Detective work leads to Warren’s Yard site
Lies beneath the path of the inner relief road
READERS have enthusiastically joined the search for the elusive Warren’s Yard in Baxter Gate and now all can be revealed
The hunt for the location of the yard started after Peter Jackson of the well-known Loughborough company, Jackson Coachworks, based in Queens Road, contacted Looking Back in the hope that readers may able to help.
Peter, whose father, Len founded the firm, was on a quest for the whereabouts of the old yard in Loughborough and any photographs of it.
Peter said that Len had originally started the company in 1933 at No.38 Baxter Gate, in what was then known as ‘Warren’s Yard’.
“This property had previously been occupied by a local coachbuilder W Dickens who was a member of Livery Company No 72, The Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers, in the City of London.
“W Dicken’s original coat of arms for this still hangs in our boardroom.
“Also in Warren’s Yard at that time were two other new companies: Cross and Sansam who are still active today and Brookman Engineering, who made woodworking machinery.”
Amazingly the daughter of Richard Brookman, Doreen Edwards aged 98, was one of the first to contact the Echo with her thoughts on Warren’s Yard.
Mrs Edwards said that it was past the hospital up Baxter Gate, on the right as you made your way from the town.
She added that her father, who died when he was just 54 of septicaemia had his woodworking factory in the yard adding there was a big gateway entrance.
Her mother and father had come from London to set up the firm. She said that before the building of the new inner relief road, you could still see some of the brickwork from the buildings from the old walk-in centre car park. The form eventually moved to Rothley.
Jennifer Foster also contacted Looking Back to say: “Although I have never heard of Warren’s Yard, I am familiar with the house where Wm Dickens, the coachbuilder, lived at 38 Sparrow Hill which is where National Tyre Co now stands.
The house, garden and outbuildings, which I think also included the land where Euro Asia Cash & Carry now stands, were sold in 1953 after Mr Dickens died in 1951, aged 91 and the house was then let for some years.
Regular Echo reader and local photographer, Roy Betts rang in with his thoughts.
Roy said that There was a record of a coachbuilder Warren and Son at 48 Baxter Gate in 1901. In 1941 it was a garage owned by Archie Moss and then the site was later taken over by hosiery machine engineers, William Cottons where Roy worked.
And finally Dennis Powdrill, another Cotton’s stalwart, who wrote the definitive history of the firm nailed the whereabouts of Warren’s Yard conclusively.
Dennis sent in a photograph of the site and a clipping from the Echo, dating back to 1936.
He said: “I can find evidence of John Warren and Son occupying this site in Baxter Gate in 1870 as a carriage builder. In 1904 as a coach builder and repairer of motor carriages and in 1928 as coach and motor body painters.
“Nineteen thirty five shows John Warren and Son together with Brookman, maker of woodworking machinery. Whilst 1936 Warren and L Jackson (Motor repaint dept.) are on the site.
“And in 1937 the newly built Archie Moss showrooms and garage are on the site.
“Another Warren, (Thomas) appears in High Street in 1863 with reference to being established in 1815. Obviously a member of the same family.
William Dickens carriage works is shown in Pinfold Gate in 1904, before, what appears to be it’s closure in the 40’s.
“This was sited where the garage is in Pinfold Gate, but more towards Sparrow Hill.
“Soon after Archie Moss built the showrooms and garage circa 1937 and it was opened, World War Two broke out and the army took it over as a maintenance unit. After the war was over in 1945 the army left.
“William Cotton Ltd. Hosiery machine builders in Pinfold Gate needed more space, and the garage was adjacent.
“Parent Company Bentley of Leicester bought the site and it was linked to the Pinfold Gate factory. William Cotton Ltd. made another move from this site to Belton Road but sadly is no more.
“All of this garage was demolished over time and is now lost under the new road.”
Warren’s Yard was next to the building which now houses Papa John’s, which was once home to Arnolds picture framers and art dealers in the late 1950s and 1960s.
As Dennis says a stretch of buildings here, from the present day Papa John’s over the new inner relief road to Carillon Dental Care have long since been demolished and that includes the old popular pet store Wortley’s, which was next to the dental centre building at one time.
Looking Back would like to thank everybody for getting in touch and for your diligent detective work.