Many people know Donington Park, and may have watched motor racing there, or visited the Grand Prix collection, or been to Monsters of Rock or its successor, the Download festival. Others may associate Castle Donington with holidays and East Midlands Airport. The airport and the Park both stretch across the south of the parish.
Relatively view visit the village, just to the north of these attractions. There was a castle, although little remains today, and even that is largely hidden from view, until you consider the street pattern. Two curving roads, The Barroon and the aptly named Big Hill, skirt round the castle site. From there a road leads south to and beyond the parish church – Borough Street. As its name suggests, this was a medieval town, with a market and fair. The narrow streets speak of their medieval past, but are less than ideal for modern traffic.
The River Trent forms the north-western parish boundary, and the two separate ‘settlements’ of Kings Mills and Cavendish Bridge lay on the banks of the river and within the parish.
Our paperback history, covering all these aspects of Castle Donington’s history, and more, was published in 2017 and was the first publication in the Leicestershire VCH series since 1964. Copies are available from ourselves, or direct from the publishers.