Magazine Autumn 2014Number 90

The Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society

The

www.le.ac.uk/lahs

Magazine Autumn 2014Number 90

The Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society

The

THE 2014/15 LECTURE SEASONThe dates, the speakers and their subjects for the forthcoming season

SIR TIMOTHY BROOKS, KCVORemembering a much-respected and well-loved former LAHS President

JOHN NICHOLS AND THE MYSTERY OF EDMUND ROOSNeil Fortey finds a mystery in the pages of Nichols' .

BOSWORTH BATTLEFIELD HERITAGENews of a new international group committed to furthering understandingof the events of 22 August 1485

LITERARY LEICESTERSHIRE

Stephen Allen notes some visitations by 19th century literary greats

THE DIARY OF SARAH OGDEN

A gentlewoman’s 19th century diary now transcribed and published

NEW RESOURCES FOR LOCAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE PROJECTSPam Fisher outlines new resources available from Leicester University

DR PAUL COURTNEY MEMORIAL CONFERENCENews of a special day of talks in memory of Paul

NEWS FROM THE NETWORKUpdates from member groups of the LAHS Networks Project

BEAUMANOR IN RETROSPECTLooking back to the Society’s highly-successful Spring History Fair

COUNTDOWN TO NICHOLS 200Events and publications to mark the bi-centenary of John Nichol’slandmark work

FIFTY YEARS OF CARING FOR THE COUNTY’S CHURCHES AND CHAPELSCelebrating the golden anniversary of the Leicestershire HistoricChurches Trust

The Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Magazine and Newsletter, No 90, Autumn 2014Distributed free to members

The editor, Stephen Butt, welcomes articles, letters and commentsEmail - lahs@stephenbutt.co.uk Phone - 07805 459764

© 2014 The society and respective authors.

MagazineThe newsletter of theLeicestershireArchaeological andHistorical Society

Autumn 2014Number 90Published twice-yearly by theLeicestershire Archaeological andHistorical Society

President - Michael Wood

The GuildhallGuildhall LaneLeicesterLE1 5FQ

Distributed free of charge to allmembers

Editor: Stephen Butt

Articles, letters and comments arewelcomed

lahs@stephenbutt.co.uk07805 459764

© 2014 The Society andrespective authors

The Leicestershire Archaeologicaland Historical Society wasfounded in 1855 to promote thestudy of the history, archaeology,antiquities and architecture ofLeicestershire.

Each year, the Society producesits Transactions as well as theLeicestershire Historian and twoeditions of the Magazine andNewsletter.

The Society also arranges anannual season of talks at the NewWalk Museum, issues occasionalpublications and arrangesexcursions and other specialevents.

Members can be informed of theSociety’s activities by email andthrough social media. Formembership details (with specialrates for families and students)please contact the MembershipSecretary, Matthew Beamish, byemail at mgb3@le.ac.uk or 0116252 5234.

Magazineand Newsletterof the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society

Within a matter of weeks, theSociety’s 159th lecture season willbe commencing. One of theannoying but also pleasing aspectsof our Thursday evening meetingsat the New Walk Museum hasbeen the need, on almost everyoccasion over the past season, toset out more chairs toaccommodate the increasingnumber of members and guestswho are attending.

This is in no small way due to thework of our retiring LecturesSecretary Neil Finn, who over thepast years has brought a widerange of fascinating andauthoritative speakers to thesociety covering many diversetopics within the fields of bothhistory and archaeology. We nowwelcome Yolande Courtney as ournew Lectures Secretary, and lookforward to the Society’s 160th

season of talks!

In November, the acts ofRemembrance which will takeplace in towns and villages acrossthe country will be defined by thesignificance of the year, being theanniversary of the outbreak ofhostilities in the First World War.

The Society’s Wartime Leicestershire History Fair in March wasclearly an event that touched anerve for many people. Over 1400people shared in the stalls, stands,talks and tours.

The Society is grateful for all theorganisations and groups who tookpart and made the day memorablefor so many visitors.

Perceptive readers will have alreadynoticed a new look to this issue,and a subtle (we hope!) change ofname. Your comments, as always,will be welcomed.

