after plans were unveiled for a petrol station, Starbucks and fast food restaurants on land near Hinckley. The road, which links Leicester and Coventry and was opened in 1977, doesn't currently have any service areas.

Drivers on the almost 16-mile stretch currently either face having to exit the motorway to find petrol and facilities in Hinckley or nearby villages, or waiting to reach services on other motorways. The nearest stops are at Leicester Forest East on the M1 or Corley on the M6.

But Welcome Break – one of Britain’s largest motorway services operators – has now lodged planning applications with both Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council and Rugby Borough council to provide car and HGV fuel stations, as well as a drive-thru coffee shop, fast food restaurants, a shop, toilets, EV charging points and a gaming zone. The proposed development straddles land in both Hinckley and Bosworth and Rugby districts.


Vehicle and pedestrian access will be from the A5, with the services based on land next to the Stretton Baskerville Roundabout at Junction 1. The plans reveal big names will based at the service area, including Starbucks, KFC, Burger King and Pret a Manger.

Also promised are 269 car parking spaces, picnic and dog walking facilities, and parking for HGVs, coaches and caravans.


The application, submitted by agent Montagu Evans on behalf of Welcome Break, says National Highways requirements stress only sites directly adjacent to the motorway and between junctions or sites that share a ‘common boundary’ at an existing junction on a motorway are appropriate for new service areas, with Welcome Break saying this site is suitable ‘based on their extensive experience in the operation of such facilities’.

Welcome Break says in its application that the services would contribute £3.5 million each year to the local economy, adding: "With a large number of part time roles expected, the total number of employee jobs created by the facility directly is estimated at 183." In 2021, Stretton Point Developments was given permission to build a much smaller 'roadside services facility' that would have included a petrol station and a drive-thru restaurant, along with office space, with Welcome Break then buying the land in 2022.

A map from ‘Motorway Services Online’ submitted with the application confirms the M69 'does not benefit from any motorway service area provision’. It reveals that Leicester Forest East services is 12 miles from the proposed site, while Corley is 14 miles away in the opposite direction, meaning there is a 26-mile stretch of the motorway network without services – the Government-recommended maximum distance between HGV facilities is 14 miles.

Documents submitted on behalf of Welcome Break read: “Welcome Break is one of the UK’s leading motorway service operators, running 59 service areas and 31 hotels up and down the country. With 24-hour fuel courts, EV charging, and world-class customer facing brands. The company’s facilities serve over 85 million customers every year.”

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davieG

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A view along Peace Walk to the Arch of Remembrance in Victoria Park, circa 1950s.
The Arch of Remembrance and the park gates were both designed by the renowned architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, who also created the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London. The striking Arch of Remembrance was built as a memorial to those who died during the Great War and was orientated to view the sunrise between the arches on the 11th November each year. The cost of the Arch was £27,000, of which £10,000 was provided by the people of Leicester. The Arch was officially unveiled by two war widows on July 3rd 1925 in a large and well attended ceremony.
The wrought-iron park gates at the base of peace walk and by London road were presented to the city in 1931 by Sir Jonathan North in memory of his wife, Kate, who had been a prominent figure in Leicester’s voluntary war effort. North was a former shoe and boot trade businessman who had become the Mayor of Leicester during the war and was knighted by King George V in 1919 for his outstanding services to the city.
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