History of Leicestershire

Sewstern Lane (also known as The Drift) is an old road which was used throughout the Middle Ages, probably as the most direct way between the great fairs of Nottingham and Stamford. A more direct route came into use later via Stonesby and Waltham on the Wolds. Sewstern Lane became less used after the mid 17th century, apart from its use by the Earls of Rutland on their journeys to London from Belvoir. When coaches started to run in the later 17th century a different route was taken via Stretton, Colsterworth and Great Ponton since Sewstern Lane would have provided insufficient staging posts where food for men and horses would be available. It continued in use as a drove road for cattle until the advent of railways changed the means of transport.[6]

The plateau round Tilton was a meeting place for prehistoric tracks: one of these which is called in its latter stages Ridgemere Lane runs north of Cold Newton, by New York farm to the edge of the flood plain of the Wreak near Syston. Part of it coincides with parish boundaries, proof that it predates the delimiting of parishes in the pre-Conquest era. Another old way goes above Lowesby and South Croxton and comes down to the edge of the plain at Queniborough. No dating of these two tracks is possible except that they are pre-Roman in origin.^[7]

Another very old road, perhaps a true ridgeway of the Bronze Age, comes westwards from Stamford and follows a limestone ridge then goes by Edith Weston, Manton and Martinsthorpe (a deserted village) to enter Leicestershire near Withcote. It goes from there along the high ground through Halstead and so to Tilton. From Tilton it continues westward by Billesdon Coplow and the site of the abandoned village of Ingarsby; near Scraptoft it follows Scraptoft Lane and reaches the gravel terrace by the banks of the Soar where Leicester would in later times be founded. It is not certain that this was a through route in prehistoric times but it was such in the Middle Ages and was used by Leicester merchants to reach the fairs of Stamford.^[8]

Roman roads

There are about 76 miles of Roman roads in the county: these are well marked on Ordnance Survey maps. Another Roman road, Watling Street, forms the county's boundary with Warwickshire. The longest single stretch of road is from High Cross to the vanished Roman station of Vernemetum. This passes through Leicester and is part of the Fosse Way, constructed about 46-48 AD. The section northwards to Vernemetum forms the present main road to Newark. The next road in age is Watling Street, which dates from 50-51 AD. The road from Leicester to Mancetter (Manduessum) was probably made some 20 years later than Watling Street. Parts of this route became disused in Anglo-Saxon times as that people established no villages nearby.^[9]

Medieval roads and bridges

The Anglo-Saxons were not road makers but the paths and tracks which connected their villages with those nearby form the basis for the modern road system. There are some green tracks in the county of probable Anglo-Saxon origin which are also followed by parish boundaries (these are often called "The Mere", mere meaning boundary). One of these runs from Countesthorpe towards Gilmorton and another, long known as "The Old Mere", from the Wigston Magna - Newton Harcourt road nearly to Houghton on the Hill. In the 13th and 14th centuries various fairs and markets were established in some of the villages; those that prospered led to the villages becoming market towns. Between fair and market towns roads became established and communication was also aided by the building to bridges. Most of the medieval bridges of the county outside Leicester were built in the second half of the 13th century or very early in the 14th. None of these early stone bridges survives but there are some later ones in existence at Aylestone, Anstey, Enderby Mill (the road to it was diverted away when turnpikes were built) and Rearsby. These are of uncertain date but probably not earlier than the 15th century.^[10]

Rutland and Leicester

In 1974, due to the Local Government Act 1972, the county of Rutland was annexed to Leicestershire as a district, and Leicester's county borough status was abolished, it becoming a district also.

In 1974, the

Early history

The earthworks of Leicestershire include hill-top camps of the 1st century BC and the sites of deserted villages abandoned in the later Middle Ages. There are hill-forts, Roman camps (e.g. Ratby), linear earthworks, castle-sites (e.g.Hallaton), moated homesteads and sites of deserted villages (e.g. Ingarsby). The remains of prehistoric burial mounds and tumuli are scanty. The county was sparsely populated up to the 10th century AD and a large part of it was thickly wooded areas of heavy clay. However, during the rest of the Middle Ages most of the land was progressively cleared and settled; so that it became populous and prosperous, but more so in the eastern half and in the southeast.^[11]

Together with Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland and Northamptonshire Leicestershire was inhabited by the ancient British tribe formerly known as

The crest of the county council, and the emblem of

• History of England
• Corieltauvi
• Five Burghs
• Diocese of Leicester
• House of Beaumont
• Leir of Britain
• List of lost settlements in the United Kingdom#Leicestershire
• List of hundreds of England and Wales#Leicestershire

References

Further reading

Published in the 18th-19th centuries

• John Throsby (1789) Select Views in Leicestershire, from Original Drawings, containing historical and descriptive accounts of castles, religious houses, and seats in that county
• --do.-- (1790) Supplementary Volume to the Leicestershire Views, containing a Series of Excursions to the Villages and Places of Note in that County
• John Nichols (1795–1815). History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester. London: Nichols & Son. 4 vols. (Nichols included most of Throsby's work in his History of the county of Leicester).
  • Volume 1, part 1
  • v.1 part 2
  • v.3 part 1
  • v.4, part 2
• hdl:2027/mdp.39015063565736
  (includes Leicestershire)
• Curtis, John (1831) A Topographical History of the County of Leicester. Ashby-de-la-Zouch: W. Hextall
• OCLC 2127940
  .
• History, Gazetteer, and Directory of the Counties of Leicester and Rutland. Sheffield: William White. 1863.
• "Leicestershire Section". Trades' Guide for Midland Counties. Birmingham: Rominson & Co. 1870.
• John Parker Anderson (1881), "Leicestershire", Book of British Topography: a Classified Catalogue of the Topographical Works in the Library of the British Museum Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, London: W. Satchell
• Black's Guide to the Counties of Leicester & Rutland, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1884
• Handbook for Travellers in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire (3rd ed.), London:
  OL 6924846M

• "Leicestershire", Chambers's Encyclopaedia, London: W. & R. Chambers, 1901
• Fortescue, G. K., ed. (1902). "Leicestershire". Subject Index of the Modern Works Added to the Library of the British Museum in the Years 1881-1900. London.
  hdl:2027/uc1.b5107012.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
  )
• "Leicestershire" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 393–395.
• Victoria County History: Leicestershire on the website of British History Online (University of London & History of Parliament Trust):
  • Volume 2, 1954 by W. G. Hoskins (editor) assisted by R. A. McKinley. "A part-volume, detailing the history of the religious houses of the county."
  • Volume 4 by R. A. McKinley (editor) 1958 "Thematic and topographical accounts of the city of Leicester, as well as histories of parishes added to the city since 1892."
  • Volume 5 by J. M. Lee, R. A. McKinley 1964. "Covers the thirty-eight parishes of Gartree hundred and also the town of Market Harborough."
• Hoskins, W. G. (1957) Leicestershire: an illustrated essay on the history of the landscape. London: Hodder & Stoughton

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of Leicestershire.

• My Leicestershire History
• "Leicestershire", Historical Directories, UK: University of Leicester