Loughborough Grammar and Commercial School
9 August 2020
‘Then came a momentous day in the history of the town when, on August 9th 1850 the Lord Bishop of Peterborough, George Davys, D.D., returned to his native town to lay the foundation stone of the new Grammar and Commercial School in what is now the Burton Walks, which was to replace the old Free School he had attended.
The day was made a general holiday, the bells in the Parish Church rang and, we are told, there was a “feeling of universal gladness and goodwill.”
Children were each given a penny bun. There were flags everywhere and a triumphal arch was erected at the entrance of Mr. Warner’s Park (the Elm’s Park), where a large number sat down to tea. A greasy pole and fireworks rounded off the entertainment.’
From ‘19th Century Loughborough’ by W. A. Deakin, The Echo Press Limited, 1974