Whitwick Historical Group has regularly posted articles in the monthly “Community Voice” magazine which is delivered free to homes in the Whitwick, Thringstone, Swannington, Coleorton and Coleorton Moor areas. Here you can revisit articles that you may have missed or wished that you had kept. For those living further afield, these will possibly be entirely new to you.
January 2019
Keeping Warm
The prospect of a dark, cold January sparked reminisces amongst the team at the Old Station about how we kept warm in the decades before homes had central heating, when open coal fires were the norm.
Unlike a radiator, a brightly burning coal fire has an effect on almost all our senses. Many of us will have sat looking into a fire and imagining all sorts of pictures amongst the flames, burning coal and embers. Once it is dark, without a light on in a room, the firelight creates constantly moving images, patterns and shadows against the walls, furniture and curtains.
Usually, you can hear a coal fire. It crackles and even roars as it burns. There is a particular smell also, especially from the smoke. Naturally, we feel the warmth too. In fact the only sense which a coal fire does not usually affect is taste.
It is always tempting to romanticise the past and we need to remind ourselves that traditional coal fires involved a lot of hard work. Apart from dealing with the ashes and dust, open fires need to be watched and guarded. Regularly, someone has to stop what they are doing, go outside to the coal-house or bunker and bring in more coal for the fire. It is difficult to control the heat. Many readers will remember waiting for the fire to burn well before a room was warm. There was no instant heat at the turn of a dial.
This month’s photograph from the late 1970’s, which is used by kind permission of Mr. C. Matchett, shows another issue and a scene that was once familiar. On this winter’s day, a load of concessionary coke has been left on the pavement for the family to carry into their fuel store.
On the other hand, having an open fire meant that you could toast bread on a toasting fork. Such a simple thing delivered a very special taste as butter melted into the warm bread, a taste that no electric toaster can reproduce. Readers who lived through the 1940’s and 1950’s will recall cooking with coal on a range or grate. A kettle always rested on a trivet over the flames. Baking and roasting were done in the oven at the side so that a great deal of experience was needed to cook a meal.
Whilst living rooms were generally warm and cosy, the rest of the house could be, and often was, cold. Frost on the inside of bedroom windows was not unusual as you woke up on a winter morning. “Jack Frost has been!” was the call as the intricate patterns were revealed behind the bedroom curtains. Extra blankets were piled on the beds and hot water bottles placed between the sheets. Some older houses had fireplaces in bedrooms. These were seldom used by most families unless someone was ill.
No matter what cold, damp weather this January brings, thankfully we will be warm inside our homes. We will have the central heating switched on. It will have been programmed to give heat as and when we need it. We can use all our rooms in comfort and sleep beneath our lightweight duvets. Yet, when we walk into any building that has an open fire, it has an immense attraction and we find ourselves drawn towards it.
The coal fire is long gone at the Old Station but we like to think that a warm welcome awaits all members and visitors. On behalf of the Committee and volunteers, Happy New Year.
February 2019
Quarrying in Whitwick – Early History
What do these local buildings have in common: Grace Dieu Priory; the Man Within Compass pub (aka The Rag & Mop); the dam wall of Blackbrook Reservoir and Mount St. Bernard Abbey? The answer is that they were all built with Whitwick stone, the theme of this month’s article from Whitwick Historical Group. The photograph from our archive shows a remarkable scene taken in Whitwick’s Forest Rock Quarry. It’s caption refers to the 150 ton stone which reputedly was the largest single block excavated in any know quarry at that time (1911).
Quarrying is one of our oldest industries and still a very significant aspect of Leicestershire’s economy. Archeologists have shown that stone from Charnwood Forest has been used for over 6,000 years. About 4,500 B.C. local rocks, most probably collected from the surface of the ground, were fashioned into polished axe-heads. There is evidence that the Romans used Charnwood stone too.
Local rocks are ideal for construction purposes and the production of crushed stone, known as aggregates, because they are so hard. The rocks are amongst the oldest in Britain, over six hundred million years old, and were formed when molten magma from island volcanoes cooled and solidified. Today we see these distinctive rocks around us in the rocky outcrops in our landscape and the countless miles of dry stone walls as well as in buildings. The rock has a grey colour but closer inspection reveals a variety of other shades, especially when the rock is wet.
There are no active quarries in Whitwick now but readers will be aware of the huge Peldar Tor Quarry by Leicester Road, headquarters of Midland Quarry Products Limited. Yet, the first village quarries were located elsewhere. Two important quarries were in Cademan Street, one on each side of the road; another was close to Grace Dieu Road at Carr Hill. Smaller sites can be identified in the rugged area north of the village.
The development of large scale quarrying in Whitwick was prompted by the increased demand for better highways in the nineteenth century. Crushed stone was constantly required for road building, repair and improvement (as it is today). In 1893, the Whitwick Granite Company was established by local businessmen and, initially, forty men were employed at Forest Rock Quarry north of Leicester Road. We can only imagine how strenuous and back-breaking the work was since there were few machines. Some of the workers in the photograph look very young and none of them seem to be wearing any protective clothing.
The story of Whitwick’s quarries includes several themes such as transport, technology and environmental concerns and these will be explored in future articles. In the meantime, there is an outstanding collection of quarry photographs at the Old Station which the group is happy to show to interested visitors.
