Alderman Joseph Griggs, First Mayor of Loughborough

20 March 2015

Alderman Joseph Griggs, J.P., D.L., became first mayor of Loughborough in November 1888.  Loughborough became a municipal borough in 1888 and thus, for the first time, had an efficient system of government.  Alderman Griggs was noted for his public spirit and the Loughborough Herald of 1889 states that ‘his popularity is equally as great with the toilers as it is with the gentry’.

‘Mountfields’ on Forest Road was built for him in 1878 and in his day, became famous for its garden parties, to which ‘the worthy burgesses and county friends of the town’ were invited.  Alderman Griggs most enduring monument was his donation of the Queen’s Memorial Baths (now Charnwood Museum) in Granby Street which cost £4000 to build and which he presented to the town in 1898.