Scraptoft
Encyclopedia
Scraptoft is a village in Leicestershire
, England
that is effectively a suburb of Leicester
. It has a population of about 1,500. It lies north of the A47 road
east of Leicester, and runs directly into the built up area of Thurnby and Bushby
to the south. For local government the village forms part of the district of Harborough
, and constitutes a civil parish
.
(which connected to the Great Northern Railway
) closed to passenger traffic in the mid 1950's. Seaside excursions and freight continued to use the line until around 1964, and in the early part of 1965 the track was lifted and the bridge across the road on Station Road was demolished.
also ran services until c1930 when the company was taken over by the "Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Co. Ltd." (B.M.M.O.), known as Midland Red
. The 'BMMO' ran a service for many years through to Hungarton numbered 599/598, and for a period was extended on to Twyford and John 'O Gaunt Station as an X64. This replaced the discontinued train service which had run previously, known as the workers' service, but this extension had ceased by 1965. The Hungarton service was maintained until around 1980. A school service numbered S23 was operated for a few years in the later 1960s as a mornings only Scraptoft Green - Somerby Road School run. Oddly, no return afternoon facility ever existed. BMMO also ran its more regular services into Leicester numbered L29, later 93, also until the early 1970s a Service L15 to Oadby, Wigston and Enderby.
Other operators known to have run services were Nesbit Bros. Coaches of Somerby which ran a Tuesdays only service to Melton Mowbray commenced in 1976 for approx. 10 years, Fosse Travel a Market Harborough weekly shopper. Since the 1980s a variety of infrequent services from the Rutland area to Leicester have passed through Scraptoft operated by Blands of Cottesmore, Paul James Coaches, Skinners of Saltby, Kinchbus, Barton Transport, Abu & Sons, Arriva Fox County and Mark Bland Travel. More recently, since the spring of 2006 the 'Rural Rider' network now covers Scraptoft and much of the sparsely populated East Leicestershire area.
Since the closure of the De-Montfort University campus and student residences, the bus service has declined and there is now no evening or Sunday service in the village.
food store, and adjacent Post office
. These shops serve the passing traffic of the outlying villages to the east and north-east, most of which lack shops although a few still have public houses. During the mid 1970s there was a short-lived cafe on Main Street, called 'The Bambi Cafe'. The premises later became a greengrocers/florists, and then a private dwelling. A garage/filling station and a hairdressing salon were also located on Main Street, both of which are now gone and replaced by private dwellings.
A public house called 'The White House' is located on Scraptoft Lane and is constructed of Ketton stone from Normanton Hall
in Rutland
, demolished around 1926. The property was bought by the Northampton Brewery Company and became a hotel in 1950. It was bought by the JD Wetherspoon group in 2010.
. The village has a Green, which at one time had the traditional red telephone box and adjacent pillar box. Over the years, with safety improvements due to increased traffic, the area has altered to become little more than a road junction. The Village Institute, or Village hall
, is located by this junction and is used for community events. An open space recreation area, known as the Edith Cole memorial park, is located opposite All Saints Church on Church Hill. About a mile to the north-east of the village, on the road to Keyham, is the newly established 'Scraptoft natural burial ground'.
at one time met regularly throughout the fox hunting
season on Fridays in the village, at the Nether Hall, built in 1709. The Hunt would move off and hunt fox coverts along Covert Lane to the east of the village towards Ingarsby
.
as Scrapentot, part of Gartree wapentake. It was held by Coventry
Abbey, and had increased in value from 2 shilling
s at the time of the Norman Conquest to 40 shillings in 1086.
The village is the site of various historic buildings including Scraptoft Hall, which is a listed building. The Hall and its grounds were for many years used as a campus of De Montfort University
and its predecessors, but this facility was closed in 2003. The grounds of the house have been proposed for development as a brown field
housing site.
, and is also host to a number of sports teams at Covert Lane, including Jimmies Rugby Club. It is also home to Aylestone St James RFC
.
St. Lukes School until the late 1960s when Thurnby Somerby Road (Fernvale) School was opened, from there they went onto Manor High School (Oadby)
or Gartree High School
and Beauchamp College
at Oadby
.
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...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
that is effectively a suburb of 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...
