20 June 2023

For our first outing of the year, members of the Society ventured across the city to the Wigston Framework Knitters Museum, where we received a warm welcome from their team of friendly volunteers.

The stocking frame was invented near Nottingham in 1589 and by the 18^th century many agricultural workers in the East Midlands had a frame at home to supplement their income.  Nottingham came to specialize in knitting cotton, Derby in silk and Leicestershire in wool.  To produce each row of knitting on a frame required a sequence of eight operations using both hands and feet.  The frames would typically be operated by men, with women making up the knitted panels into garments such as stockings or gloves, while children were put to work winding wool onto bobbins.  Their products were taken to be sold at the Globe Inn in Leicester – so called because framework knitters used a glass globe filled with water to direct light to where they were working.

During the 19^th century, and despite the protests of the Luddites, wider frames were developed.  They could not be accommodated at home so they were housed in frame shops or larger factories.  Few of these frame shops have survived, though you can sometimes spot where they were by a row of windows just below the eaves of a building.  The Wigston Museum is a rare “time capsule” showing what they would have been like.  It comprises a master hosier’s house, with a separate building behind containing eight frames and a long bobbin-winding machine.  There is also a stove, which not only provided heat but was also used to melt lead for setting replacement needles in the machines.  Although Edgar Carter had closed his knitting business during the Great Depression, the government requested him to resume producing gloves for soldiers during the Second World War.  He continued alone until his death in 1951, followed soon afterwards by his wife, and the frame shop has hardly changed since then.  Our guide gave a brief demonstration on one of the frames that has been restored to working order.

Mr & Mrs Carter’s two daughters carried on living in the family home and they took the opportunity to make a few “modern” improvements, like replacing the tin bath in the kitchen with a fully plumbed-in bath – still in the kitchen!  But for the most part the house is lovingly preserved as it would have been in Victorian times, from the slightly oppressive Parlour – used only on special occasions – to the gadgets in the kitchen and the brass bedsteads upstairs.  The Museum is open to visitors on Sunday afternoons.  It also includes a small exhibition and delightful secret garden.

18 July 2023

You probably pass Abbey Park whenever you travel into Leicester but when did you last take time to explore it and how much do you know about its fascinating history?  On a showery evening in July, members of the Society resisted the temptations of the visiting funfair and we were treated to an excellent tour of the park by Blue Badge guide, Steve Bruce.

In the hundred years to 1880, the population of Leicester had grown six-fold and the town (not yet a city) was wealthy from the hosiery trade.  Spinney Hill Park and Victoria Park already existed but the Corporation proposed a prestigious new “people’s park” that would enhance the town and provide green space for residents of the densely terraced housing.  The chosen site was on a marshy island between two branches of the River Soar, which one critic described as “dank, damp and diptherious”.  Nevertheless, the Corporation bought 97 acres of land from the Earl of Dysart and ran a competition to design the new park.  It was won by William Barron, who created a layout full of sinuous curves to make the most of the available space.  He successfully drained the land by forming a boating lake in the centre, with water levels balanced between the higher canal on the east and the lower river on the west.  Barron was famed for his ability to move mature trees and many of those in the new park were brought from the grounds of the Corporation’s water works at Cropston.

The main entrance of the park was via a grand gateway on the newly constructed Abbey Park Road.  It was here that the Prince and Princess of Wales – the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra – performed the grand opening ceremony in 1882 and enormous crowds turned out to see them on the processional route from the town centre.  Alexandra also planted an oak sapling, which is now an impressive tree.  The main paths around the park were made wide enough for the wealthy to drive along in their carriages but there was something for everyone to enjoy, including locations for archery, fishing and swimming in the river.  The Victorians had a craze for all things Japanese – which also brought us The Mikado – and the Japanese garden still exists in an altered form.  However, the American garden has disappeared; I wonder what it would have contained?  Later additions to the park include a bowling green, a miniature railway and a sensory garden.  The formal bedding scheme is still beautifully maintained and its design is said to be based on the necklaces favoured by Princess Alexandra.

