18 August 2026

You could be forgiven for driving through Whitwick without giving a thought to its history but there is more to the village than meets the eye!  For our August outing, members of Whitwick Historical Group made us very welcome at their home in the old station building before taking us on a walking tour around the historic heart of the village.

Whitwick was once an important medieval manor – one of four surrounding Charnwood Forest – and the mound of its motte-and-bailey castle partly survives.  In the late 1200s the manor came into the Comyn family, who were rival claimants to Robert Bruce for the throne of Scotland.  John Comyn obtained a charter for Whitwick to hold a weekly market but it does not seem to have thrived.  The large church dates from this period and is built on top of a spring – still flowing despite months of drought – so this was probably a pre-existing sacred site.

The oldest private dwelling, on Silver Street, was once the vicarage.  Built of a mixture of stone and brick, with a high thatched roof and gothic windows, it now makes a striking old people’s home.  William Wordsworth’s son John once lived there as curate.  His aunt Dorothy of ten stayed with him and her watercolour of the building survives.  About ten years ago, another old house on the marketplace was demolished to make way for a new Co-op and it was found to contain an original cruck frame.  Wonderfully, the design of the supermarket was changed to accommodate the two pairs of crucks in a lofty glass foyer and you can now pick up your shopping baskets underneath them!

The village’s fortunes were transformed in 1848, when Whitwick Colliery became the first deep coal mine in Leicestershire.  It extended for miles underground and produced vast quantities of coal for more than a century but is mostly remembered today for a disaster in which 35 men and boys died.  (We hope to include a talk about the disaster in our programme next year.)  The mine and a quarry brought large numbers of workers and their families to Whitwick.  Among them, an influx of Irish people escaping the potato famine gave rise to a significant Catholic community, which continues in the village today.  New housing for the arrivals included the enigmatically named City of Three Waters and City of Dan.  A cinema provided entertainment with films and variety acts such as a Wild West rodeo and a performing elephant called Rosie, who was a challenge to accommodate in the stables at the Three Cranes hotel!

In 1883, the Charnwood Forest Railway carved through the centre of the village, primarily for carrying locally produced coal, stone and bricks to markets elsewhere.  However, passengers were also carried until 1931, travelling in one direction to Shepshed and Loughborough Derby Road, and in the other direction via connections at Nuneaton to London, which could be reached in as little as 3 hours.  The Historical Group took over the redundant station building in 1978 and they now open it regularly so visitors and residents can explore their archives and collection of local artefacts.