by I don’t usually choose the full English breakfast. But at Holywell House I knew I had to do it. And yes, it was something beautiful: thick slices, fat sausages, pretty eggs; coffee, milk and sugar in shiny silver pots. Lez and Derek’s Victorian Stack was a proper B&B (a Channel 4 award winner four in a bed, no less), channeling the brilliance of its theatrical owners from every shade of paint and knick-knacks. It wasn’t minimalist, it was fabulous.
Now, the world’s first tour package didn’t include accommodation, but if it had, Holywell might have been the first choice. The B&B is just opposite Loughborough’s Southfields Park, where, in July 1841, Thomas Cook brought his first organized group by train from Leicester: a modest ten-mile adventure. History was made.
But what can this Leicestershire town offer tourists today? I had come to find out. Lez and Derek were off to a good start. Then, while in Southfields Park, I chose a more modern type visitor attraction: Loughborough’s new augmented reality trail, which reveals the town’s heritage through 15 interactive boards. I scanned the park sign (unsurprisingly, about Thomas Cook) and then followed my smartphone into town, downloading QR codes as I went.
There were some teething problems but, after about an hour, I learned about everything from Ladybird Books (founded here) to the hosiery industry (the reason for the Sockman statue in the town) and Loughborough Fair, held in November and one of the oldest and largest traveling fairs in the country.
However, I found my own way to the Generator, the Old Art College building. Thanks to immense volunteer efforts and Town Deal funding, this 1930s icon is becoming a creative hub. Volunteer Jonathan Hale gave me a sneak peek of the room that once housed the university’s electricity generator, a cavernous, iron-beamed space that will be a pretty brilliant arts venue when the project is finished. The building’s modern café is now open and was busy serving flat whites and sourdough to students and locals alike.
Thomas Cook and his team arrived via the Midland Railway and a green plaque was unveiled at Loughborough station last October to commemorate the event. More fun, however, is Loughborough’s other line, the Great Central Railway. Beeching closed it in 1969, but the eight-mile section between Loughborough and Leicester North reopened in 1973, the only traditional double-track railway in the UK and the only one to carry two full-size steam engines.
Engineer Andy Fillingham let me onto the footrest and pointed out all the dials and whistles while I stared, transfixed, into the burning maw of the engine; The stoker was behind the cart, shoveling coal. However, what I liked most was the attention to detail: Loughborough station is restored in 1950s style; Quorn station is from the 1940s, Rothley from 1912. (Lez had told me that, in his spare time, he plays George VI in the heritage railway days.)
Volunteer Simon Bracewell took me to the cafe for a toasted tea cake. “People dress up in their Sunday best to ride the lunch trains; others come to ride behind specific locomotives,” he explained. “It’s not just about the train ride, it’s the whole experience.”
In 2023 the carriages were modified for wheelchair users. In March 2024, the entire line will turn 125 years old and celebrations are planned.
Even older, however, is Taylor’s, ten minutes up the road. Established in Loughborough in 1839, it is the last bell foundry in the United Kingdom and the largest in the world. The bells made here ring around the world, from the 47 bells in Loughborough’s own Carillon Tower to the 16-tonne ‘Big Paul’ at St Paul’s and Asia’s loudest peal at Singapore’s St Andrew’s Cathedral. Taylor’s has also secured Town Deal and National Lottery funding, which is helping to restore the Grade II* listed building and improve the site’s visitor experience.
Because yes, almost unbelievably, you can take a tour of this workplace, albeit carefully. The first instruction that guide Jim Crabtree gave was “avoid touching anything: it could be hot, hard, wet, sharp…”
There were people on the tour from just ten miles away and all the way to Chicago, the latter including a young bell ringer inspired by the new ten-ring bell Taylor installed at the University of Chicago’s Mitchell Tower this summer. But even if he doesn’t know his Plain Bob from his Stedman Cinques, it’s still a fascinating place to visit.
We entered the foundry, which was literally in full swing. Men dressed in overalls moved pulleys, jingled chains, carried boards and created sparks. The only thing that separated us tourists from the workers was common sense.
Jim told us about everything from the different metals in the bells to how the inscriptions are pressed; how here, in 1963, all possible permutations were rung on eight bells (40,320 in total), in 17 hours and 58 minutes: a world record.
In the oldest part of the factory, which looked like a scrapyard of sand and metal, we saw a man doing something inside an upturned bell, moving it with his hands and then his forearms; Soon he was half swallowed, with his legs sticking out like something out of a Bosch painting. “He’s starting to build up clay inside the bell,” Jim explained. “For a bell that size, it takes about a week to make the mold. It’s a Victorian process in a Victorian building. Nothing has changed.”
What has also not changed is the idea that bells unite communities. As we walked across the foundry floor, we saw a newly cast Hope Bell. In 2024 she will be installed in a memorial in the town’s Queen’s Park, remembering Covid victims. Another new reason to book a package for this oldest tourism pioneer.
Essentials
Holywell House (01509 731894; Holywellguesthouse.com) has double B&Bs from £100 pn.
For information on the Heritage Trail see loveloughborough.co.uk.
The Great Central Railway (01509 632323; gcrailway.co.uk) offers Day Runabout tickets from £23 for adults/£12 for children; Check the website for hours.
Taylor’s Bell Foundry tours run on limited dates and cost £12.50 per adult/£10.50 discount/£8.50 per child; Advance booking is essential (01509 638500, belltrust.co.uk). See also loughboroughbellfoundry.org.
