The Chimes estate is one of four new housing estates in the southern side of Loughborough. It was built by David Wilson Homes between around 2017 and 2019, and I went inside this medium-sized estate for the first time this April.
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| The drainage pond at the eastern end of the estate, at the end of John Boden Way, as seen from Allendale Road. On the far right is the Woodthorpe Lodge Care Home. |
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| Houses on John Boden Way, at the front of the estate, facing Allendale Road. |
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| The entrance to John Boden Way, on Allendale Road. |
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| John Boden Way, as seen from its entrance with Allendale. John Boden Way is named after John Boden, a business partner of John Heathcoat, who was the inventor of the twist net lace machine. |
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| Houses on John Boden Way facing Allendale Road. |
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| John Boden Way, looking towards Braid Close. |
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| John Boden Way. |
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| There is a park at the centre of the estate with a split playground, which seems to have been on the site of a playground that jutted out of the neighbouring Shelthorpe estate into the now-built-over field. |
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| Lace Avenue. |
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| John Boden Way. The way this road goes around the T-junction at the bottom of the park is a little peculiar, if you ask me... |
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| John Boden Way, looking back towards Allendale Road. |
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| John Boden Way, looking towards the other end. |
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| John Boden Way, looking towards Allendale Road. You see, the peculiarity of this road is that it continues towards the left, while Lace Avenue goes toward the right. An earlier design for this estate gives John Boden Way a more gentle curve to the east instead of this T-junction. |
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| Actually, the layout of newer housing estates can be rather bizarre, with one street having multiple branches; yet another arm of John Boden Way faces the park. |
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| Bobbin Drive as seen from the middle of the park. |
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| John Boden Way as seen from the middle of the park. |
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| The smaller children's playground, with Bobbin Drive in the background. A favourite pic from this journey. |
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| Another favourite of mine is this photo at the top of the park, looking towards Bobbin Drive. Also, you might be interested to know that an alleyway runs from the top of the park to Manor Drive, within the Shelthorpe estate. |
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| We continue up Bobbin Drive... |
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| …which I personally think could be connected to the northern end of Highland Drive... |
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| …and then we turn back. |
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| Another view of the park. |
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| A more general view of the park. |
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| Bobbin Drive, looking towards its end... |
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| …and toward Lace Avenue. |
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| The junction of Lace Avenue, Bobbin Drive and Braid Close. |
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| Bobbin Drive, with the park on the left. |
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| Lace Avenue. |
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| Braid Close, looking toward Allendale Road. |
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| Lace Avenue, looking towards John Boden Way. |
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| Lace Avenue |
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| Braid Close. |
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| By the bottom playground, looking towards Lace Avenue. |
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| John Boden Way. |
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| The short footpath leading to the eastern end of the estate. |
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| Looking back towards the park. |
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| John Boden Way. It's always John Boden Way! |
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| On the far left is the Woodthorpe Lodge care home. |
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| Looking through the footpath back towards Lace Avenue. |
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| John Boden Way. |
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| In the park again, looking toward John Boden Way and the aforementioned other footpath. |
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| Lace Avenue. |
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| Another general view of the park. |
Something that surprised me about this estate: although it looks like quite a pleasant estate (and indeed, some of my photos do make the place look rather flattering), a Leicestershire Live news article last December claimed that life on the estate was 'unbearable', with reports of vandalism, drunkenness, verbal abuse and sexual activities in the park itself. Yes, this 'ere park.
These unfortunate circumstances are possibly due to the proximity of the aforementioned Shelthorpe council estate, which borders the Chimes estate on the north and is directly connected by the aforementioned footpath. If you're from the UK, you will know that council estates are quite often... problematic (some are so bad that some councils just decide to knock all the houses down and start over!); I know this first-hand as I have lived all my life on a council estate, and have unfortunately witnessed or experienced all the issues I listed above (though the only incidence of the last issue in particular that I remember witnessing didn't occur on my estate, or any council estate, for that matter.)
Yet if one walks around such an estate during the day, as I did, often one would notice nothing unusual; the most unusual thing that I saw when I visited this estate was a boy on an electric go-kart who said to me "good evening"... in the mid-afternoon!
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| Bobbin Drive. |
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| Lace Avenue. |
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| John Boden Way. |
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| And we walk away, taking one last look over the pond at this housing estate. |
In short, it looks like quite a pleasant housing estate, but actually living on it is apparently another matter entirely.
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