Welcome to the

www.le.ac.uk/lahs

The SecretListenersNew information about thesecret role of BeaumanorHall during WWII is stillbeing discovered.

Prof. Chris Dyer providedthe officers of the Societywith some notes onBeaumanor’s wartime pastwhich he uncovered whilstresearching the life of JoanThirsk for her obituary inThe Guardian.

According to Jimmy Thirsk in hisbook

, he arrived at BeaumanorHall, having been transferredfrom the artillery, probably in theSpring or Summer of 1942.

He describes Beaumanor as 'thesecret headquarters of Britishintelligence'. He had joined abranch of M18, called the CentralParty.

He was one of fifty log readers.The messages were collectedfrom intercept stations (of whichBeaumanor was the largest one)and delivered to the log readerswhose job was to begin theprocess of finding out thewhereabouts of different Germanarmy units.

After Jimmy spent about fourweeks at Beaumanor (the CentralParty had been there for sometime) they were told of the moveto Bletchley, and eventually thefurniture, equipment and hugenumbers of logs were loaded intoarmy lorries and taken there.

Bletchley had been theGovernment Code and CypherSchool but grew during the earlyyars of the war. It grew very fastwhen the log-reading was centredthere, and Beaumanor remainedas an intercept station providingdata which was sent to Bletchley.

Also in 1942 Joan Watkins (tobecome Joan Thirsk), havingcompleted part of a degree inmodern languages spent a monthat Beaumanor (presumably afterthe Central Party had left) beingtrained in signals and wirelesstelegraphy. Then they went toBletchley to work on themessages.

Beaumanor 2014

A full account of activities atBeaumanor Hall during WWIItitled ‘England Needs You: TheStory of Beaumanor, Y Station.’has been written and publishedby Joan Nicholls

The village of Woodhouse Eavesfell victim to a loan raider who hitthe main street with at least onebomb on 16 December 1940. Thisraid was followed by bombs fallingon fields north of Old Woodhouse.

In ‘Winds of Change: Woodhouseand Woodhouse Eaves in Pictures’is a chapter with photographs ofU.S. GIs with local people and ATSgirls working within BeaumanorHall.

In this book is an interesting aerialphotograph taken by U.S.reconnaissance aircraft (the bookstates Luftwaffe), on 22 April 1944.This clearly shows the neat rows oftents erected by the 505 ParachuteInfantry Regiment of the U.S. 82ndAirborne Division.

Did You Miss?• David Ramsey’s fascinating account of Beaumanor’s Secret Listeners?

• Sounds Familiar - the family of musicians reflecting the atmosphere of England during both WWI and WWII in evocative words and music?

• The vintage buses, provided by the Leicester Transport Heritage Trust, which transported nearly 400 people between the GCR station and Beaumanor?

• The very latest on the biggest archaeological news story of the year from Richard Buckley OBE, Chairman of our society?

• The chance to explore the wartime cellars of Beaumanor?

More than 1400 visitors attended the Society’s Wartime LeicestershireHistory Fair on Sunday 25 March 2014. There were stalls and standsrepresenting more than fifty local history and heritage groups,complementing a full day of talks and tours relating to Beaumanor’spast and the history of conflict in Leicestershire from the Wars of theRoses to present-day Afghanistan.

One of the most popular attractions on the day was the German Enigmacoding machine and the talks provided by Dr Mark Baldwin, an expert inthe history of Bletchley Park. But all the talks and tours throughout the daywere fully booked well before the event.

AboutBurrough

After people stopped living atBurrough Hill, the interior andsurrounding fields were farmed,in the medieval period, and wereploughed until the parish wasenclosed in the 17th century.

The hillfort was in fact also usedas a fairground in medieval timesand later became the venue forsteeple-chasing organised by theMelton Hunt for a large part ofthe 19th century.

Archaeological fieldwork sincethe 1970s has shown thatBurrough Hill sits in a denselyoccupied landscape of enclosedfarms, larger aggregatedsettlements and important ritualfoci. This information provides anew perspective on Iron Agesocieties in a part of Britain oncewritten off as sparsely inhabitedand culturally peripheral.

As well as providing a securefoundation for further research,this work has exposed theinadequacy of our understandingof the centrality (or otherwise) ofBurrough Hill in its region.