In the 1920s, the Earl of Dysart offered the Corporation another plot of land, this time on the west side of the river, which was the site of the old Leicester Abbey.  A new bridge was built and the extension to the park was opened in 1932, exactly 50 years after the original opening.  It accommodated a new café, tennis courts and a cricket oval, which later became the site for the fondly remembered Abbey Park Show.  Nothing now remains of Leicester Abbey itself but low walls have been built to mark its outline.  Founded in 1150, at one time the abbey was said to be the most impressive in the country after Westminster.  It was favoured as a place for clergy to stop between York and London – the most famous of them being Cardinal Wolsey, who died here in 1530 while returning to London to be tried for treason.  A memorial shows the likely position of his grave.  After the dissolution of the monasteries, the abbey’s gatehouse was converted into a dower house for the Cavendish family.  It was in turn burned down during the Civil War but partially survives as a ruin.  The walls of the abbey precinct are remarkably intact and it is worth admiring the decorative Tudor brickwork next time you are stuck in traffic along St. Margaret’s Way – or turning off to discover more of this fine example of Victorian civic pride.

21 February 2023

As expected, this talk attracted a large audience.  They were not disappointed!  Peter Smith, the Society’s secretary, brought to the evening, not only his knowledge of Roman history and legend, but also his personal experience of working as a volunteer, on the excavation of the Roman Villa in the summer of 2022.

Many of the audience might have forgotten much of what they learned about the Siege of Troy. and the intrigues which led up to it.  So, in the first part of his talk, Peter reminded us of Eris, the goddess of discord who, in a peevish moment, set up a beauty contest among three contestants.  This resulted in the judge, Paris, a young prince of the city of Troy, selecting Aphrodite.  All three contestants had set out to tempt Paris but Aphrodite had offered him the best gift of all - ‘the love of any woman he desired’.

Peter reminded his audience that the most beautiful woman in the world was Helen, so Paris travelled to Sparta in Greece, took Helen away from her husband, the King, and returned to Troy!  As a result, the Greeks launched a massive fleet of ships to retrieve her.  Thus began the 10-year Siege of Troy.

Hector, the son of King Priam, was the Trojan hero.  Achilles was the Greek hero.  Achilles (apart from his heel!) was invincible and, finally, he killed Hector.  Priam, wanting to give his son a hero’s funeral, offered a ransom for his body, as was the normal custom.   But Achilles refused to accept it and drove round and round the city walls, dragging the increasingly maimed body of Hector behind his chariot.  After the gods intervened, the corpse was handed back to King Priam in return for an ‘enormous treasure’. The days were numbered for the City of Troy and the siege was finally ended by a trick involving a wooden horse filled with Greek soldiers!!  One survivor was Aeneas, who, with a few followers, wandered the Mediterranean for many years.  It is claimed that his descendants later founded Rome.

By the 4th Century AD, that small settlement of Rome had grown into a massive prosperous empire.  Part of that empire was Britannia, which had been under Roman rule for almost 300 years.  This is where the Villa in Rutland enters the story.  The Romans had built a great road, an important road, between London and the north.  Just off the road was built a beautiful villa, probably by a wealthy Roman or a rich, British, nobleman and the owner decided to decorate the huge floor of his dining room with a beautiful mosaic.  This would impress his visitors and friends.  The Siege of Troy had taken place 1600 years earlier but the battle between Achilles and Hector was obviously still well known.

Peter moved on and reminded us that in the year 2020, another 1600 years later, “The Villa has now disappeared, and the land where it once stood is part of an arable farm in the small county of Rutland”. Covid has swept through the world, and many people’s places of employment are closed.  Jim Irvine, the son of a farmer moves back to his family farm to help his father, and, whilst wandering the fields, finds pieces of pottery.  On the internet, he finds aerial views of the farm and notices what appear to be the outlines of buildings.  After Jim and his dad dig a hole, they find part of a mosaic!  Fortunately, Jim’s interest in archaeology prompts him to seek expert help at this point and, after advice from the County’s Senior Archaeologist, Historic England commission an excavation led by the University of Leicester Archaeological Services.

After identifying the subject matter of the Mosaic as the battle between Achilles and Hector, the dig team then covered it to protect it over the winter.  Alongside this, towards the end of 2020, a couple of geophysical surveys of the area were carried out.  These revealed amazing results in terms of possible walls, columns, and posts underground.  Another survey revealed a circuit of ditches and walls and buildings in a central area.  This caused great excitement, as finding such a well-preserved villa was very rare.

