The glory days and the sad end
ON THE 50th anniversary of the Government refusal years ago for the demolition of listed building Burleigh Fields, Radmoor Road, Loughborough we asked if anybody had any memories of the building which sadly eventually fell to the wrecking ball back in the 1980s.
Loughborough’s Mike Jones answered our call and wrote in, along with a few photographs to say: “I believe that the house, off Radmoor Road, had a number of occupiers after being built in the 1700s but the longest occupancy seems to be by various members of the Johnson Family.
“There is evidence to suggest that they finally sold it to Dr John Henry Eddowes in 1867 and it appears that he lived there until his death in 1906. He was survived by his two sisters who presumably remained there until their deaths in 1921 and 1922 respectively.
“There would seem to have been periods without occupancy after that, although it was used for a while in connection with the nearby Loughborough Colleges, I think as a student hostel or similar.
“It was finally demolished around 1980 and replaced on the site by Hickling Court which was, a block of, at the time, council flats and which building still stands today.
“I remember, as a student of Loughborough College School, in the 1950s, walking up Radmoor Road once a week to our playing fields at the bottom of the road. I vaguely remember seeing the house set back, as I passed by, but it was not all that obvious, due to the trees in front of it.”
Another regular Looking Back contributor, Philip Thorpe, of Barrow-upon-Soar, has also sent in a picture of Burleigh Fields, but sadly in a very poor state.
Philip said the photograph was: “Taken April 1979. I think demolition had started.”