Mystery object discovered in Groby back garden

August 2019

When the late Ken Wilson moved into a newly built home on Crane Ley Road in the 1960's one of the challenges he faced was turning the blank canvas at the back of the house into a restful, and perhaps productive, family garden. He had no great expectations about the quality of the soil but was surprised when on one part of his plot his spade hit something solid just a few inches below the surface. And it wasn't just the odd brick left by the builders. This obstruction ran for 5 feet in one direction and 2 feet in another. When excavated it appeared to be a giant slab nearly 3 inches thick. Definitely not the kind of rubble that you might load into your car and take to the tip, so it stayed in the garden.

But what is it?

Two years after Ken's death local historian David Ramsey was invited to take a look at it and has confirmed that, as suggested by near neighbour John Thornton, it is a cheese press base. Not just a cheese press base, it's a Groby slate cheese press base probably created in the mid nineteenth century at Home Farm, off Bradgate Hill, by Thomas Rudkin, perhaps using his steam drive saw before it blew up around 1857. In 1861 he was the lessee at the Groby and Swithland slate works.

By this time the heyday of Groby slate production had passed and David's research indicates that by the 1850s sales of slate were well into their decline. The gamble of building a new slate works, weighbridge and housing near Groby Lodge Farm (Bradgate Hill, Groby) in 1833 had not proved successful in increasing sales or gaining new markets. Trade had declined from a sales peak close to 1795 - the year the canal system reached Loughborough and allowed Welsh slate to reach Leicestershire. By 1852/53 slate sales records indicate that the goods were delivered almost entirely within the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland. There were exceptions, including a cheese press and small cattle trough for Calverton in Nottinghamshire. This suggests that the Groby cheese press is not a one off and might be one of many produced at Home Farm.

So what is a massive cheese press base doing in a back garden in Groby?

There are two clues which provide a likely explanation. Firstly it's too big to be something that the average quarry worker would have in his cottage. But, more convincingly, when the new housing estate was built Crane Ley Road took the line of a farm track to Popular Farm. The farm and outbuildings were at the junction of what we now know as Crane Ley Road and the slightly re-aligned Chapel Hill.

Many stone presses were built into the walls of the farmhouse or dairy. During demolition of the farm it's easy to visualise the conversation between the bulldozer driver and the site manager when a decision was needed on what to do with this huge slate slab.

The Spotlight would be pleased to hear from you if you have any information, or any recollections or reminiscences, about the Popular Farm. In the absence of any definitive information one can only speculate about cheese production at the farm. Dairy farms all over the county would have produced cheese for their local markets so it is likely that if any output from Popular Farm was produced for sale it would probably be destined for Leicester market. It is not known whether cheese was made until the farm closed.

What variety of cheese would have been made?

More speculation. It would be nice to think that perhaps Red Leicester was produced here in Groby. If cheese was produced for sale it might have been a good option. It would have given the farmer an earlier financial return as it matures faster than cheddar, and can be sold as young as two months. Red Leicester is a hard cheese, similar to Cheddar but much more moist, and crumblier with a milder flavour.

The history of Red Leicester dates back to the 17th century when farmers recognized the need to differentiate their cheeses from cheese made in other parts of the country. They decided that the colour of the cheese should denote its richness and creaminess. To set it apart from cheddar Red Leicester is coloured with a vegetable dye called annatto, though some producers may have used alternative colouring agents.. It has a 48% fat content and the colour indicates that the milk used has a high cream content.

“A good Leicester cheese can be identified by a firm body and a close, flaky texture,” says Cheese.com. “Though the cheese can be consumed young, to reach it's optimum flavour, it should be allowed to mature for six to nine months. A good cheese tastes slightly sweet with an almost caramel flavour and builds up a more robust taste as it ages.” And if you like a glass of wine with your cheese it seems that Red Leicester suits a full-bodied white wine such as Muscadet, Sancerre Chenin Blanc and Vouvray.

What's this machinery feature outside the Markfield Road barn conversion?

The use of a piece of machinery placed as a feature outside the Markfield Road barn conversion has been clarified by former Borough and Parish Councillor John Collins.

John writes : "The 'mystery' item found during the Barn conversion is a section of fast & loose line shaft normally used to transmit power from a stationary steam or I/C engine to machinery by means of flat belt drives. There is no doubt that this could have been used by a very progressive farmer to drive a very early milking machine or more likely a beet chopper or corn grinder for animal feed. However the close proximity of the Wharf Workshops up Fir Tree Lane to the Farm might well be where it came from as there was an engineering workshop there to maintain the quarry machinery, locomotives & rolling stock.

The name fast & loose refers to the pulleys on the shaft. If you look at the two double pulleys on the far end of the shaft one of the pulleys in each pair is fixed to the shaft & rotates when the shaft rotates, which is the fast (fixed) pulley which drives the machine. The other pulley of the pair is the loose pulley which remains un-driven by the shaft. This was necessary so the machine could be stopped without stopping the main drive engine.

The flat drive belt was shifted from the fast to the loose pulley to stop & start the machine; the belt shifting was sometimes done by a system of levers but was more often or not by the operator using a piece of wood. To stop the flat belts slipping under load a compound called belt-soap was applied to the surface of the belt in contact with the pulleys & this belt-soap was very attractive to mice & rats who used to run up & down the belts when the machines weren't working nibbling the soap & belt, which is why all workshops had at least one cat. Sometimes the rodents didn't jump off the belt when the machine was started first-thing in the morning & there could be a 'quishing' noise and some blood, this made the belt slip so more belt-soap was required to make the belt grip, which of course meant more food for the rodents & the cats."

John suggests a visit to www.oldengine.org/members/levans/lineshaft if you would like to look at some photos which put the piece opposite the barn conversions into context.