Lydia Collins was born in Dog and Gun Yard, Loughborough, in 1862.

The previous censuses show that Dog and Gun Yard consisted of one or more dwellings behind the Dog and Gun beerhouse, Wood Gate, housing four or five families.

It is interesting to note that, in 1861, one of these families consisted of Selina Lester, a single parent, and her son, Isaac. Selina Lester later married John Cooper, a shoemaker, and later still married Charles Collins, Lydia's widowed father.