Loughborough

Loughborough is a market town in Leicestershire, recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. In 1495 a school was established in the parish church with money left by Thomas Burton, a local wool merchant. The surrounding countryside and its routes connected the town with other Midland markets. In the early nineteenth century the inventor John Heathcoat developed a machine for making lace-like net. His business moved to Hathern near Loughborough, where its product became known as bobbinet. In 1816 attackers destroyed 55 of its frames, and Heathcoat moved the operation to Devon. The episode shows both the opportunities and the tensions created by mechanised textile production in the district.