In 2021, the excavation continued when students from the University worked there on a field study and the site was identified as having been in use late in the Roman occupation at a date between the third and fourth centuries A.D.  It appeared to have been in a large room with an apse at the north end.  On very informative photographs and plans, Peter identified columns and posts which might have supported a vaulted roof.  There was also evidence of underfloor heating from the hypocaust system, and a highly decorated mosaic was found in the main area.  Sadly, there were signs of damage to the mosaic from later burning by occupants who used the room for other purposes.  It appears that the mosaic was rectangular and divided into four panels.  Three panels depicted the Hector/ Achilles battle whilst the fourth one was undecorated.

Peter interpreted the panels and showed photographs of each one in detail.  One panel shows the battle on chariots between Achilles and Hector.  Achilles is naked; Hector is wearing a tunic.  The horses pulling the chariot are surprisingly detailed.

Panel Two is extensively damaged but it shows Achilles driving his chariot and pulling Hector’s body behind it, around the walls of Troy.  A dejected figure to the side of this scene shows King Priam, Hector‘s father, pleading for the return of his son’s body.

The final panel is very badly burnt on one side, but it shows Achilles triumphantly surrounded by the armour he has taken from Hector.  King Priam stands to one side with a figure carrying a huge pair of scales.  In one pan is Hector’s body; the other pan is empty, waiting for Priam to fill it with Hector’s body weight in gold.  There are other versions of this legend but the Villa owner obviously had his own ideas!

In British terms the standard of the mosaic is high and it was recorded as being the “most important mosaic to be discovered in Britain in the last 100 years”.  The find made international news after a press release in 25th November 2021.  Up until then it had been guarded and kept secret to preserve it from ‘visitors’ and others.  It also featured on television in “Digging for Britain”.

When a call went out for volunteers in 2022, Peter Smith responded and, over a one-week period in August, joined professional and volunteer archaeologists at the site near Ketton in Rutland.  His ‘homework’ beforehand included familiarising himself with 11 substantial documents and a lengthy ‘Recording Manual’, advising on what to look for, how to record one’s finds and, very importantly, where any object was found, using site coordinates.  Personal photography was discouraged but we were shown some excellent, official photographs of the site, of the site’s layout, the “well” area on which Peter had worked, and, of course, the wonderful mosaics. The finds were impressive with pottery, artefacts, roof tiles, cooking vessels, animal bones, oyster shells(!), jewellery, (probably) a well, the walls of innumerable other buildings, and even a Roman stylus for writing in wax tablets.  All the finds were carefully tabulated, preserved and are now being examined.

Our speaker’s enthusiasm and deep knowledge were apparent throughout his talk.  He described how the site and the excavation were managed and stressed the great support and camaraderie within the team.  He summed up his colleagues as a diverse group, some talkative, some quite reserved.  He had joined in interesting personal and archaeological debates and urged his audience to take up such an opportunity if it ever came their way.  He had been present at a moment in history and, for one hour, we, as the audience, felt part of it as well!!  Thank you, Peter.

17 January 2023

Fans of TV’s Grand Designs would have enjoyed our January meeting, which was approximately the 15^th century equivalent!  Taking the Kevin McCloud role was our old friend Peter Liddle, who used a rare set of surviving accounts to lead us through the process of building of Kirby Muxloe Castle.  Though Kevin has reported on plenty of setbacks over the years, they have never included the execution of the building’s owner…

After tracing the history of castles and brick buildings in Leicestershire, Peter explained the rise of the Hastings family, who acquired land at Kirby through marriage in the early 14^th century.  William Hastings supported the Yorkist cause during the Wars of the Roses.  He was knighted, married well and became a great friend and ally of Edward IV, who appointed him as Lord Chamberlain and gave him many estates and positions of power in the Midlands.  By 1474, the Lancastrian threat seemed to be over and Hastings was granted a licence to “crenellate and empark” at three places in Leicestershire.  He began with the large stone castle at Ashby that survives in ruined form today.  We don’t know whether he ever built anything at Baggrave but by 1480 work was under way at Kirby Muxloe.  Roger Bowlott from New Parks was appointed to oversee the project.