. It has a population of about 1,500. It lies north of the A47 road
A47 road
The A47 is a trunk road in England originally linking Birmingham to Great Yarmouth. Most of the section between Birmingham and Nuneaton is now classified as the B4114.-Route:...
east of Leicester, and runs directly into the built up area of Thurnby and Bushby
Thurnby and Bushby
Thurnby and Bushby, sometimes known as Thurnby is a civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England.According to the 2001 census it had a population of 3,147.-Position:...
to the south. For local government the village forms part of the district of Harborough
Harborough
Harborough is a local government district of Leicestershire, England, named after its main town, Market Harborough. Covering , the District is by far the largest of the eight district authorities in Leicestershire and covers almost a quarter of the County....
, and constitutes a civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
.
Rail transport
The Thurnby and Scraptoft railway stationThurnby and Scraptoft railway station
Thurnby and Scraptoft railway station was a railway station in Thurnby, Leicestershire on the Great Northern Railway Leicester branch. The station opened in 1882 and closed to regular traffic in 1953.Former Services-References:...
(which connected to the Great Northern Railway
Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)
The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity as a constituent of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway....
) closed to passenger traffic in the mid 1950's. Seaside excursions and freight continued to use the line until around 1964, and in the early part of 1965 the track was lifted and the bridge across the road on Station Road was demolished.
Road transport
Services through, to or from Scraptoft were run by Ernest Jordan of Halstead near Tilton-on-the-Hill in the early years of the 20th century. Hincks of HungartonHungarton
Hungarton is a small village in the county of Leicestershire, England. It is about north-east of Leicester and south-west of Melton Mowbray...
also ran services until c1930 when the company was taken over by the "Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Co. Ltd." (B.M.M.O.), known as Midland Red
Midland Red
Midland Red was a bus company which operated in the English Midlands from 1905 to 1981. It was the trading name used by the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company , which was renamed Midland Red Omnibus Company in 1974...
. The 'BMMO' ran a service for many years through to Hungarton numbered 599/598, and for a period was extended on to Twyford and John 'O Gaunt Station as an X64. This replaced the discontinued train service which had run previously, known as the workers' service, but this extension had ceased by 1965. The Hungarton service was maintained until around 1980. A school service numbered S23 was operated for a few years in the later 1960s as a mornings only Scraptoft Green - Somerby Road School run. Oddly, no return afternoon facility ever existed. BMMO also ran its more regular services into Leicester numbered L29, later 93, also until the early 1970s a Service L15 to Oadby, Wigston and Enderby.
Other operators known to have run services were Nesbit Bros. Coaches of Somerby which ran a Tuesdays only service to Melton Mowbray commenced in 1976 for approx. 10 years, Fosse Travel a Market Harborough weekly shopper. Since the 1980s a variety of infrequent services from the Rutland area to Leicester have passed through Scraptoft operated by Blands of Cottesmore, Paul James Coaches, Skinners of Saltby, Kinchbus, Barton Transport, Abu & Sons, Arriva Fox County and Mark Bland Travel. More recently, since the spring of 2006 the 'Rural Rider' network now covers Scraptoft and much of the sparsely populated East Leicestershire area.
Since the closure of the De-Montfort University campus and student residences, the bus service has declined and there is now no evening or Sunday service in the village.
Shops
The current newsagents on Main Street (2010) was once an inn, called the "Pear Tree". The village has a small Co-operativeThe Co-operative Group
The Co-operative Group Ltd. is a United Kingdom consumer cooperative with a diverse range of business interests. It is co-operatively run and owned by its members. It is the largest organisation of this type in the world, with over 5.5 million members, who all have a say in how the business is...
food store, and adjacent Post office
Post Office Ltd.
Post Office Ltd is a retail post office company in the United Kingdom that provides a wide range of products including postage stamps and banking to the public through its nationwide network of post office branches.-Structure:Post Office Ltd...
. These shops serve the passing traffic of the outlying villages to the east and north-east, most of which lack shops although a few still have public houses. During the mid 1970s there was a short-lived cafe on Main Street, called 'The Bambi Cafe'. The premises later became a greengrocers/florists, and then a private dwelling. A garage/filling station and a hairdressing salon were also located on Main Street, both of which are now gone and replaced by private dwellings.
