Leicester’s history can be traced back to an Iron Age settlement by the River Soar and a subsequent Roman town where the Fosse Way crossed the river. Medieval Leicester flourished around its Norman castle, merchants and religious houses but was also subject to plagues and civil war. Industrialisation and coal mining brought wealth into Leicester in the nineteenth century but also prepared the ground for welfare movements and radical politics in the city. Today’s Leicester is a bustling cit...

Leicester is built upon the work of the innovators, entrepreneurs and pioneers of past centuries. Henry Walker looked for a meat substitute during rationing after the Second World War and created the world-famous potato crisp brand. Another local man, Henry Curry, used metalworking skills acquired maintaining steam engines to construct bicycles, and his business would later become Curry’s PC World. In this book, author Stephen Butt celebrates the heritage, culture and identity of the city....

Rutland is at the very heart of England. It is England's smallest historic county, less than twenty miles in distance from north to south or east to west, a patchwork of incredibly picturesque and peaceful villages. At its centre is Rutland Water, by surface area the largest reservoir in the country covering more than 3000 acres of land, which has matured over the past thirty years into a sanctuary for wildlife and a major tourist attraction. From hilltop stately homes to clusters of thatc...

Leicester History Tour is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this East Midlands city. Local author Stephen Butt guides us through the streets and alleyways, showing how its famous landmarks used to look and how they’ve changed over the years, as well as exploring its lesser-known places and hidden corners. With the help of a handy location map, readers are invited to follow a timeline of events and discover for themselves the changing face of Leicester.

The history of Kibworth Beauchamp, Kibworth Harcourt and Smeeton Westerby is well-documented. These three villages in south Leicestershire share a long and often dramatic past in which their inhabitants have faced the horror ofthe Black Death, have struggled through times of poverty and hardship, and have witnessed the growth of industry following the building of the canals and the railways. In more recent times, the ever-changing landscape of the villages has been recorded diligently by a...

The 1970s was a decade of change. Supermarkets began to take over from traditional stores, high-rise office blocks appeared on the skyline, and Leicester’s first shopping centre replaced familiar Victorian shops and hotels. It was a time of industrial unrest. The lights went out as coal stocks diminished. Pay packets were depleted as Leicester’s workers faced a three-day week, prices in the shops began to soar, and we all shivered during the ‘winter of discontent’. It was a turning point i...

John Nichols’ monumental History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester has been the foundation of historical research in Leicestershire since it was completed in eight massive volumes in 1815. With millions of words, including transcripts of documents from the Domesday Book onwards, and thousands of engravings of churches, their monuments, houses, lakes, abbeys, castles, coats of arms and even fossils, this was a project on a scale never envisaged before, and rarely since. A London pr...

Until the railways arrived, Westonsuper- Mare was a town without a history. From a little fishing village with just a handful of houses, Weston grew into a major seaside resort, and this happened rapidly in just under one hundred years. After a period of decline, it has recreated itself, successfully, as a holiday destination for the twenty-first century and as one of Somerset's major towns. Romans and seventeenth-century smugglers, television comedians and top-selling writers, and even th...

Nineteenth century visitors to Ashby entered a world of make-believe, thanks to Sir Walter Scott's romantic hero, Ivanhoe. They flocked to the town in their thousands to bathe in the spa waters which were brought in by train and canal, and to relax in the shadow of the impressive castle ruins. A thriving market town in the heart of the National Forest, Ashby is still a place for history and heritage. Georgian frontages line the ancient Market Street, and all around are reminders of the bui...

Leicester is proud of its industrial heritage. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the city’s population grow rapidly with the construction of the Grand Union Canal and the arrival of the railway, which not only provided a supply of coal to the town from nearby collieries but also linked the town to the national network. These developments encouraged and accompanied a process of industrialisation that intensified throughout the Victorian era; hosiery, textiles, and footwear became ...

There is a history of Leicester that is hidden from view, or simply not recognised today because it is so familiar. There are Norman and medieval arches below landmark buildings, mosaics beneath the Central Ring Road and the remains of the town's first railway station just minutes away from a major hotel. 'Secret Leicester' goes behind the facades of the familiar to discover the lesser-known artefacts of Leicester's fascinating past, brought to life through revealing images of the past and...

Weston-super-Mare History Touris a unique insight into the illustrious history of this famous old seaside resort and shows just how much it has changed during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Readers are invited to follow author Stephen Butt as he guides them through its streets and alleyways, pointing out the well-known and lesser-known landmarks along the way.