Mountsorrel
Encyclopedia
- For Mount Sorrel, Wiltshire, see Broad ChalkeBroad ChalkeBroad Chalke, sometimes spelled Broadchalke , Broad Chalk or Broadchalk, is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 8 miles west of the city of Salisbury. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 652 but this has now risen to around 850...
.
Mountsorrel is a village in Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
on the River Soar
River Soar
The River Soar is a tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands.-Description:It rises near Hinckley in Leicestershire and is joined by the River Sence near Enderby before flowing through Leicester , Barrow-on-Soar, beside Loughborough and Kegworth, before joining the Trent near...
, just south of Loughborough
Loughborough
Loughborough is a town within the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It is the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and is home to Loughborough University...
with a population in 2001 of 6,662 inhabitants.
Geography
The village is in the borough of CharnwoodCharnwood (borough)
Charnwood is a borough of northern Leicestershire, England. It is named after Charnwood Forest, which it contains. Loughborough is the largest town in the district and serves as the borough's administrative and commercial centre.-History:...
, surrounding a steep hill, once crowned by a castle, and is bordered to the east by the River Soar
River Soar
The River Soar is a tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands.-Description:It rises near Hinckley in Leicestershire and is joined by the River Sence near Enderby before flowing through Leicester , Barrow-on-Soar, beside Loughborough and Kegworth, before joining the Trent near...
.
The village is renowned for the Buttercross
Buttercross
A buttercross, also known as butter cross, is a type of market cross associated with English market towns and dating from medieval times. Its name originates from the fact that they were located at the market place, where people from neighbouring villages would gather to buy locally produced...
Market in the village centre as well as its granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
quarry, the largest in Europe. The Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
arm of the Grand Union Canal runs through Mountsorrel.
The civil parish meets with Rothley to the south, and some houses are actually in Rothley parish near the southern A6 junction. To the west of the parish is a nature reserve. North of here the Leicestershire Round passes east-west through the north of the village. The parish boundary meets Quorndon where it first meets the quarry near Buddon Wood. North of there it crosses the former A6 500 metres towards Quorn from the roundabout for the A6 roundabout. Close to the bypass the River Soar
River Soar
The River Soar is a tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands.-Description:It rises near Hinckley in Leicestershire and is joined by the River Sence near Enderby before flowing through Leicester , Barrow-on-Soar, beside Loughborough and Kegworth, before joining the Trent near...
becomes the parish boundary and south of the A6 northern junction it meets Sileby
Sileby
Sileby is a former industrial village and civil parish in the Soar Valley in Leicestershire, between Leicester and Loughborough. Nearby villages include Barrow upon Soar, Mountsorrel, Ratcliffe-on-the-Wreake, Seagrave and Cossington....
at the point where it crosses the A6 bypass. 500 metres south of there the boundary leaves the river to the west, with the river becoming the Sileby-Rothley boundary.
Geology
The local area is built on granite. Leicester's Humberstone came from this graniteGranite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
(igneous rock
Igneous rock
Igneous rock is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic rock. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava...
), and was originally known as Hunbeort's Stan. Another piece of Mountsorrel granite is at an RAF memorial at Screveton in Nottinghamshire near the A46
A46 road
The A46 is an A road in England. It starts east of Bath, Somerset and ends in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, but it does not form a continuous route. Large portions of the old road have been lost, bypassed, or replaced by motorway development...
.
Early history
A castle was built in 1080 by Hugh Lupus, but there is evidence of an earlier NormanNormans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
settlement in the area in the form of pottery fragments. A Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
villa is supposed to have existed on Broad Hill during the 4th century AD, the site of today's quarry, as quarrying during the late 1800s revealed many artefacts including a preserved wooden bucket. However, the first recording of the village was in 1377, when it had a population of 156.
