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Leicestershire

Leicestershire, England

Leicestershire is an inland Midlands county. The county has a long tradition in many fields of engineering. It also has huge areas of countryside and is famed for its scenery.

Place Type: Historic County
Lat, Long: 52.640306,-0.956644
Grid Reference: SK706052
Country: England

GBPNID: 305829
Entry Type: Main listing (P)
URL: https://gazetteer.org.uk/place/Leicestershire,_305829

Explore Leicestershire on Wikishire

Watling Street, once the boundary of the Danelaw, forms most of the border with Warwickshire to the south-west. Close to this border lies Hinkley, one the county's largest towns. Hinkley is a traditional centre of the hosiery industry and the headquarters of Triumph Motorcycles. The Battle of Bosworth Field took place north-west of the town in 1485, the precise site of the battlefield, two miles south-west of Ambion Hill, was only located in 2009. In the far south of the county is the fine market town is Lutterworth where Frank Whittle developed some of the world's first jet engines at the British Thomson-Houston works during the late 1930s and the 1940s. Stanford Hall, a stately home built in the 1690s for Sir Roger Cave, lies in the far south of the county, close to the border with Northamptonshire.

Bosworth Battlefield

The River Soar, the principal river of Leicestershire, has its source midway between Hinckley and Lutterworth. It flows north to the county town, Leicester, in the centre of the shire.

Jewry Wall, Leicester

Leicester is a historic city with Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Danish and Mediæval roots under the modern city. The Jewry Wall is a substantial ruined wall of 2nd-century Roman masonry, with two large archways. The Cathedral Church of Saint Martin dates from the 11th century. The remains of King Richard III, killed at Bosworth field, were reinterred in the Cathedral in 2015. After the Battle, Richard's remains had been buried at the friary church in Greyfriars, a burial place only rediscovered in 2013. The original burial site is now a scheduled monument with a visitor centre.

Tomb of Richard III, Leicester Cathedral

South of Leicester lies Oadby, traditionally an upmarket part of the county and the site of Leicester Racecourse. Nearby is Wigston. The town of today is a conglomeration of villages, of which the heart is Wigston Magna also historically referred to as 'Wigston Two Steeples'.

Downstream from Leicester, the Soar continues northwards through the county. The village of Barrow upon Soar lies on its east bank. The village is famous for a plesiosaur excavated here in 1851, of the species Rhomaleosaurus megacephalus, nicknamed the "Barrow Kipper". Across the river is the upmarket village of Quorn. To the west of the River, close to the Nottinghamshire border, is the county's second largest town, Loughborough. The town has the world's largest bell foundry but is most famous for promoting sport and for the study of sports science.

The Grand Union Canal at Barrow upon Soar

Just north of Loughborough, the Soar becomes the border with Nottinghamshire finally flowing into the Trent at the very north of the county. The Trent forms the Derbyshire border to the west. In this northern spur of the county lie East Midlands Airport, the town of Castle Donington and the motorsports circuit of Donington Park.

The north-west of the county was formerly a coal-mining area. Coalville was created as a coal-mining town in the 18th century, and the marks of mining are everywhere, though the mines themselves closed in the 1990s. Other minings towns and villages in the area include Bagworth, Ellistown, Merry Lees, Desford, Snibston, Nailstone and Ravenstone. Shepshed, once a wool town, is now a dormitory town near the M1. To the north-west lies the market town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch with the ruined 12th-century Ashby Castle (EH). To the north of the town is Staunton Harold Hall, a large 18th-century listed country house built by the Earls Ferrers. The surrounding park includes the Holy Trinity Chapel (NT), unusual for being built during the Commonwealth era and a notable example of Gothic survival architecture.

Ashby Castle

Between Leicester, Loughborough and Coalville lies Charnwood Forest, an upland tract, undulating, rocky and picturesque, with barren areas. It also has some extensive tracts of woodland. On it lies the county top at Bardon Hill, one half of it quarried away. Nearby Beacon Hill is the site of a Bronze Age hill fort. Ulverscroft, a dispersed settlement in the west of the forest, has some well-known Arts and Crafts movement architecture including Stoneywell (NT) by Ernest Gimson. Kirby Muxloe Castle (EH) is an unfinished 15th-century fortified manor house in Kirby Muxloe, to the south of the forest.

Stoneywell

The east of the county is almost entirely rural, with many charming villages and rich farmland. Market Harborough lies at the southern border with Northamptonshire. The historic heart of the town lies in Leicestershire, north of the Welland. Launde Abbey is an Elizabethan manor house close to the Rutland border. Melton Mowbray, famous as home of the eponymous pork pie, lies in the north-east. To its south is Burrough Hill, an Iron Age hillfort commanding fine views over the surrounding countryside.

Burrough Hill

The Leicestershire Wolds stretch across the north-east of the county, along the Nottinghamshire border. This is reflected in many village names: Burton on the Wolds, Walton on the Wolds, Waltham on the Wolds. The Vale of Belvoir is an area of natural beauty on the borders of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Belvoir Castle, a Grade I listed stately home overlooking the Vale, lies in Leicestershire, though most of the walled garden lies in Lincolnshire.

Belvoir Castle

The shire was formed from a pre-existing Danish army-land in the 10th century, though the first surviving written reference to Leicestershire by name in English is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 1087, as 'Lægreceastrescir'. Leicestershire is considered to be the birthplace of fox hunting. The running fox is a common symbol in county organisations including Leicestershire County Cricket Club and Leicester City Football Club.

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