Description

As a market town conveniently located on major transport routes, Loughborough historically has offered visitors and inhabitants a large number of drinking establishments - pubs; taverns; coaching inns; post-houses and beer or ale houses - and the town was once home to the extensive Midland Brewery Company on Derby Road, close to the canal. As the town grew rapidly during industrialisation, the demand for more inns, beerhouses and off-licences grew too and in 1889 264 establishments were licensed to sell beer in Loughborough. By the 21st century this had shrunk to about a fifth of this total and in this book author Lynne Dyer surveys the drinking establishments in Loughborough which were in existence immediately before the pandemic of 2020-21 and those that have re-opened since that time, tracing their history and fortune. The diversity of these survivors is celebrated, ranging from historic buildings such as the Loughborough Arms in Baxter Gate, originally a coaching inn on the Earl of Moira's land known as Rose and Crown, which was also used as a venue for land and property auctions, inquests, and the annual celery show, the Royal Oak on Leicester Road, built to serve the turnpike road which also hosted auctions and inquests and the Paget Arms in Paget Street a fine red brick building, on the corner of Paget Street and Oxford Street, built at the centre of a Victorian housing development for workers in Loughborough's expanding industries, to the recently constructed such as The Project in Market Street.In Loughborough Pubs, author Lynne Dyer takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the town's watering holes, many of which have retained features and traditions of previous ages. Brimming with quirky tales and fascinating facts, this carefully crafted guide initiates readers into the fascinating history of Loughborough's pubs.