In 1151, Robert le Bossu, the Earl of Leicester
Earl of Leicester
The title Earl of Leicester was created in the 12th century in the Peerage of England , and is currently a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, created in 1837.-Early creations:...
and deputy to Henry II of England
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
, who was the Justicar, or Chief Justice of the Peace for the area, acquired the tenancy of Mountsorrel castle.
Whilst the origin of the name 'Mountsorrel' is still not understood fully, it is thought that the English nobility of the time named Mountsorrel after Montsoreau
Montsoreau
Montsoreau is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.The Château de Montsoreau is located in the commune.-See also:*Communes of the Maine-et-Loire department...
, a village in France close to Fontevrault, where Henry II was buried. The name Mountsorrel is of Norman-French origin and is thought to have developed due to the close likeness of Montsoreau and Mountsorrel – both settlements sit on rivers, the Loire
Loire
Loire is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.-History:Loire was created in 1793 when after just 3½ years the young Rhône-et-Loire department was split into two. This was a response to counter-Revolutionary activities in Lyon...
and the Soar
River Soar
The River Soar is a tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands.-Description:It rises near Hinckley in Leicestershire and is joined by the River Sence near Enderby before flowing through Leicester , Barrow-on-Soar, beside Loughborough and Kegworth, before joining the Trent near...
respectively, and are overshadowed by surrounding hills.
Stephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...
, and was subsequently destroyed in 1217 by the King's men from Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, branded a nest of the Devil and den of thieves and robbers. King Louis VIII of France
Louis VIII of France
Louis VIII the Lion reigned as King of France from 1223 to 1226. He was a member of the House of Capet. Louis VIII was born in Paris, France, the son of Philip II Augustus and Isabelle of Hainaut. He was also Count of Artois, inheriting the county from his mother, from 1190–1226...
had sent support in the form of 20,000 men to the besieged barons in the castle, but this force had failed to arrive in time to prevent the razing to the ground of the castle. All that remains of the castle today is a granite crag on Castle Hill. The hill is also the site of a memorial
War memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.-Historic usage:...
(by Shirley Harrison, 1926) to those who lost their lives in World War I.
One of the churches is dedicated to St. Peter.
Recent history
The village was also visited by Methodist preacher John WesleyJohn Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
, where he preached in a building which now belongs to Stonehurst Family Farm, a tourist attraction
Tourist attraction
A tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....
. By an act of Parliament
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
passed on 22 July 1782 Henry Walkery of Thurmaston and John Sultzer of Burton Overy
Burton Overy
Burton Overy is a civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, about nine miles south-east of Leicester city centre, and not far from Great Glen...
were empowered to enclose
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
the open fields and common grounds of Mountsorrel, some 300 acres (1.2 km²). The Leicester Navigation was opened in 1794 and the first barges between Loughborough
Loughborough
Loughborough is a town within the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It is the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and is home to Loughborough University...
and Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
departed on 26 October.
Mountsorrel was the site for a hospital for the mentally ill
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
, which had 91 beds in 1979, but this has since closed and been converted to a housing estate
Housing estate
A housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance...
.
By 1871, the population was recorded as '150 dwellings', and by 1840 the population of Mountsorrel had reached 1,900. During World War II, in 1942, Alvis
Alvis
Alvis may refer to:*Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd, British luxury car and military vehicle manufacturer which later became Alvis plc*Alvis plc , a Defence contractor which acquired Alvis Cars and became the UK's largest armoured vehicle manufacturer*Alvis, a family surname in the United...
, an armoured vehicle manufacturer based in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, acquired a factory previously used to produce cardboard boxes in the village after their factory in Coventry was bombed by the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
. Alvis built a new factory on the site of an old brickworks, which DeHavilland, an aeroplane propeller manufacturer, briefly used after the war until Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
acquired the site in 1945.
The A6 dual-carriageway Quorn
Quorn
Quorn is the leading brand of mycoprotein food product in the UK and Ireland. The mycoprotein used to produce Quorn is extracted from a fungus, Fusarium venenatum, which is grown in large vats....