The 1480 accounts begin with making carts and buying oxen to pull them.  (Nothing came “off the shelf” in those days!)  Wood was purchased to fuel the kilns, which would eventually produce over 1.3 million bricks.  A team of “ditchers”, nearly all with Welsh names, spent a year digging the moat.  Meanwhile, slaters were repairing the existing manor house on the site – which might have been William Hastings’ birthplace – so presumably he planned to incorporate it in the new castle.

In 1481, foundations were dug and work began on the gatehouse and flanking towers.  A master mason oversaw the stonework around the windows and doors, while a team of Flemish bricklayers and “hewers” were employed for the main walls – building in brick having been practised for much longer in the Low Countries than in England.  The hewers’ brick-cutting skills can be seen in the curving vaults of the spiral staircases.  The accounts reveal the names of many of the other workers, which quite often relate to their trades, such as Smyth, Turner and Plummer.  We also learn where all the raw materials came from and, of course, their cost. 

At the end of the first year, the incomplete walls were protected with straw over the winter.  Work continued through 1482, by which time the structure was high enough for a “jenne” or hoist to be needed.  However, 1483 brought the unexpected death of Edward IV while his son Edward V was still a child.  This led to a power struggle between the family of Edward’s queen (Elizabeth Woodville of Groby) and his brother (the future Richard III).  William Hastings supported Richard until the latter seized the throne for himself, whereupon Richard had William summarily executed.  As you might expect, this caused the building at Kirby Muxloe to be stopped for a time.  However, William was given an honourable burial at Windsor and his lands were not confiscated so, after a delay, his widow resumed work on the project.

The final year of the accounts is 1484.  Masons, carpenters and plumbers were still on site and we are told that the gatehouse was thatched – an unconventional material for a castle!  Peter’s conclusion is that, contrary to the traditional view that the building was never finished, in fact the plans were scaled back to create a functional manor house, which members of the Hastings family were able to occupy until about the year 1700.  I wonder whether they were able to move in before Christmas!

15 November 2022

After the formal business of the AGM we needed some light relief.  This was amply provided by David Bell, a local author and born storyteller, who led us “Down the Garden Path” to discover the hidden world of the privy!

Outdoor lavatories were a common feature of rural life until comparatively recently: several of our members recalled the disused buildings from their childhood and when David wrote his book on the subject in 1999, he found examples that were still in use near Southwell (Nottinghamshire).  He put out appeals on local radio and in newspapers, which led him to photograph surviving privies and collect a fund of stories about them.  There were tales of visiting “townies” unable to find their way to and from the privy on a dark night, as well as alarming encounters with bats, wasps and nesting chickens.

Privies would originally have been built above a pit, which would need to be dug out once or twice a year by night-soil men, also known as “dilly men”.   In settings such as farms there could be up to four seats side-by-side.  Later it became more usual to place a bucket below the seat, which would be emptied each week – often through a small door at the back of the privy.  That could lead to embarrassment if the night-soil men arrived unexpectedly while you were seated there.  David also heard of pranks involving mischievous children, the back door and a stinging nettle…

The unpleasant job of emptying the buckets was sometimes given to children (hopefully the same ones!)  A more common task for them was to cut up last week’s newspaper into squares and thread it onto a string for use in the privy.  Rolls of toilet paper would only be purchased if guests were expected.

David was delighted to find a rare example of a privy with a handle that could be used to “flush” it with ash from a hopper.  However, indoor water-closets had been common for many decades and they eventually replaced privies completely.  This was despite opposition from a few traditionalists who considered it unhealthy to carry on such business indoors – but on a cold, wet, November evening, I think we all felt glad that the privy has been consigned to history!

18 October 2022

In October we welcomed professional historian Janet Spavold to introduce us to the intriguing subject of “How to Read a House”.  You can discover lots of clues to the history of a building just by looking at it – if you know what to look for!