What was its social and economicstatus and relationship with othercommunities? Do these changeover time? Did the occupation atBurrough overlap with othersettlement types or were theymutually exclusive? Why wasthere a hillfort here at all whensuch sites are so rare in the EastMidlands?

UnderstandingBurrough Hill

Thirty members of the Society enjoyed a pleasant and enlighteningevening on Wednesday 2 July 2014 learning more about thearchaeology of Burrough Hill from ULAS archaeologist John Thomas.

The excavations and research, which began in 2010, have been a majorstudent training and research project for ULAS and Leicester University,directed by Dr Jeremy Taylor and John Thomas. Our LAHS Chairman,Richard Buckley, has been the project manager.

Over the seasons, thousands of schoolchildren have experienced theirfirst real taste of archaeology.

Hillforts are widely seen as emblematic of the Iron Age, but are unevenlydistributed. Burrough Hill is one of very few in the East Midlands,comparable in national significance to the important (but now destroyed)site at Hunsbury in Northamptonshire.

A series of small archaeological excavations at Burrough in 1935, 1960,1967 and 1970-71 show occupation from the Neolithic period (c.4000-2000 BC) to the 4th or even 5th century AD. The most intensive period wasin the later Iron Age (c. 100 BC–AD 50) and, more unusually, in the 1stcentury AD; later use was sporadic at best. As at Hunsbury, the findsindicate wide ranging trading contacts, in both cases very likely linked tothe proximity of good-quality iron ores.

Leicestershire Historiandigitised

To celebrate its golden anniversary, all past issues of the LeicestershireHistorian are being digitised and made accessible on line for researchand consultation.

The project has been funded from monies which have accrued in the SnowBequest which was made to the Society several years ago in memory of theLeicester historian Edward Eric Snow.

Eric was born in Leicester in 1910 and, as well as being a successfulbusinessman, became the librarian and historian of the LeicestershireCounty Cricket Club. He served the club in many non-playing capacities,including forty years as librarian and thirty years on the committee, andwrote two histories of the club. His History of Leicestershire Cricket,published by Edgar Backus in 1940, is still the authority on the club’searlier years.

He also wrote a history of Sir Julien Cahn's XI. He was a fount of knowledgeon Leicestershire lore, and cricketing in general. His elder brother was C. P.(later Lord) Snow the writer; and his younger brother Philip represented Fijion the International Cricket Council. Eric died on 18 September 1998, theday before his beloved Leicestershire won the County Championship.

A proposal to make practical use of the Snow Bequest was placed beforethe Annual General Meeting of the Society in 2012. After discussion andconsideration, the officers approved its use to fund this project which willenable a wide range of local theses and articles to be available for thebenefit of members.

The Society took responsibility for the annual publication of theLeicestershire Historian in 1997 following the demise of the Local HistoryCouncil. The first edition under the auspices of the LeicestershireArchaeological and Historical Society was edited and produced by the thenHonorary Secretary, the late Dr Alan McWhirr.

The Story ofthe BadgeAccording to the 94th Annualreport of the Society, recorded inTrans Vol XXV, 1949, p20, thepresent badge of the society wasdesigned by A.E. Christophersonof the Leicester College of Art in1948.

It is based on the original badgeadopted by the society at theinstance of Col. Bellairs at itsmeeting on 28 January 1878, andis described in the Annual Reportfor that year as a ‘slightlymodified copy of an ancient sealof the time of Edward III, whichonce belonged to the Corporationof Leicester.’

‘The matrix of this seal’, the reportcontinues, ‘has long been lost,and only one impression (now inthe possession of Mr LlewellynJewitt) is no known to exist’.

The original and more detailedbadge is reproduced below. Theeditor would be pleased to hearfrom any reader who can addfurther to our knowledge of thedesign and its early history.

LAHS welcomes newLectures SecretaryThe officers of the Society are delighted to announce that our newLectures Secretary is Yolande Courtney. Those of you who know Yolandawill be aware of her considerable organisational skills and longassociation with both the City and County Museums services, whichmeans she has a wide network of contacts.