-Mountsorrel Bypass opened in October 1991, allowing quarry traffic to avoid travelling through the village centre. On 31 July 2004 a new leisure centre opened in the village, the Soar Valley
Soar Valley
The Soar Valley in Leicestershire, England is the basin of the River Soar, which rises south of Leicester and flows north through Charnwood before meeting the River Trent at Trent Lock on the Nottinghamshire border....
Leisure Centre
Leisure centre
A leisure centre in the UK and Canada is a purpose built building or site, usually owned and operated by the city, borough council or municipal district council, where people go to keep fit or relax through using the facilities.- Typical Facilities :...
. Christ Church & St Peters primary school is on Rothley Road.
The Butter Market
The Butter Market was built in 1793 by the Lord of the Manor, Sir John Danvers, to replace the fifteenth century Market Cross, which he had removed to use on his estate in SwithlandSwithland
Swithland is a linear village in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It is in the old Charnwood Forest, between Cropston and Woodhouse and Woodhouse Eaves. Although small, it has a village hall, a parish church, and a pub. The village is known for the slate that was quarried in the...
, where it still remains.
Market
In 1292, Nicholas de Seagrave became Lord of the ManorLord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
and was granted by Edward I the right to hold a market in Mountsorrel each Monday. Seagrave's father, Stephen de Seagrave, was Chief Justice
Chief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
of England at the time, a position of great power, which may explain the granting of such a market.
In addition to the granting of the market, de Seagrave was permitted to hold an annual fair for the eve and morrow of St John the Baptist and 5 days after. This fair was abolished in 1873 after villagers petitioned, as the legislation licensing the fair allowed anyone displaying a bush over their door to distribute liquor free of any duties
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
.
By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Mountsorrel market had become increasingly important, with trade in raw wool, leather and woollen yarn, horses and cattle as well as 'Mountsorrel gloves', once as highly regarded as gloves from Woodstock and Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, being common.
Quarry
As early as 1860, there was a branch lineBranch line
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line...
, the Mountsorrel Railway
Mountsorrel Railway
The Mountsorrel Railway was a network of industrial railway lines that served the granite quarries which dominate the Leicestershire village of Mountsorrel.- History :...
, to the quarry, the path of which is still followed by a mineral conveyor to Barrow-upon-Soar, where quarry rock is sorted for distribution. Organised quarrying of the granite in Mountsorrel Quarry began in the late eighteenth century, and had around 500 employees by 1870. In 1872, the Mountsorrel Granite Company acquired the rights to quarry the area from the Broad Hill quarry, and a hospital had become established in the village to deal with those made ill by the dust created by the quarrying.
Mountsorrel is home to one of the largest granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
quarries
Quarries
Quarries - The "Royal Quarries" — not found in Scripture — is the namegiven to the vast caverns stretching far underneath the northern hill, Bezetha, on which Jerusalem is built. Out of these mammoth caverns stones, a hard limestone, have been quarried in ancient times for the buildings in the...
in Europe, with an area of 785,400 m2. The granite, technically horneblende granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
, is primarily used in construction and road-repair. The quarry produces approximately 3 million tonnes per annum with reserves of 160 million tonnes of granite, making it one of the top ten largest producing quarries in Europe in 1997. The quarry is blasted at 12.30 pm most weekdays, with a force that is felt throughout most of the village, as well as in some parts of Quorn, Swithland
Swithland
Swithland is a linear village in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. It is in the old Charnwood Forest, between Cropston and Woodhouse and Woodhouse Eaves. Although small, it has a village hall, a parish church, and a pub. The village is known for the slate that was quarried in the...
, and Rothley.
The quarry was run by Redland Quarries until its acquisition by Lafarge
Lafarge
Lafarge is a French industrial company specialising in four major products: cement, construction aggregates, concrete and gypsum wallboard. In 2010 the company was the world's second-largest cement manufacturer by mass shipped behind Holcim.-History:...
in the 1990s. The quarry itself is home to the common lizard
Lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...
