2024 Newsletter
Our 2024 Newsletter is now available here
Loughborough's Workhouses
We’ve recently completed some research into the two workhouses in Loughborough. The first was a parish workhouse, built in 1749 on Sparrow Hill (the part that is now Nottingham Road, where the Royal Mail delivery office stands). This fell out of use in 1839 when the second workhouse, for Loughborough Poor Law Union was built near the junction between Derby Road and Regent Street.
Our research on the first workhouse has been published by Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, and can be found at https://lahs.org.uk/blog/loughboroughs-first-workhouse
Our research on the second workhouse is on the Lynne About Loughborough blog at https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2024/08/loughboroughs-second-workhouse.html
Talk and tour
2023 Newsletter
Our 2023 Newsletter is now available.
Celebrating Ibstock's History
When we published our history of Ibstock in 2020 we could not hold a launch event due to COVID. We are now marking this occasion with A Celebration of Ibstock’s History at the Palace Community Centre, Ibstock on Saturday 23 September 10.00am to 12.00 noon.
There will be many displays focussed on the history and heritage of Ibstock, including archaeology, copies of documents and transcripts, old photographs, posters, artefacts, models and much else. Come and find out more about the medieval and early modern history of Ibstock, learn about its former station, its high street shops, its churches and chapels, buses, industry, what probate inventories can tell us about life in the 16th and 17th centuries, who were the children apprenticed by the parish in the 17th century, 19th and 20th-century leisure interests including the cinema, football, brass bands and pigeon-racing.
Refreshments available.
Our Books
We have now published four paperback histories:
- Castle Donington (2016)
- Buckminster and Sewstern (2017)
- Ibstock (2020)
- Lutterworth (2022)
There are several ways to buy. By purchasing direct from ourselves you will get a discounted price and know that all the money you pay goes to Leicestershire Victoria County History Trust, a registered charity that funds research into Leicestershire parishes and work towards further volumes in this series. Use our contact form to get in touch for payment details. We also take copies of all our books to a number of local history events around the county.
Copies of our Castle Donington and Buckminster and Sewstern books are also for sale at the counter of the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, and our Castle Donington book can also be purchased in Castle Donington museum. Lutterworth museum has copies of our Lutterworth book.
Copies of all the books can also be purchased through the national VCH website. With this option you are paying for a newly printed book.
Leicestershire’s Names, Places, and History
An afternoon of papers exploring the history of Leicestershire through its place-names
Saturday 22 April 2023, 12.30pm – 5.30pm at the School of Museum Studies Building, 19 University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RF (in-person or on-line)
The Survey of English Place-Names is almost as old as the Victoria County History. It began in 1923 and, like the VCH, is producing a series of volumes for each English county. These set out, on a parish-by-parish basis and in chronological order, the various early forms of the names of each city, town, village and hamlet, interpreting and explaining their linguistic origin and meaning, before listing the many minor names that have been documented (of buildings, fields, furlongs, closes, streets, etc.) within each settlement. These volumes, and the research they contain, form an important part of our own parish history research.
The 8-volume survey of Leicestershire’s place-names, by Barrie Cox and published by the English Place-Name Society, is now complete. Leicestershire Victoria County History Trust is delighted to be joining the English Place-Name Society and the Centre for Regional and Local History at the University of Leicester to mark this noteworthy achievement at a half-day event at the University of Leicester on 22 April (time and place as above).
Six speakers will present papers about various aspects of Leicestershire’s place names, as set out below.
Abigail Lloyd (University of Nottingham) ‘A changing scene: charting oronyms in Leicestershire’
Josh Neal (University of Nottingham) ‘Old Norse –bý(r) in Leicestershire place-names: statistics and characteristics’
Eleanor Rye (University of York) ‘Austen Dyke, Hamerskeges and Wlfethwong: the Scandinavian element in late medieval minor names from north Leicestershire’
Judith Jesch (University of Nottingham) ‘A Viking in Leicestershire?’
Ann Stones (Leicester Vaughan College) ‘Discerning the woods from the trees: the role of place-name analysis in interdisciplinary research on the boundaries of medieval Charnwood Forest’
Hannah Sellars (University of Leicester) ‘Understanding Leicestershire woodlands through place-names and ecological data’
If you would like to attend, but are unable to join us in person, we offer the option of attending online.
The cost is £10 for in-person or on-line attendance.
Local History Fair
A big thank you to Leicestershire Archaeological & Historical Society for inviting us to be part of the 2022 Local History Fair at Beaumanor on Saturday 18 March 2023, and to everyone who attended and spoke to us on our stand. We had an excellent day and sold several books!
Events, March and April 2023
Saturday 18 March 2023
Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, Local History Fair
Beaumanor Hall, Woodhouse, LE12 8TX
10am to 4pm
Displays, talks, activities. Download programme.
Saturday 22 April 2023
Leicestershire’s Names, Places, & History
Event to mark the completion of the Leicestershire volumes of the England Place-Name Society volumes
Organised by the English Place-Name Society in conjunction with Leicestershire Victoria County History Trust and the Centre for Regional and Local History at the University of Leicester.
Further details now above
Our publications
We now have four paperback histories for sale. Did you know that if you buy them direct from ourselves, the full amount you pay supports research into the histories of other parishes?At present (2023) proceeds are funding research into Loughborough’s history.
Prices at 19 March 2023:
Castle Donington £10
Buckminster and Sewstern £10
Ibstock £12
Lutterworth £12
Plus P&P (in UK £2.50 per book)
Contact us for details
2022 Newsletter
Our 2022 Newsletter is now available to download here.
2021 Newsletter
Our 2021 Newsletter is now available to download here.
Ibstock Book now on sale
Our history of Ibstock is now available to purchase. It covers all aspects of the history of the parish (including the village of Battram and the history of Ellistown Colliery and surrounding land) from earliest times to the present day. Find out more.
Copies cost £13 (including UK P&P). Please send a cheque payable to Leicestershire Victoria County History Trust to Meadowside, Main Street, Kings Norton, Leicestershire, LE7 9BF.
Although COVID restrictions mean we can’t have a launch event at the moment, we hope to hold an event in Ibstock to celebrate the publication of this research in 2021.
2020 Newsletter now available
Our 2020 Newsletter is now available to download here
Loughborough and the battle for piped water, 1849-70
In England we tend to take piped water for granted, but of course it is essential to health.
We have been working with a small group of volunteers in 2019-20 to research public health in Loughborough, looking specifically at the provision of sewers and a piped water supply between 1849 and 1870. We have put together a small online exhibition based on some of this work to mark the 150th anniversary of the arrival of piped water on 31 August 1870.
Guided Walk round Ibstock's Nonconformist Churches
We’ve been unable to provide any guided walks during the 2020 Festival of Archaology, due to COVID-19 restrictions. Instead, we’ve created an online tour of Ibstock’s Nonconformist churches, which can be followed on your PC or tablet, or (for those living near Ibstock) in real life through a smartphone.
Recruiting
We’re recruiting! We’re looking for an experienced medieval historian to help with a piece of work on Loughborough’s markets and fairs 1221-1600. Details here. Closing date 2 March.
Update: due to COVID-19 and the closure of archive offices, this has been deferred until restrictions have been lifted and archive offices have reopened. We are very grateful to those who have funded this research for bearing with us.
Charnwood Roots Databank
This databank contains over 6,000 pieces of information about the history of the parishes covered within our Charnwood Roots project (the unshaded area on the map).
The information is now available as a searchable database through our updated Charnwood Roots website.