For the current season (Commencing September 2014) Yolanda has beenworking alongside our retiring Lectures Secretary, Neil Finn. Yolanda willbe appointed formally as an Officer of the Society at our Annual GeneralMeeting.

We are immensely delighted that Yolanda has volunteered to take on thisrole, and we are also extremely grateful to Neil for the hard work andcommitment over the past years which have resulted in a series ofmemorable and highly successful seasons of talks.

About theProject

The Castle Hill Archaeologicalgroup was originally launchedin the late summer 2013. Sofar, more than forty peoplehave signed up to help.

The group is working inpartnership with the Cookee-learning Foundation atBeaumont LodgeNeighbourhood Associationon Astill Lodge Road,Leicester.

Readers who would like tohelp, or can provide anyinsight into the more recentuses of the site, are invited tocontact Robin Matthewman atrobinandbren@ntlworld.comor telephone 0116 223 6889.

About CastleHillThe Castle Hill Country Parkis also home to two ScheduledMonuments.

The Castle Hill Earthworkslocated off the Astill Lodgeback road, comprises of anearthen rectangular bankedenclosure and fish ponddating to the medieval period.The site is associated with theKnights Hospitaller and seemsto have functioned as amonastic grange or sheepfarm.

King Williams Bridgehistorically known as the‘Dambridge’, crosses over theRothley Brook. This is amedieval stone packhorsebridge, and local tradition hasit that it was widened in 1696for King William III’s visit tonearby Bradgate House. Asit’s name suggests, there wasonce a sheepwash associatedwith the bridge.

£10,000 grant for CastleHill ArchaeologicalprojectThe Cooke e-Learning Foundation, working with the Castle HillArchaeological Project, has been awarded £10,000 from the HeritageLottery Fund Sharing Budget grant.

The project will investigate the story of the area from the early Roman daysthrough the medieval Knights Hospitallers occupation to the more recentCity Farms and sewage works, and relate this to the wider community.

Sharing Heritage is a new funding programme to help people across the UKexplore, conserve and share all aspects of the history and character of theirlocal area. Castle Hill Archaeological Project aims to identify the historicalfeatures of Castle Hill Country Park and place them within the overallcontext of the neighbouring estate. It aims to help local residents to learnnew skills, increase knowledge and to participate in discovering moreabout the local area.

This community group will look at developing the research into the Bronzeage and Roman finds uncovered in the 1980’s during the park’s creation,researching the history of the site from the ownership of the old LeicesterForest by the Earls Of Leicester and their grant of land to the Knights and itslater farming usage, including events here during the Second World War.

“This grant will enable the Castle HillArchaeological Project to carry onexploring the parks ancient historyand reveal some of its hidden secretsto the community- a quest we startedsome six years ago now.”The aim is to encourage local residents to learn about undertaking researchand also some of the techniques of archaeology including field walking,supervised test excavations and identifying artefacts. This will culminate inexhibitions at schools and in the local community. Commenting on theaward, Robin Matthewman, Project Coordinator, said: “It’s great that wehave been awarded this grant and we can’t wait to get going. We love theparkland and know there’s so much more to discover about our past. Weare all really excited about telling other people about our findings andsharing our heritage and history with them."

Vanessa Harbar, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund East Midlands, said: “Weare delighted to be able to offer this grant so that the Castle Hill Archaeolog-ical Project can embark on a real journey of discovery.” Interim Head ofParks and Green Spaces, Stewart Doughty says ‘Leicester City Council arelooking forward to working in partnership with the project to help uncoverthe hidden past of this fantastic green space on the edge of the city. TheFriends of Castle Hill Country Park wish to congratulate the Cookee-Learning Foundation on obtaining the grant from the Heritage LotteryFund. This grant will enable the Castle Hill Archaeological Project to carryon exploring the parks ancient history and reveal some of its hidden secretsto the community- a quest we started some six years ago now!’

New resources for local historyand heritage projectsPAM FISHER

The number of active localhistory and heritage groupswithin Leicestershire, and thepublic interest in their work,was readily apparent to anyonewho attended the society’s verysuccessful History Fair atBeaumanor in March.