The medieval domestic buildings that we now see were almost all built by the wealthier classes.  Poorer people would have used cheaper construction methods such as mud walls, which have not survived.  Even the more substantial houses were created from whatever stone, brick or wood was available locally because it was so expensive to transport stone over long distances.  These local materials and the styles of building associated with them are what give many historic villages and towns their individual character.  It was only after the rail network developed in the 1850s that we see more widespread use of uniform materials, such as red brick from the Peterborough clay pits and slate from Welsh quarries.

In areas without good stone, half-timbered buildings were common.  Early on, the main roof beam was supported by crucks – curved tree trunks halved and used in pairs.  A later development was box frames, which could be constructed using shorter lengths of timber.  It was a demonstration of wealth to decorate your façade with more timber than structurally necessary – though this is rarely seen in Leicestershire, which has long suffered from a shortage of woodland.

The oldest houses consisted of simple halls, open to the roof, with a central hearth and small holes or “wind-eyes” above for the smoke to escape.  The front door might lead into a cross-passage, which separated the main hall from a buttery and pantry.  After 1480 it became fashionable to add a cross-wing and to insert an upper floor.  Then from about the 1570s there was a “great rebuilding”, when wattle-and-daub was replaced by brick infill, chimneys were added and the “wind-eyes” made way for glazed windows.  It was risky to cut through the main roof beam so a tell-tale sign is that inserted chimneys are offset from the ridge of roof.  It was also common for the new fireplace to back onto the cross-passage so look out for chimneys that are aligned with one edge of the door.

Janet took us through further innovations up to the Georgian period, including sash windows and the first terraced housing, in what was a fascinating and accomplished presentation.  As a final note, she warned us not always to trust dates on buildings, which might mark a renovation, not the original construction, and have sometimes been moved from somewhere entirely different!

20 September 2022

Our first meeting of the autumn season was something a little different.  Instead of a speaker, we invited long-term residents of Thurcaston and Cropston to come and share their memories of life in the two villages.  It was lovely to see and hear from a good number of visitors in addition to our own members, which led to some lively discussions and one or two reunions between people who had not met for many decades.

The evening was led by our own Sylvia Cole, assisted by Colin Hyde from the East Midlands Oral History Archive.  Colin kicked off by playing a couple of recordings on the subject of healthcare and he asked what provision there was in our parish before the NHS.  The villages had no doctor but one who lived nearby could sometimes be persuaded to stop on his way home!  Those who contracted infectious diseases would isolate for several weeks at home or would go to a sanatorium at Markfield.  An infant welfare clinic was held each week in the Memorial Hall.  For mothers in childbirth, a midwife had to be fetched from Rothley, though up to the 1960s a Mrs Garner in Cropston could be called on to deliver babies or to lay out the dead.  When the Co-op in Thurcaston closed (where Tebbatt’s now is), villagers campaigned for it to become a surgery but were told there was already sufficient local provision.

Each village formerly had its own post office, where you could also buy some groceries.  In Cropston, meat was supplied by Bunny’s, who slaughtered their own cattle on site.  “Butch”, who worked there and also at the garage, was skilled at preparing any cut you wanted from the hanging carcasses but he gave up the business when hygiene rules were brought in.  It was not unknown to see him cycling back from Bradgate Park with a deer across his shoulders, while another character would tout pheasants and rabbits of dubious origin round the villages!

Many of our guests had been to school in Thurcaston and there was general agreement about which teachers were inspirational and which ones they hated.

Pupils – including those from Cropston – would walk home for lunch then return in the afternoon.  Later, lunches were delivered to the school in aluminium trays but they were not remembered fondly!  When numbers outgrew the Old School Rooms opposite the church, the Memorial Hall was used as an extra classroom until the new Richard Hill School was built.  The best students could win a scholarship to go to the grammar school at Quorn but most finished school at 14 or 15.  One option for the boys was then to move to an apprenticeship at the Rolls-Royce factory in Rothley.

The various pubs provoked a lot of memories.  You could play “devil among the tailors” (a type of table skittles) at the now-vanished King William IV.  There was a mynah bird at the Wheatsheaf in the 1960s, while one landlord at the Reservoir Inn had a pet fox, which would sit on his shoulder.  He was not too particular about the drinking age, being willing to serve you in your scout uniform!  Freddy King, who cleared glasses at the Bradgate Arms, would steal sweets from Cropston Post Office to give to the barmaids, who, knowing they were stolen, would bring them back again.