A public house called 'The White House' is located on Scraptoft Lane and is constructed of Ketton stone from Normanton Hall
Normanton, Rutland
Normanton is a village and civil parish on the eastern shore of Rutland Water in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England.Normanton Park was a seat of the Earls of Ancaster and an important centre of their estates. The stable block of their hall is now Normanton Park hotel...
in Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, demolished around 1926. The property was bought by the Northampton Brewery Company and became a hotel in 1950. It was bought by the JD Wetherspoon group in 2010.
Community facilities
Much of the village is a conservation areaConservation area
A conservation areas is a tract of land that has been awarded protected status in order to ensure that natural features, cultural heritage or biota are safeguarded...
. The village has a Green, which at one time had the traditional red telephone box and adjacent pillar box. Over the years, with safety improvements due to increased traffic, the area has altered to become little more than a road junction. The Village Institute, or Village hall
Village hall
In the United States, a village hall is the seat of government for villages. It functions much as a city hall does within cities.In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building within a village which contains at least one large room, usually owned by and run for the benefit of the local...
, is located by this junction and is used for community events. An open space recreation area, known as the Edith Cole memorial park, is located opposite All Saints Church on Church Hill. About a mile to the north-east of the village, on the road to Keyham, is the newly established 'Scraptoft natural burial ground'.
Quorn Hunt
The Quorn HuntQuorn Hunt
The Quorn Hunt, usually called The Quorn, established 1696, is one of the world's oldest fox hunting packs and claims to be the United Kingdom's most famous hunt...
at one time met regularly throughout the fox hunting
Fox hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...
season on Fridays in the village, at the Nether Hall, built in 1709. The Hunt would move off and hunt fox coverts along Covert Lane to the east of the village towards Ingarsby
Ingarsby
Ingarsby is one of the best preserved deserted medieval villages in England. It is situated about six miles to the East of Leicester, and a little to the North of Houghton on the Hill...
.
History
Scraptoft was recorded in the Domesday BookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
as Scrapentot, part of Gartree wapentake. It was held by 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...
Abbey, and had increased in value from 2 shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
s at the time of the Norman Conquest to 40 shillings in 1086.
The village is the site of various historic buildings including Scraptoft Hall, which is a listed building. The Hall and its grounds were for many years used as a campus of De Montfort University
De Montfort University
De Montfort University is a public research and teaching university situated in the medieval Old Town of Leicester, England, adjacent to the River Soar and the Leicester Castle Gardens...
and its predecessors, but this facility was closed in 2003. The grounds of the house have been proposed for development as a brown field
Brown Field
Brown Field Municipal Airport is located in the Otay Mesa neighborhood of San Diego, California, southeast of Downtown San Diego and named in honor of Commander Melville S. Brown, USN, who was killed in an airplane crash in 1936. Its primary runway is long....
housing site.
Sport
The village is host to the Scraptoft golf courseGolf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
, and is also host to a number of sports teams at Covert Lane, including Jimmies Rugby Club. It is also home to Aylestone St James RFC
Aylestone St James RFC
Aylestone St James RFC is a football club in Scraptoft, Leicester.References [1] http://www.aylestonestjamesrfc.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=57...
.
Education
Scraptoft does not have a school. Village children attended ThurnbyThurnby
Thurnby is a village just east of Leicester's city boundaries, in the Harborough district.Thurnby village proper is set to the south of the A47, just after it leaves the city. A sister village, Bushby lies just to the East and merges into it such that the two have made one civil parish, Thurnby...
St. Lukes School until the late 1960s when Thurnby Somerby Road (Fernvale) School was opened, from there they went onto Manor High School (Oadby)
Manor High School (Oadby)
Manor High School is a community middle school for boys and girls, aged 10 to 14 years . The school serves a suburban area to the south of the City of Leicester, although it falls outside the city's administrative boundaries, within the district of Oadby and Wigston in Leicestershire. The school...
or Gartree High School
Gartree High School
Gartree High School is a popular co-educational middle school for children from the ages of ten to fourteen. The school is situated in Oadby, a town on the south side of Leicester.Former students include John Deacon of Queen.-New school rebuild:...
and Beauchamp College
Beauchamp College
The Beauchamp College is a comprehensive upper school and further education community college, in Oadby, a town on the outskirts of Leicester, England.-Admissions:...
at Oadby
Oadby
Oadby is a town within the borough of Oadby and Wigston, in Leicestershire, England. It is to the east of Wigston Magna, and to the southeast of Leicester. Oadby forms part of the Leicester Urban Area, and is situated on the A6 road....
.