A Trip Down Memory Lane, Leicester — Part 18 — Old Aylestone and Graves

I turned around and headed back to Aylestone Road, there is only one way in and out after all. I crossed over and headed up Cavendish Road.

On the corner with Richmond Road is the Church of the Nativity, now an ecumenical church. It had been built as the Aylestone Park Methodist Church, but had taken on the Anglican parish of St James the Lesser which had fallen into disrepair on nearby Lansdowne Road in the 1980’s. All that remains to tell us there was a church on Lansdowne Road is the fact that the new houses and flats built on the site of the old church is now called St James’ Court.

I carried on over to Grace Road, heading for the county cricket ground. The pub on Grace Road makes a much better photo than any I could get of the actual ground. Leicestershire were playing their last four day match of the season against the already crowned division two champions Lancashire. I had been to some of their first game of the season back in April when they played Sussex at Hove, much nearer to where I live now. They won that game and were top of the table. Then normal service resumed, as with the last four seasons we finished bottom of the table, not winning a game since that opener.

With a game being on there was no access to the site. Eight foot high walls surround most of the ground now. I had wanted to see if there was anything worth buying in the club shop. But they only have one inside the ground and you can only enter with a ticket. I think they are missing a trick.

I was now on Duncan Road and headed back down to Aylestone Road, heading out of the city now. This simple looking church is the Catholic Church of St Edward The Confessor. Despite its more modern look, this church was built in 1922. I remember coming here for midnight mass, the year we all stayed at my grandparents’ house for Christmas.

Close by, but occupied as it was a school day, so no photos, is another grand red brick school, this time the Granby School opened in 1889. The Granby name here, and elsewhere in the city (such as Granby Street), comes from the landowning Dukes of Rutland, as their eldest son would hold the title of Marquess of Granby until they inherited the Dukedom.

I walked past and onto Aylestone Hall Gardens. They seem so much smaller than I remember as a child, and the dividing trees and bushes aren’t as big as I remember.

The Hall itself looks like a more modern country house, but parts of it date back to the fourteenth century. However most of the Tudor touches were added during the Victorian era. The stable block was housing an arts and craft fair of some kind as I walked past to exit out the back of gardens onto Old Church Street so I could walk down to St Andrews.

Another of the “village” medieval churches in Leicester, St Andrew’s is another lovely Grade II* listed church, and seemed so peaceful. It was alas closed to visitors on a Monday lunchtime. Something I was getting very bored with by now.

I headed back up to Aylestone Road, passing what is St Andrew’s Church Hall. It is rented out as an events venue, and houses a couple of dance schools due to the sprung flooring.

Once back at Aylestone Road I decided to give my poor feet and legs a rest and got a bus back into the city centre. I was going to head to Knighton, but took the opportunity to change buses at the top of Welford Road.

In doing so, I took a photo of the first office I worked in for the Benefits Agency and my first full time job after finishing Polytechnic. This was the Norton Street office. The desks were all old and had recesses in them for workers to store their ashtrays. Then smoking was moved to the top floor corner smoking room. I met and worked with some great people here, and had some great nights out when a quick drink on a Friday evening ended up in me getting home some time on Sunday.

I got the bus as far as Welford Road cemetery. I had gone looking for the grave of Thomas Cook, which seemed appropriate on a weekend where the company that bore his name was dying. I had been years before, but despite the map showing prominent peoples’ graves, I couldn’t find it. I was told later it was now all overgrown with Ivy, so realise what I had missed, but I was reluctant to be moving the ivy on any gravestone.

What I did find by accident was this monument to John Flower. His book of lithographs, “Views of Ancient Buildings in the Town and County of Leicester”, is a work of wonder. There have been many prints of this reproduced over the years. I had a set of six of the landscape pictures in black and gold frames that I had been passed on by my mum, and her mum before. They were lost in a house move and storage situation when I left Leicester in 2001, and I still haven’t been able to find replacements for all six. If anyone interested in Leicester hasn’t come across John Flower’s works then I would suggest looking them up.

Part n-n-nineteen is going to be up next.