There were also many memories of the youth club held in the Memorial Hall and of the various people who ran it.  The favoured spot for sledging was at Wallis’s Hollow, opposite the Wheatsheaf, but on a good run you had to jump off to avoid ending up in the brook.  People leaving the pub would join in the fun late into the evening.  The hill on Anstey Lane beyond the church used to be steeper so cars needed to be pushed up it in snowy weather.

Cropston was served by police from Anstey but Thurcaston had its own village policeman, who lived on Leicester Road.  One guest remembered receiving a visit from him after he was caught placing pennies on the railway track to be squashed flat by passing trains.

We heard of some rivalry between the villages – residents of Cropston were thought to look down on Thurcaston – and of a divide (not felt by everyone) according to whether you went to the church or to the chapel.  There is clearly much more to find out, including about the many local clubs and societies, and this event was much enjoyed so we hope to hold another one along similar lines in future.

16 August 2022

You probably know Ashby de la Zouch for its fine main street or perhaps for its castle but here is more to the town that meets the eye, as members of the Society discovered during a visit in August.

We met at the impressive little museum, where Ken Hillier gave an accomplished summary of the town’s history.  The name Ashby implies that it was a Danish settlement.  The Zouch family, which originated from Brittany, supported the Norman invasion and became lords of the manor in about 1150.  Ashby remained an unimportant place until the 1460s, when Edward IV gave control of the Midlands to his friend William Hastings.  Hastings chose to make Ashby his headquarters and built a substantial castle on the site of the former manor house.  The newly important town developed in a distinctive manner, with shops and inns lining Market Street and long, narrow “burgage plots” extending back from them to North Street and South Street.  In the English Civil War, the Hastings family supported the King.  The castle was besieged by Parliamentary forces and eventually surrendered.  The defending force was allowed to leave honourably but the castle was slighted.

The Industrial Revolution largely passed the town by, with developments happening at Swadlincote and Coalville instead, but in about 1800 Ashby unexpectedly became a spa.  There was a brine spring at Moira but, because of nearby coal mines, no-one wanted to visit it there so instead the water was hauled to Ashby in tanks.  The Ivanhoe Baths were built, named after the popular novel by Walter Scott, which had just been published and was partly set in the area.  Although Thomas Cook’s second excursion was from Leicester to Ashby Spa, in the end it was the railways that put an end to the venture by making seaside holidays possible.  Eventually some industry did come to Ashby, including biscuit- and soap-making.  Many of the factory workers and their families were housed in narrow “courts” crammed into the old burgage plots.

Ken led us on a walking tour of the town, where we saw surviving examples of the courts as well as elegant terraces associated with the spa.  We also took detours to pass through the churchyard of St. Helen’s and to view the outside of the castle.  If you haven’t explored the town, it’s well worth the short trip.

21 June 2022

Do you know Every Street in Leicester?  We do! – thanks to the Blue Badge guide Steve Bruce, who led us on a city-centre tour to explore the stories behind Leicester’s street names.

Of course, Every Street runs along one side of Town Hall Square and it was named for the cries of the horse-drawn cab operators that used to ply their trade there.  Steve explained that many of the streets’ names have more obvious origins, for example telling you where they lead to (Humberstone Gate), activities that used to take place there (Horsefair Street), or commemorating people or events that were in the news when someone had to come up with a name (Wellington Street).  Quite often, the people commemorated were the owners of the land the streets were built on.  For example, Bishop Street – also beside Town Hall Square – recalls a Mr Bishop, who owned this area outside the town walls before it began to be developed in the late 1700s.  Another example is the group comprising Rutland Street, Belvoir Street and Granby Street.  They were built on land belonging to the Dukes of Rutland, whose home is at Belvoir Castle and whose heir takes the title Marquess of Granby.