Local history is clearly thriving inthe county, buoyed by a numberof popular television programmesand the success of manyLeicestershire groups in obtaininggrants from the Heritage LotteryFund.

In this period of local authorityausterity and budget cuts, the rolethat volunteer groups can and doplay in researching, recording andconserving heritage, and thensharing their knowledge, isbecoming increasingly important.

Anyone who has ever beeninvolved with such a project willknow that many different skillsare required. The recent inclusionof local history within the nationalcurriculum, for example , and thedevelopment of technology and social media, presentopportunities to engage with new audiences, but alsopresent challenges to groups lacking volunteers withexperience in those areas.

To help community groups and individuals involved inlocal history or heritage projects, the University ofLeicester has produced a series of written and audioguides covering more than 30 different topics underthe collective title ‘Building and Enriching SharedHeritages’. These are based on a series of workshopsrun by the University of Leicester in 2013 for historyand heritage groups from Leicestershire and other EastMidlands counties who had received ‘All Our Stories’grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and weretailored to meet the specific requests of the groups.

Some wanted to know, for example, how they couldfind out more about their village by studying thegravestones in their churchyard, while others wantedto know how to create a website, or how to cataloguetheir collection of documents, photographs or artefacts.Sessions on running an oral history project, and onpublishing a book or pamphlet, proved especiallypopular. Other topics included putting on anexhibition, obtaining television coverage and, now thegroups had generated strong interest in their localheritage, how to get funding for their next project!

The guides explain how metadata can help you to catalogue collections of documentsand photographs.

The training was delivered by University of Leicesterstaff from many different disciplines and departments,including English Local History, Archaeology, DigitalHumanities, East Midlands Oral History Archive,Museum Studies, and the press office which arrangedthe recent global coverage on the discovery of thegrave of Richard III. Funding from the Arts andHumanities Research Council through their ConnectedCommunities programme supported the workshopsand has enabled this training to be converted into aweb-based resource, so that groups and individualsinvolved in other history and heritage projects canbenefit from this expertise.

Recordings of a number of workshop sessions havealso been made available as audio files (podcasts) anda few short videos have also been created. All theresources can be downloaded from the menu at:www2.le.ac.uk/departments/history/outreach/besh

Many of the guides and podcasts contain informationwhich is not readily available elsewhere, or is difficultto locate, and which can help with every stage of alocal history or heritage project. Although designed forgroups, many of the topics are equally suitable forindividuals who want to share the results of their ownresearch with a wider audience, and should be ofinterest to many members of LAHS.

Sir Timothy Brooks KCVO1929 - 2014

It was with deep sadness that officers andmembers of the Leicestershire Archaeological andHistorical Society learned of the death, after a shortillness, on 2 May 2014 of a former President of thesociety, Sir Timothy Brooks KCVO.

Sir Timothy Gerald Martin Brooks served as Presidentof this Society from 1993 until 2005 and was Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire from 1989 to 2003. Heserved on the Council of the University of Leicester andreceived an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2002.

He was born near Loughborough in 1929, the son of adiplomat. His childhood years were spent inShropshire, being schooled at Abberley Hall and Eton,followed by the Royal Agricultural College.

His public duties included being a magistrate on theCastle Bench in Leicester, a councillor and laterchairman of Harborough District Council and HighSheriff of Leicestershire in 1979.

He worked assiduously as Lord Lieutenant to bringtogether our diverse communities and to represent theCrown on all major public occasions. He wasparticularly involved in the Queen’s Golden Jubileevisit to Leicester in 2002.

He supported armed services charities, Wyggeston'sHospital, the Leicestershire Victoria County HistoryTrust, Loughborough Endowed Schools, the county'suniversities, the Scouts Council, the Royal Society of StGeorge, the Early Music Festival, Leicester Charity Link,the Community Foundation, and the Leicestershirebranch of the Prayer Book Society.

He was a great supporter of the work of the churchesand of Leicester Cathedral as a committed Christianand a Patron of many charities in the city and thecounty.

He was a scion of the Barons Crawshaw and wasknighted in 2003. Sir Timothy played squash for thecounty and enjoyed tennis and shooting.

