Loughborough was one of 35 towns and villages included in our Charnwood Roots project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund from 2013 to 2017. As part of that project, volunteers helped us to research some aspects of the town’s history.
We are now building on that work with the intention of publishing a full parish history of 180,000 words. This is a major project and substantial funds are still required for us to be able to meet the object.
As an interim step towards a full history, we will be publishing two paperbacks which will cover the history of Loughborough from 1750 to the present day.
The first of these will focus on the social, cultural and religious history of Loughborough and its communities. This will be published in late 2025 or early 2026. Topics include the histories of Loughborough’s libraries, theatres, cinemas, sports clubs, societies, migration, cultural celebrations (e.g. Eid, Diwali, the Mela), the town’s schools, colleges and university and all of Loughborough’s places of worship (past and present).
Work is now underway on our second book, that will focus on employment and related topics, such as gas, electricity and transport.
Our annual Newsletters provide more information about our progress. They can be found in the News pages of this website, or ask to be added to our mailing list.
We are not just looking at modern Loughborough, although that has been our initial focus as we believe our planned paperback books will sell well and help to finance other research.
In 2021-22 we completed research into Loughborough market and trade in the medieval period, and built on this in 2024-25 with research into how the land was farmed in the Middle Ages.
With the help of local volunteers, in 2019 we researched how the the public health debates of the 19th century affected Loughborough, and how and when the town got its supply of fresh water. COVID set back our plans for a display, but we created an online exhibition in 2020 to display some of this research and later curated a display in Loughborough Library Local Studies which was open over July to September 2021.
Images above from our exhibition in Loughborough Library, summer 2021
With the help of a grant from Charnwood Geopark and the Heritage Fund, a short volunteer project in 2024-25 researched the history of Nanpantan’s houses and farms. Our findings will be incorporated into the two paperbacks.