The headteacher streets
Loughborough Grammar School has had a presence in Loughborough since around 1495, being founded as part of a bequest made by the estate of Thomas Burton, a wealthy local wool merchant. The school was originally placed in the porch of the Church of St Peter and St Paul, now known as All Saints with Holy Trinity. As numbers of pupils increased, the teaching moved into the body of the church, before moving into a separate building in the churchyard. In 1825 the teaching moved to a new building on nearby Church Gate, before re-locating to the present site, off Leicester Road, in 1852. The first headteacher at the new site was Rev'd John George Gordon, who held the position from 1852 until 1860.
 |
| View of Loughborough Grammar School |
In 2012, ahead of the Olympics being held in London, and ahead of some national sports teams being hosted in Loughborough, the area around the Midland Railway Station was developed. This resulted in a new footbridge over the track; a newly configured car park; a new road (Station Boulevard, linking Nottingham Road to the Meadow Lane and Belton Road area of town, and bypassing the town centre); a play park called Sidings Park, all on what had been derelict land beside Burder Street, and many new housing developments and light industrial units.
 |
| New park off Burder Street and Station Boulevard |
Between some of those new flats off Station Boulevard, leading to some small industrial units, and the new location for the driving test centre, is a short cul de sac called Gordon Road. Perhaps this is named after Rev'd John G. Gordon, that first headteacher based in the buildings on Burton Walks, which was off Leicester Road in one direction, and Burton Walks in the other?
 |
| Gordon Road at its junction with Station Boulevard |
 |
| Gordon Road |
Rev'd Gordon had studied at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, was an ex-scholar and gold medallist at Trinity College, Dublin. His post immediately prior to coming to Loughborough was that of Classical Master in Cheltenham College. According to the Coventry Herald, in his position as headteacher at Loughborough, Gordon's salary was approximately £200 a year.
Rev'd Gordon moved from his post at Loughborough in 1860, to become principal of the Collegiate Institution, at Nottingham Hill Terrace. In fact, Rev'd Gordon left his position at the Loughborough Grammar School under something of a cloud, so it is perhaps unlikely that this new road, Gordon Road, would be named in his honour.
It is also unlikely that Gordon Street, which used to exist off Hartington Street which at the time was off Nottingham Road, close to the I & R Morley hosiery factory, was in honour of the former headteacher. These particular streets, now demolished, were probably constructed around 1885, rather like those on the 'Messenger village' around the Oxford Street area, and as such it is more likely that Gordon Street was named for General Charles George Gordon, who had died on 26th January 1885.
 |
| Gordon Street, now demolished |
And so, back to headteachers, in October 1860, Loughborough Grammar school advertised for a new headteacher, quoting a salary of £200 and with residence, the gross value being estimated at £600 per year. The Reverend James Wallace was duly appointed.
Rev'd Wallace had graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge, had been curate of Littlebury, Chaplain in the Crimea, and immediately before coming to Loughborough, he was headteacher of Peterborough Cathedral School. Rev'd Wallace remained in his post at Loughborough for around 15 years, and the position was only again advertised upon his death in November 1875. It would be another 50 or more years until Rev'd Wallace, and his successor, John Brise Colgrove, were remembered in the creation of streets off Beacon Road, called Wallace Road, and Colgrove Road. Wallace Road links Beacon Road with Forest Road, and Colgrove Road curves around to enter Wallace Road close to its end near Forest Road.
 |
| Looking along Wallace Road towards Beacon Road |
 |
| Looking along Wallace Road towards Forest Road. Note one entrance to Colgrove Road on the right. |
 |
| Where Colgrove Road meets Beacon Road |
Colgrove was a graduate of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and had come to Loughborough from Rossall School in Fleetwood, which had been founded relatively recently, in 1844, as a sister college to Marlborough, which was founded in 1843. Colgrove continued in his position as headteacher at Loughborough until 1893, at which time he formed a new school in Loughborough, at Burton House, at the end of what was then Gregory Street, but is probably now where there are flats on Moira Street.
 |
| Looking along Gregory Street from Leicester Road, toward what would have been Burton House |
Being a graduate of University College, Oxford, the next headteacher, Cecil William Kaye, broke the mould! Immediately prior to being appointed to replace Colgrove, Kaye had been an assistant master at Uppingham School, in Rutland. Kaye held the position of headteacher at Loughborough Grammar School until 1900, when he moved to The Modern School, Bedford, before retiring to Keswick. There is no street in Loughborough named in honour of Kaye.
Kaye's successor, Bingham Dixon Turner, like James Wallace before him, was a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge. Turner held a variety of positions before coming to Loughborough, most recently that of Rector of Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow. During his 19-year period as headteacher, Turner's son, Roger Bingham Turner, was killed during the First World War, and the headteacher and his wife gave a clock with chimes to the school as a memorial to their son.
 |
| The inscription on the larger bell to the left, in memory of Roger Bingham Turner |
 |
| The edge of the clock, viewed from the Grammar School tower |
It is believed that Bingham Dixon Turner himself is honoured in the short, residential street, a cul-de-sac called Turner Avenue, which is close to both Wallace Road and Colgrove Road, but on the other side of Beacon Road. It is also believed that Turner Avenue was the last of the roads in Loughborough to be named after a former headteacher of the Loughborough Grammar School.
 |
| Looking down Turner Avenue |
Streets: Colgrove Road, Gordon Road, Gordon Street, Turner Avenue, Wallace Road
Category: J Names of personal origin, K Propitious
Map co-ordinates: F7 Colgrove Road, Turner Avenue, Wallace Road G5 Gordon Road, H5 Gordon Street
You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:
Dyer, Lynne (2020). The headteacher streets. Available from: https://lynneaboutthestreetsofloughborough.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-headteacher-streets.html [Accessed 30 September 2021]
Lynne
Comments
Post a Comment