County in England
Leicestershire
A car-park king, a 5,000-1 league title, a cheese that can't be made in its own village: Leicestershire has a habit of springing surprises.
Key information
- County
- Leicestershire
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Richard III's remains, the Battle of Bosworth, Melton Mowbray pork pies, Stilton cheese, Leicester City's 2016 title
- What locals are called
- Leicestrians for people from Leicester; Leicestershire folk are usually just Leicestershire people
- Famous people
- David Attenborough, Gary Lineker, Joseph Merrick, Frank Whittle
- Football clubs
- Leicester City (the Foxes)
About Leicestershire
The king under the car park
In September 2012, archaeologists digging beneath a council car park in Leicester found a skeleton with a curved spine and a badly damaged skull. It was Richard III, the last English king to die in battle. He had been killed on 22 August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth, fought in the countryside near Market Bosworth. The defeat put Henry Tudor on the throne, though dynastic fighting rumbled on: the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487 is generally regarded as the last battle of the Wars of the Roses. Richard's body was displayed in Leicester and then buried in a Franciscan friary that was later lost beneath the town. The grave site is now preserved beneath a glass floor in the King Richard III Visitor Centre. In March 2015 he was reburied in Leicester Cathedral, after a procession through the streets of the county that had been his last battlefield.
Why a pie, a cheese and a hunt all point to Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray makes the pork pie that other pies imitate. The real thing uses uncured, grey-brown meat and a hand-raised crust that bakes free-standing, so it bulges at the sides instead of sitting in a tin. The name now has legal protection. Then there is Stilton. The blue cheese is made at Long Clawson in Leicestershire and at Colston Bassett in Nottinghamshire, yet it can't be made in the village of Stilton itself, which is in a different county. The rules say it must be made in Leicestershire, Derbyshire or Nottinghamshire. Red Leicester, the orange cheese, is another local classic. Melton was also the heart of English fox hunting in the 1800s, when wealthy riders flocked to the Quorn, Cottesmore and Belvoir hunts. Legend says the phrase "paint the town red" comes from a rowdy night there in 1837 involving the Marquess of Waterford. The story is more folklore than fact, but Melton tells it happily.
The year the Foxes won at 5,000-1
In 2015–16 Leicester City won the Premier League. Bookmakers had offered 5,000-1 before the season. Under Claudio Ranieri, with Jamie Vardy scoring freely, the Foxes did what almost nobody thought possible. It is regularly named as one of the greatest upsets in sporting history. The county is a sporting place in other ways too. Leicester Tigers are among English rugby's great names, and their Welford Road ground is a famous cauldron. Loughborough University is a major force in British athletics and sports science. Donington Park hosts motor racing and the Download rock festival.
A schoolboy, a fossil and some very old rocks
Charnwood Forest in the north-west has some of the oldest rocks in England, and a surprising place in the story of life. In 1957 a schoolboy named Roger Mason spotted a frond-shaped imprint on a rock face. It turned out to be Charnia, one of the earliest complex organisms ever found, more than 550 million years old. Nearby Bradgate Park is a deer park of bracken and boulders, and the ruined house there is linked to Lady Jane Grey, the "Nine Days' Queen". Herds of red and fallow deer still roam the park.
Big firsts from a quiet county
Thomas Cook, born in Melbourne, Derbyshire, in 1808, organised a rail excursion in 1841 from Leicester to a temperance meeting in Loughborough. It is often counted as the start of the modern package tour. In Lutterworth, John Wycliffe was rector in the 1300s and oversaw the first complete English translation of the Bible. Centuries later Frank Whittle's jet-engine work went on at a Lutterworth factory, and a monument there commemorates it. Loughborough's bell foundry cast Great Paul for St Paul's Cathedral in 1881. It weighs about 17 tonnes. The town's Carillon Tower, built as a war memorial, is a landmark of its own. Back in Leicester, the city has hosted one of the biggest Diwali celebrations outside India. Walkers crisps were first made there, the National Space Centre sits on the edge of town, and Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, was born in the city in 1862.
Castles, canals and a castle that isn't pronounced as spelled
Belvoir Castle, in the Vale of Belvoir, is pronounced "Beaver". Local people will gently correct you. Ashby-de-la-Zouch's ruined castle inspired scenes in Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. Foxton Locks, on the Grand Union Canal, are two staircases of five locks each, separated by a passing pound, that raise boats up a hillside. Close by was a boat lift, an engineering wonder that did not last. Steam trains run on the Great Central Railway at Loughborough, one of the few places where you can see main-line steam in both directions on a double track.