Town of Two Fathers

ARUBA was selected by North West Leicestershire District Council (NWLDC) to work alongside the Coalville Heritage Society on the design of six lecterns for The Town of Two Fathers — a new heritage trail celebrating the birth and growth of Coalville. With production and installation already contracted separately by the council, our role was to take the trail’s content and shape it into a set of lecterns that would genuinely engage people exploring the town.

The trail tells the story of Coalville’s beginnings through its two “fathers”: William Stenson, who sank a mine shaft at Long Lane in the 1820s and proved the presence of coal in what was then remote countryside, and George Stephenson, who developed the Snibston collieries in the early 1830s and brought the railway to the area. Their work transformed a scattering of farmland into an industrial settlement, and eventually into the modern town of Coalville. Working closely with the Coalville Heritage Society, we distilled that history into six engaging lecterns sited at key points around the town, each helping visitors piece together the story of how Coalville came to be — from the discovery of coal beneath the ground to the town that grew up around it.

It was great working with the Coalville Heritage Society and NWLDC on this trail, helping give Coalville’s rich industrial heritage a lasting and accessible presence on its own streets.