retiredmartin

March 2025. Loughborough.

“You gone ? Where you off to ?” texts Mrs RM, waking up to a cold cup of coffee and sourdough with marmite an hour after I’d left for the tram.

“Lutterworth. Meeting Quinno. I did tell you“.

I probably didn’t tell her, but she wouldn’t have come anyway, knowing she’d “only get p****d” and not enjoy the cultural delights of Loughborough.

Hang on, did I say Lutterworth ? Always get them mixed up. No Bass in Loughy, as the Uni students don’t call it.

But a town I thought I knew, but with little to drag me back since a post-COVID brewery tap, I couldn’t be sure.

Blimey, it feels a lot bigger than its 30,000 odd souls.

What ! The population is 64,884, which is more than happy Hereford. OK, nearly a third of those are students, the irreligious ones who worship lycra and jogging.

I digress. So, away from the huge Uni campus (James visited in 2016), what have we got for a growing Leicestershire town with a steam railway and a real one. Oh, and a Bellfoundry.

Well, one of the best shop signs ever (ever).

I’d persuaded Quinno to meet up following his escape from Reading etc branch, partly in the hope of some Bass. You can’t expect someone from Berks to appreciate culture, so I did the All Saints first.

There’s always one old non-ecclesiastical building in the church quarter; here it’s Charles Lowe’s rambling antiques shop.

The dullish pubs include the (apparently) misnamed Three Nuns. A complete misunderstanding about what those nuns were doing, it seems.

Loughborough is what’s called a campus university (see also : Warwick), with students required to remain in their own quarters, their award winning Students Bar supplied with Bass Madri so they never need visit the centre.

Which means that I feel positively youthful entering the unbearably plain Rushes shopping centre,

where I get horribly lost.

Hey ! You can’t call a shop that, surely ?

And then I find my bearings, somewhere near the craft sounding Tap & Clapper;

I made a mental note to investigate later, but the Untappd reviews weren’t encouraging…