Leicestershire beckons

Its been an exceptional year with Covid-19 playing havoc with everyone’s  plans so now as I head into my fifty third year I am determined to get my challenge off the ground starting with a crack at Leicestershire in January 2021. Mar 29th 2021 UPDATE – Covid-19 Lockdown 3 prevented my Loop of Leicestershire happening as planned in January but with the vaccine rollout progressing well “stay at home” restrictions have been lifted and Saturday April 3rd is cast in stone as the day this faltering challenge finally gets going again!

So what a great feeling it is to be looking forward to a week that will see the return of club coaching sessions and TT racing. With a promise of unseasonably warm and sunny weather to come in midweek the legs might just be out on the commute for the first time since September. I even felt compelled to take the razor to the calves just in case!

A landlocked county in the East Midlands, Leicestershire is considered to be the home of fox hunting hence the football teams nickname, with the Quorn hunt led by Hugo Meynell dating as far back as 1753 considered to be the birthplace of the now banned practise.

Leicester hit the headlines in 2015 when the foxes pulled off the most unlikely premier league title win in history, before then Leicester Tigers rugby club were the dominant sporting force in the county.

Leicestershire is characterised by a rolling rural landscape and the expanding National forest. The River Soar bisects the county town of Leicester and an extensive network of canals and lakes can be found throughout the county.

The home of the Melton Mowbray pork pie and Red Leicester cheese will hopefully provide a perfect winter ride.

Leicester facts and history you may not know

(Courtesy of De Montfort University)

The English language we use today originated in Leicester

 Oo-yor fight-oh. Saxons and Vikings before they made peace.

You soon cotton on to the fact that the Leicester dialect is unique with its clipped vowels and ‘ey up me ducks, ‘Les-tohs’ and ‘oo-yors’ – but we bet you never knew that Leicester is the birthplace of the English language we use today.

Experts believe that 1,000 years ago in Leicester – the heart of England – the warring Anglo Saxons and Vikings set aside their differences and the two communities started sharing their trades and languages and helped to shape modern standard English.

If it wasn’t for this, we would probably still use an Anglo-Saxon style of language more similar to German.

The River Soar used to be pink

The banks of the Soar at the bottom of the DMU campus

Leicester’s main water course – used to be known for its strange pink hue. This was all down to the city’s industrial heritage when it was famous for its textiles. In fact, the clothing industry was so successful in the 1930s that Leicester was named the second richest city in Europe.

Water was an essential part of the manufacturing process so textile mills were all built on the riverside. Unfortunately, the waste was flushed back into the Soar creating the pink colour.

The textile industry is not what it was and we are happy to report that the Soar is now rich in wildlife with thriving bird, fish and plant populations, as well as the DMU rowing teams. You may even spot the odd otter – a sure-fire indicator of cleanliness.

Traffic Lights

Not quite sure how this one started but according to…well…everyone who drives, Leicester has more traffic lights than any other city in the UK. It may be an urban myth, but once you’ve tootled around the ring road, Narborough Road and London Road in your Vauxhall Nova a couple of times we think you’ll be sharing the same ‘fact’ with friends and family.

Painting the town red!!

Painting the Town Red – this popular saying comes from the activities of Henry de la Poer Beresford, third marquess of Waterford. The toff, in town for the hunting, thought it would be a hoot to steal a load of red paint from the Melton turnpike and coat half the town. And then fight with a few coppers.

Barrel battles

Hallaton Bottle Kicking. Predating the Romans the neighbouring villages of Medbourne and Hallaton in south east Leicestershire had a sporting tradition which saw the winners rewarded with a hare pie. The task? To bustle three barrels (bottles) across the village boundary. The event takes place on Easter Monday.

Leicester has the biggest covered market in Europe

Leicester Market has been based in the same place for 700 years and is thought to be the biggest covered market in Europe. As well as fruit and veg, there is also an indoor food hall selling fish, meat, cheese and the famous Melton Mowbray pork pies. Because of Leicester’s diversity you can also grab all the ingredients to cook great Asian and South-East Asian food. You also need to know that it was once home to Lineker’s fruit and veg stall, which a certain Gary Lineker used to work on with his dad Barry in between banging in the goals for Leicester City.

Leicester is home to the biggest crisp factory in the world

Talking of Gary Lineker (see the link there) did you know that Walkers’ Crisps has been frying potatoes in Leicester for 71 years and now runs the largest crisp factory in the world. If you head out to Walkers in the Leicester district of Beaumont Leys you can smell the factory before you see it.

The factory produces seven million packs of crisps a day. That’s right. A day. And it scrubs, washes and slices 40 tonnes of potatoes every hour. It’s a staggering operation. The company started in 1948 when Leicester butcher Henry Walker – former producer of pork pies and sausages on Cheapside – felt the pinch with post-war rationing and had to diversify. The story goes that he originally thought of making ice-cream but he didn’t have enough room in his fridges. Am I the only one now thinking of cheese and onion flavour Mr Whippy?

Leicester has the largest Diwali celebrations outside of India

Leicester is famous for its diversity and as a result there are dozens of festivals that run throughout the year. It’s fair to say our city knows how to party. The Caribbean Carnival is said to be the largest in the UK after Notting Hill, but where Leicester really have bragging rights is the way it marks Diwali.

