Leicestershire Places (5) : Narborough

Narborough is a village to the South West of Leicester. Narborough has Saxon origins with the name of the village originally Nor Burh or North Fort. The village was too small to be included in the Domesday Book. The village indeed has remained small for most of it's existence, even as late as the 17th century the population of the village was around two hundred. It was only in late Victorian times the population exceeded a thousand.

The parish church, All Saints, dates from the 13th century at least though was probably built on the site of an earlier Saxon church. The village railway station is a stop on the line between Birmingham and Leicester.

Leicestershire Places (4) : Quorn

The village of Quorn (shortened from Quorndon in 1889 to avoid confusion with a similarly named village in Derbyshire) is believed to have been in existence since the early 1200s at least. The name Quorndon is thought to be derived from the Old English for "Hill where millstones are maintained" (Cweorndun) and indeed quarrying for stone for use in millstones has been in existence in the area since the Iron Age.

The country house Quorn Hall became the home of the fox hunter Hugo Meynell in 1753 and later gave it's name to the famous Quorn Hunt.

The village gained a railway station on the Great Central Railway in 1899. This closed in the 1960s but was re-opened as part of the preserved Great Central Railway in the 1970s. And yes the meat substitute quorn is named after the village!

Leicestershire Places (3) : Melton Mowbray

Melton Mowbray, famous for it's pork pies of course, was already a market town by the time of the Domesday Book and there is evidence of inhabitation in the area from Bronze Age times. The town has certainly existed since Anglo-Saxon times as a pagan cemetery has been found.

By the time of the Domesday Book Melton Mowbray had around two hundred inhabitants with a weekly market (the third oldest market in England) since before 1077CE. Melton Mowbray's impressive parish church of St Mary dates the 13th century though with major additions in the following centuries. It is one of only a handful of parish churches to have a transept flanked by aisles.

These days Melton Mowbray is best known for it's food, especially pork pies and stilton cheese and styles itself as the Rural Capital of Food. The town's railway station is on the Birmingham-Peterborough Line.

Leicestershire Places (2) : Sileby

The town's origins date from the mid-9th century when a settlement was established by the Danes and was part of the Danelaw. One of the families were known as Sighulf which is probably where the name of the town comes from. Sileby was an agricultural settlement that developed near the river Soar later on with a cottage industry in clothing manufacture.

In latter centuries Sileby became an industrial town noted for the manufacture of hosiery, shoes and wallpaper though most of these factories have now gone. However the wealth bought in from industry helped the town treble in size in the late Victorian and Edwardian period.

The oldest building in Sileby is the parish church dedicated to St Mary which was founded in 1152CE. There are also a number of houses from the 18th century. The town is situated between Leicester and Loughborough.

Leicestershire Places (1) : Market Harborough

Market Harborough, a market town surprisingly enough with that name, is in the South East of the county near the border with Northamptonshire. The village was founded by the Saxons in the 1st millenium CE. It was listed in the Domesday Book as Haversberg being part of the manor of Great Bowden, now a separate village a mile away. A market was established in 1204CE by Henry II, the growing town eventually being called Market Harborough.

The centre of the town is it's square, the oldest building of which is the church of St Dionysius which dates from about 1300CE. Another notable building in the square is the Grammar School which was founded in 1614.

Market Harborough gained in the last few centuries transport links including turnpike roads, coaching inns, a canal and in 1850 a railway station, this later becoming a stop on the Midland Main Line. Heavy industry began to grow in the town replacing the earlier reliance on agriculture. The town retained it's rural roots though becoming a centre for fox hunting!