Batch of old Echo archive pictures of the town are identified
THE recent double page spreads of photographs from the Echo archive have got people talking.
We asked folk if they could tell us more about the pictures and of course Looking Back readers have duly obliged.
Michael O’Shea rang in to identify the row of white houses as the old Alms houses in York Road. He thought the photo was taken before World War Two and there was once a plaque displayed there.
Mike Jones e-mailed regarding the very old picture of a row of shops with a balustrade on top.
He said: “The shop with two entrances, is of the Premises at 51 Derby Road, which for many years were occupied by Clarke & Partridge Ltd, Heating Engineers specialising in bathrooms and central heating systems.
“This well known local company was active from the 1920s, possibly before, but closed in the mid seventies and by 1977 the buildings were occupied by Westertex Limited who, I believe, were textile dyers and finishers.
“That company was dissolved in 1998 and the buildings were demolished in 2002. The site is now home to a large number of flats and apartments. While the site was still occupied by Clarke and Partridge in the 1950s, Hathernware Limited, for whom I worked, fitted Buff Faience Tiles to the Pilasters (columns) and Brown Tiles to the Stallrisers (under the windows).
“As the draughtsman, I had to meas- ure the front of the building to receive the tiles.”
Mike also identified the photo of: The original garage premises, on Loughborough Rushes opposite Shakespeare Street, of Arthur Prince Limited, founded in 1924 which now operates from Belton Road as a Volkswagen dealer.”
Mike added that the photo of the children digging: appears to be of Limehurst School Children, on the site which is now occupied by a small block of flats, on Gladstone Avenue, Loughborough.
“The school used to have it allotments there in the 1950s when it was an all boys school.
The houses in the background are numbers 19, & 17 Gladstone Avenue, which have changed little, and 15 & 13 whose fronts have been substantially modified since that time.
Gordon Morris, 88, also got in touch to identify regarding the Clarke and Partridge site and the Limehurst garden. He said: “Next door to this garden was the caretaker of Limehurst.”