Around November time, the Hindu and Sikh Festival of Light sees around 40,000 people gather along the Golden Mile (renowned for its authentic Indian restaurants, sari shops and jewellers and has been described as “the closest that Britain comes to an Indian bazaar”) to mark the occasion. There’s music, dancing, food and fireworks as well as the turning on of the Diwali lights, which stretch all the way along the Belgrave Road. In recognition of the city’s respect for different cultures, the lights stay on for Christmas too.

Leading the way in abolishing slavery

The charter to abolish slavery was drafted at Rothley Temple in Leicestershire, former home of the Knights Templar. Temple owner Thomas Babington was friends with William Wilberforce – the man who took it through Parliament.

Leicester has its own Roman baths

 The Jewry Wall as it appears today.

Leicester has been continuously occupied for more than 2,000 years and is one of the oldest cities in the UK. It started as an Iron Age settlement near the River Soar before the Roman occupation. The city was named Ratae and in the second century the Jewry Wall Public Baths were built. Remains of the Jewry Wall still stand on St Nicholas Circle. Unfortunately, unlike the spa town of Bath, the Leicester version is now missing one vital ingredient – water.

Local radio was born in Leicester

 Radio Leicester’s home in Jubilee Square

Britain’s first local radio station, BBC Radio Leicester, broadcast to the city in November 1967. The station was launched with a jingle, which was a version of the Posthorn Gallop – the tune that Leicester City players run out to at the King Power. It was followed by a speech by the Postmaster General, the Right Hon Edward Short.

The guests, including the Lord Mayor of Leicester and senior BBC staff from London, were greeted by a protest from members of the Free Radio Association, bemoaning the loss of pirate stations. These were broadcast from ships off the coast of England to avoid the need for a UK license.

Leicester has the most diverse street in England

Narborough Road is, officially, the most diverse street in England, according to researchers at the London School of Economics.

There are 222 shop units on Narborough Road – the mile-long gateway to the city centre from the West End – and researchers found that the owners of those units come from 22 countries around the world. Lead researcher Dr Suzanne Hall told the Leicester Mercury: “It is the world in microcosm; all these people, from all these different places, different cultures, living cheek by jowl, working with each other and living in harmony.”

The fattest man in Britain (circa 1805) was from Leicester

Daniel Lambert was a jail keeper and animal breeder. Despite being athletically active and abstaining from alcohol his weight started to balloon in adulthood. He tipped the scales at 50 stone in 1805 and became the heaviest authenticated person, up to that point, in recorded history.

Daniel moved to London and put himself on show to make money. It became quite the fashion to visit him in his apartment.

At the time of his death, he weighed 52 stone 11 pounds (335 kg), and his coffin required 10.4 square metres of wood. Despite the coffin being built with wheels and a sloping approach being dug to the grave, it took 20 men almost half an hour to drag his casket into the trench.

A set of Lambert’s clothes, together with his armchair, walking stick, riding crop and prayer book, are on permanent display at the Newarke Houses Museum.

Leicester took a lead role in the campaign for Votes for Women

Alice Hawkins was a leading English suffragette and started her campaign for Votes for Women in Leicester. She was a boot and shoe machinist at Equity Shoes, which is now student accommodation near Bede Park.

She went to prison five times for acts committed as part of the Women’s Social and Political Union militant campaign. Her husband Alfred Hawkins was also an active campaigner.

Hawkins was first jailed in February 1907, among 29 women sent to HollowayPrison after a march on Parliament. She was jailed a second time in 1909^.

In 2018 a statue of Alice was unveiled in Leicester Market Square.

Lots of famous people are from Leicester

 Famous Leicester lads Serge and Tom of Kasabian

Leicester is the home town of Gary Lineker, Sir David Attenborough, Sir Richard Attenborough, Kasabian, playwright Joe Orton, fashion guru Gok Wan, World Cup-winning England goalie Gordon Banks, Queen bassist John Deacon, Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord, Monty Python’s Graham Chapman, Adrian Mole author Sue Townsend, Booker Prize-winning novelist Julian Barnes, ITN news anchor Julie Etchingham, World Champion snooker player Mark Selby and Oscar-nominated film director Stephen Frears…to name a few!

The Elephant Man, AKA Joseph Merrick, was a Leicester son, who first displayed his deformities to the public at the Gaiety Theatre in Leicester. The theatre in Wharf Street was demolished as recently as 2009.

Raised on campus at the University of Leicester, the late Lord Richard Attenborough – filmmaker, actor, philanthropist, socialist – and his brother Sir David Attenborough, TV naturalist and zoologist.

Tour Highlights

The oldest pub – The Belper Arms in Newton Burgoland

Prettiest village – Foxton

Highest road – Beacon hill

Iconic climb – Poly Bott’s Lane

Famous Person – Lady Jane Grey – Bradgate Park

Oldest Bridge – Aylestone

Best Cyclists cafe – Cafe Ventoux

Iconic Sculpture – Astronaut at the space centre

The oldest Church – St Nicholas

Best viewpoint – Beacon hill

As always I’m sure the “google” view of Leicestershire will be hotly contested by those in the know!

My 92 county cycling challenge route created in Komoot can be found here Here