Beware that the obvious explanations are not always correct!  Many of Leicester’s street names end in “Gate” but this usually does not refer to an actual gate.  Instead, it dates from when our area was occupied by Danish settlers, whose Norse word for a road was gatan.  On the other hand, Eastgates (by the Clock Tower), Southgates and Northgate Street do all mark the locations of old gateways into the medieval town.  (The fourth entrance was at West Bridge.)  A short street at the back of the marketplace is called The Jetty but, despite the pub sign of a sailing boat that hung there for many years, the name is probably a corruption of the local word “jitty” meaning a narrow alley.

Street names can reveal the past history of the city.  Silver Street once housed many silversmiths.  Bond Street was formerly called Parchment Lane and both names refer to the manufacture of paper.  Nearby is Butt Close Lane.  Fearing invasion by Catholic powers, Elizabeth I ordered that all men and boys should practise archery each week and this street was close to site of the archery butts.

The tour was titled “Who put the Cank in Cank Street?” and Steve offered us a choice of explanations.  It might refer to the “kink” along the length of the road.  There was also a Cank Well there – the site being marked by a small brick in the pavement outside the entrance to St. Martin’s Square – so the name could be connected to the Cornish word for a water channel or to a Yorkshire dialect term for the gossiping that probably would have gone on in the queue!

Steve provided lots of fascinating information beside the snippets here, which will add interest to future visits to Leicester, and many of his examples can also be applied to other places.  We hope he will lead us on a different tour next summer so look out for that!

17 May 2022

At our May meeting, we welcomed back Bob Trubshaw to discuss the intriguing subject of how Anglo-Saxons found their way.  Bob is a writer and publisher on various subjects that are ancient, mystical or mysterious, as well as the instigator of Project Gargoyle to document the medieval church carvings of Leicestershire and Rutland.

Anglo-Saxon settlers began to arrive from mainland Europe not long after Roman rule here had ended.  The kingdoms that they founded eventually united to create England, and their culture and the Old English language remained dominant until the time of the Norman Conquest.  Anglo-Saxon people needed to travel for reasons including trade, pilgrimage and war but they did not have maps, so how did they find their way?

One possible answer comes from studies of English place-names, the majority of which are Anglo-Saxon in origin.  This includes names that end in -ham (related to “home”) or -ton (related to “town”).  Both those words meant a settlement, with a tendency for -ham­ places to be more pastoral and -ton places to be more arable.  Many place-names, including Cropston and Thurcaston, referred to individuals but others are descriptive of landscape features.  Research by Margaret Gelling and others has demonstrated that those descriptions can be extremely specific.  For example, there were at least 20 different words for “hill”, depending on whether the hill was round (-don), steep-sided (cliff or edge), a ridge dipping at the end (over), “heel-shaped” with a high and a low summit (ho- or hough-), wooded (hurst) or artificial (barrow or -low).  There were similar ranges of words for types of valley, woods, water features, etc.  Other names referred to the former Roman occupation so anywhere called Stretton will be near a Roman road (street), while places with names ending -chester, -cester or -xeter will be on the site of a Roman town.

In the opinion of Bob and others, these descriptions were specific enough for travellers to have found a route from one place to the next.  He has identified that you could still travel from Great Glen, south of Leicester, to Thistleton on the Lincolnshire border, passing only through villages that have descriptive Old English names.  Although we have no evidence of Anglo-Saxon journeys being planned in this way, there are surviving documents that define the boundaries of estates by reference to a series of landscape features.  The main difficulty for travellers would have been to remember the sequence of places.  It is likely that the Anglo-Saxons used stories or songs to link them together in a memorable way, similar to the “song lines” of Aboriginal Australia or the traditional stories of Traveller communities.  There is more detail about these ideas in a written version of Bob’s talk, which is online at http://www.hoap.co.uk/hasftw.pdf.

15 February 2022

You have probably seen the gated development called Guild Close in Cropston but have you ever wondered why it has that name?  At our February meeting, Jane Smith explained that from 1925 to 1992, the Leicester Guild of the Crippled operated a holiday home on the site.  Despite having a name that is objectionable by modern standards, the Guild was pioneering in the support that it gave to disabled people in the early part of the 20^th century, long before there was any welfare state to provide for them.