, an endangered species
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
.
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-RoyceRolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
acquired a factory previously used by an aircraft propeller manufacturer after World War Two in 1945. The factory, officially known as 'Rolls-Royce Mountsorrel', became a specialist production factory for 'structural and high temperature fabrications', advising on new designs of both aircraft and cars for Rolls-Royce.
In a fire during a heatwave on 13 May 1959, the manufacturing area of the factory was heavily damaged but the design department was left undamaged.
In 1969, the Mountsorrel Rolls-Royce factory designed and produced the RB211
Rolls-Royce RB211
The Rolls-Royce RB211 is a family of high-bypass turbofan engines made by Rolls-Royce plc and capable of generating 37,400 to 60,600 pounds-force thrust. Originally developed for the Lockheed L-1011 , it entered service in 1972 and was the only engine to power this aircraft type...
engine for the Lockheed Tristar, and during the 1970s the factory employed 1,200 people, but it was shut in 1994 as production methods changed. The site has since been replaced by a housing estate.
Sporting Teams
- Mountsorrel Castle Cricket Club is a cricket clubCricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
founded c.1880. It currently fields two teams in the ECBEngland and Wales Cricket BoardThe England and Wales Cricket Board is the governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was created on 1 January 1997 combining the roles of the Test and County Cricket Board, the National Cricket Association and the Cricket Council...
EverardsEverardsEverards is an independent British regional brewery founded in Leicester in 1849 by William Everard and Thomas Hull.It produces cask ales and owns over 160 tenanted pubs, mainly around the Leicestershire area and has won 'The Publican Pub Company of the Year Award' three times.The company is one...
Leicestershire Cricket League. Since 2006 the club has also fielded a Sunday friendly team.
Transport
The village is currently served by Arriva Fox County and Paul S Winson.Paul S Winson service 99 Birstall – Mountsorrel
Arriva 126/127 Leicester – Loughborough – Shepshed – Coalville
Paul S Winson X27 – Loughborough – Quorn – Mountsorrel – Rothley
Notable persons
- James Biddles, 19th century actor, his daughter Adelaide married Charles Alexander CalvertCharles Alexander CalvertCharles Alexander Calvert was a British actor and theatre manager noted for Shakespearean "revivals" featuring elaborate staging and historically accurate sets and costumes.-Early life:...
- Rosemary ConleyRosemary ConleyRosemary Conley, CBE is an English businesswoman, author and broadcaster on exercise and health. She is the founder and president of Rosemary Conley Diet And Fitness Clubs, a franchise-based organisation that is, alongside Slimming World and Weight Watchers, one of the "big three" weight loss...
, the creator of the Hip & Thigh Diet, lived in Mountsorrel before moving to Quorndon. - Hilda Lewis, daughter of the vicar William Lewis, married the palaeontologist Leslie Reginald CoxLeslie Reginald CoxLeslie Reginald Cox was an eminent palaeontologist and malacologist.Cox was born to parents who worked as government servant in the Post Office telephone engineers' department. When he was just a few years old Cox moved to Harringay, where he at six he started attendance at the South Harringay...
- The sculptor John Charles Felix RossiJohn Charles Felix Rossi-Life:John Charles Felix Rossi was born at Nottingham on 8 March 1762. His father, an Italian from Siena, was a quack doctor at Nottingham, and afterwards at Mountsorrell, Leicestershire. Rossi was sent to the studio of Giovanni Battista Locatelli, an Italian sculptor working in London...
lived in the village in the 19th century - Dick TurpinDick TurpinRichard "Dick" Turpin was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's profession as a butcher early in life, but by the early 1730s he had joined a gang of deer thieves, and later became a poacher,...
has a plaque, stating that it is believed locally that he used the mounting point opposite, The swan inn, Loughborough Road,