Sir Timothy is survived by his wife, their five children,eleven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

His son Richard, a partner with estate agency andsurveyors Strutt and Parker, said: "Behind all that hedid was a strong Christian belief.. My father was afantastic and awe-inspiring man who was alwaysincredibly down-to-earth, too.’

The present Lord Lieutenant, Jennifer, Lady Gretton,said Leicestershire had lost one of its most endearingand respected statesmen.

She said: ‘Tim was a very special and true gentlemanwhose reach across the communities of Leicester andLeicestershire was immense. He will be sorely missedby all who knew him.’

The Bishop of Leicester, the Right Revd Tim Stevenscommented:, ‘Sir Timothy was a courteous, gentle,generous, faithful servant of the people of the city andcounty and we remember him before God withthanksgiving. There will be a memorial service later inthe year, but in the meantime we assure his wife Annand all the family of our prayers in their sadness andloss.’

‘Sir Timothy was acourteous, gentle,generous, faithful servantof the people of the cityand county’

16 October 2014Julian Pooley (Hon. Visiting Fellow, Centre for English Local History,University of Leicester)

13 November 2014 The Presidential Lecture. Professor Michael Wood,President of the Society

27 November 2014 The 159th Annual General Meeting

11 December 2014 Dr John Sutton

15 January 2015 Dr Pamela Fisher (Leics. Victoria County History Trust)

5 February 2015 Robert Ovens

26 February 2015 Members Evening

12 March 2015 W. Alan North Memorial Lecture Tony Wilmott (EnglishHeritage)

2 April 2015 Adam Slater or Nick Daffern (Wardell Armstrong)

23 April 2015 Robin Jenkins (Keeper of Collections, Record Office forLeicestershire, Leicester and Rutland)

14 May 2015 Dr. Mark Gillings (Reader in Archaeology, University ofLeicester)

Looking backover ninetyissues

In the beginning, the Society’s‘news’ was to found in itsannual Transactions It was inthese volumes that changes inmembership, appointment andretirement of officers - and theoccasional obituary would bepublished.

As Robert Rutland comments inhis history of the society (2006),the advent of a separatenewsletter changed the content ofthe Transactions so that itbecame the source for academictheses and reports rather thandetailing the matters that theSociety had actually ‘transacted’during the previous year.

The earliest surviving issue of theNewsletter in the Society’s files isNo 14, published in January 1979.At that time, it comprised twelvepages of duplicated sheets. Itscontent is very similar to that ofthis issue, including news offorthcoming talks, recentarcheological excavations,specifically a Bronze Age roundbarrow near Saltby, and briefreview of new publications.

In the Editorial, the HonorarySecretary, David Wykes,considered the future role of theSociety, and underlined its role as‘the focal point for all archaeologyin its area, providingcommunication between all theinterested parties, opportunitiesfor the publication of allsignificant material, no matterhow slight, technical andfinancial support for worthwhileprojects, and opportunities forspreading the gospel.’

On the back page is an invitationto an ‘end of season party’.

Perhaps this is a tradition that thepresent Officers and Committeeshould consider reviving!

The 160th Lecture Season

The above two lectures will take place in the Victorian Gallery, NewWalk Museum. Members are requested to book in advance by

registering at www.lahs.org.uk or by ringing theHon Secretary on 07805 459764

The book contains stories that relate to over 320 people with Thurmastonconnections, and is the result of many years of research. It records not justthose who served in the British Army, the Royal Navy, and the Royal AirForce, but also those who served in the imperial forces of the BritishEmpire. Those included in the book are in the main those who were livingin Thurmaston when they were called upon to serve their King andcountry. Not all those listed in the book fought in battle, as some remainedin home defence forces or were employed in maintaining the nation’sability to feed itself during the conflict. The details of individuals have beensympathetically recorded.

Although the book has an outline of the road to war and its eventualeffects, most of all, as the author states, it is intended as both a work ofrecord and of tribute to a generation that no longer speaks for itself.

The book details and order form can be found online by searching for theThurmaston Military Indexes’ website. Copies are also available atThurmaston Print Shop, 814 Melton Road, Thurmaston, and Gamble andHollis, 1193 Melton Road, Syston.