The Guild was formed in 1898 and initially ran social evenings for disabled people at the Bishop Street Methodist Church in Leicester.  Many such people had previously been bed-ridden and kept out of sight at home but they came to the events by whatever means they could, and the Guild would provide crutches, wheelchairs and spinal carriages for those in need.  In 1909 the Guild opened its own Guild Hall on Colton Street, which was one of the first buildings in the country to be designed for disabled access.  There, it was able to offer religious services, concerts, slide shows and classes such as artificial flower making, which enabled the members to earn an income.  An Honorary Surgeon gave advice on treatment.  There were rail excursions to the seaside, largely funded by factory workers, while in the early days of motoring the well-to-do members of the Leicestershire Automobile Club arranged outings by road.

(You can find footage of classic cars collecting passengers from the Guild Hall at the MACE Archive).

In 1923, the Guild bought the site in Cropston from the estate of Sarah Jane Hind and the holiday home was opened 2 years later.  From each Easter to Christmas, it offered free accommodation to Guild members, who were looked after by a matron and a small staff.  The home had a garden with views of Bradgate Park and a summerhouse that could be rotated according to the weather.  Many groups from local villages would raise funds for the home or provide volunteers, entertainment or other support to residents.  Among them were Anstey Toc H, the Mothers’ Union, Cropston Sewing Circle, Thurcaston Flower Arranging Class and the handbell ringers.  The home also had close links with Cropston Chapel.  This was often the Guild members’ only chance of a holiday: they would return to the home every year and were very appreciative of the care they received there.

During the 1980s, the Guild faced financial hardship because of rising costs.  The limitations of transport and parking at Colton Street became a problem and there was reduced demand for holidays in Cropston as wider opportunities became available for disabled people.  A plan was made to demolish the holiday home and build new headquarters, respite accommodation and sheltered housing on the site, to be paid for by the sale of the Guild Hall.  However, no buyer could be found so in 1995 it was reluctantly decided to sell the Cropston site instead.  The land was bought by David Wilson Homes, who used it to build the 12 private dwellings that we see today.

Following a merger and several changes of name, the Guild is now called Mosaic 1898.  It continues its work providing advocacy, support, opportunities and care for disabled people in Leicestershire.

15 March 2022

There are close links between Thurcaston and Belgrave, the two villages having been directly connected by road until the route was diverted along Beaumont Leys Lane in the 1990s.  At the Society’s March meeting, our member Nick Fathers took us back several generations earlier, on a photographic and historical tour entitled “Welcome to Belgrave”.  Nick’s explanations were enlivened – not to say upstaged – by the contemporary opinions of Mrs Sarah Billington, landlady of the Bull’s Head, who was conjured up for us by Sandra Moore.

The talk was illustrated with a fine collection of photographs of Belgrave at different periods.  Some came from postcards, like the example here that provided Nick’s title.  It was one of many local scenes published by the postmaster Walter Clayton.  Other photographs came from a collection of glass negatives and were so well preserved that Nick was able to zoom in and show details of children’s faces and of goods for sale in the shop windows.

Until the mid-19^th century, Belgrave was a small, self-contained village centred on its hall, church, village green and the medieval bridge on Thurcaston Road.  Then, from a population of 1200 in 1845, it rapidly grew six-fold as people moved from the countryside to find work in factories in and around Leicester.  The grand houses along Loughborough Road show that the area first became a fashionable suburb but before long all the spaces in between were filled with the rows of terraced housing that we see today.  To support the greater population, there was a wide variety of shops and an extraordinary number of pubs and alehouses.  That might explain the building of a subtantial police station, which survives but is no longer in use.  The small village school close to the river was replaced by the National School – known as the “Nashy” – on the corner of Thurcaston Road.  This was the terminus of the tram line from Leicester and a tram shed survived nearby until quite recently.

Other interesting pictures showed:

• The “Old Tree”, an elm that stood for many years outside the Talbot Inn and was the main meeting place in the village.
• The Green at the bottom of Bath Lane, which was flooded in 1912.
• A venue for pleasure boating next to the bridge.

Piecemeal development through the 20^th century has destroyed much of the character of Belgrave but there are still things of historical interest to spot if you know where to look!  From April, the Belgrave Heritage Trust will have photos and other information on display at Belgrave Hall, each Wednesday and on the first weekend of each month, so that would be a good time to go and explore the area for yourself.