Lottery Grant forEarl Shilton toWaterlooHistorical Group

The Earl Shilton to WaterlooHistorical Group has received£7400 Heritage Lottery funding toenable the previously hiddenhistory of Earl Shilton's Waterlooheroes, Nathaniel Almey, SamuelAlmey, George Almey, ThomasChapman and George Chapmanto be told for the first time.

The group is planning displays,presentations and exhibitions inthe Leicestershire area andbeyond. A book will bepublished which will also containinformation on the Almey familyof Earl Shilton and discuss thisperiod of history on a local level.

An oral history recording will beproduced, and local schools,libraries and community groups.will be involved. A Napoleonicfamily weekend is being plannedfor Earl Shilton in August 2015marking the 200th anniversary ofthe Battle of Waterloo.

It is also hoped that a lastingcommemorative memorial willbe placed in Earl Shilton, and ablue plaque in Almeys Lane, tohonour these men from the town.

NetworksNews

John Nichols andHinckleyHinckley Museum is planning tocreate a small temporaryexhibition on Nichols in 2015, tohighlight that John Nichols' secondwife, Martha Green, came fromHinckley. The Museum is openfrom Easter to October each yearand is run entirely by volunteers.

Thurmaston andthe Great War,1914-1918

A new book was published on 4August 2014 - the anniversary ofthe day Britain declared war onGermany - which details thecontribution of Thurmastonfamilies to the Great War. Theauthor is Mark Gamble, a memberof the Thurmaston Heritage Groupand the Leicestershire and RutlandFamily History Society.

News from the LAHSNetworks ProjectGroups

Belgrave CemeteryHeritage Open DayThe Friends of Belgrave Cemetery areholding an Open Day on Sunday 14September from 10.00 am to 3.00 pm

to commemorate the 100th anniversaryof the Great War and the tenthanniversary of the Friends. Visitors willbe able to undertake self-conductedguided walks of WWI soldier’s graves.

Back on trackWHITWICK Historical Group iscelebrating a more secure futurethanks to Whitwick ParishCouncil.

The council has agreed to grantthe group a ten-year lease for theOld Station, in North Street, whichhas been its home since 1987,after taking over ownership fromNorth West Leicestershire DistrictCouncil.

Marlene Pearson, chair of group,said: “For many local people,Whitwick Historical Group andthe Old Station are naturallylinked together.

Scott are collected in.

In the winter of 1814-15 ThomasLove Peacock, poet and author ofwonderful eloquently written gentlesatirical novels, stayed with his oldfriend Mrs Zipporah Simpson inGumley, whose second husband,John, was unsuccessfully trying tomake a living there by farming untilthey emigrated to Canada in thesummer of 1815. Peacock was anintimate of Percy Bysshe Shelleyand effectively his agent after thelatter's final departure fromEngland in 1818.

‘What fairer pathshall woo thewanderer's tread,Soothe weariedhope, and wornregret assuage!’

Zipporah's young son, John ArthurRoebuck, who became a radicalMP, recalled that Gumley farmersmarvelled at the sight of Peacockreading two books simultaneously.In fact Peacock was reading aGreek dramatist alongside acommentator. ,Peacock's first novel, was publishedin 1815 and, although I have notbeen able to demonstrate the caseconclusively, I am convinced thatGumley Hall, was a source ofinspiration.

Furthermore, in a later novel Peacock satirises the

sometimes impenetrable Germanicmetaphysical ideas of Samuel

Taylor Coleridge, where his thinlydisguised fictional character, MrMoley Mystic, rows across thelake, referred to as the

to the, whereon was

perched his Cimmerian Lodge.

The description of the path that''wound along the shores of alonely lake, embosomed in darkpine-groves and precipitousrocks'' is redolent of Gumley Lake.

Charles Dickens, one of thegreatest literary luminaries of thatcentury, published a curiousshort piece 'Out of the World' inan 1859 journal entry of hisliterary magazine 'All The YearRound'.

At the outset of a flyingChristmas-eve visit to a 'lonemonastery, situated in a desolatepart of the country' Dickenswonders whimsically if he shall ''partake of the merriest cheer,......will [the monks] indulge inperpetual bouts at quarter-stafflike so many friar tucks?''.

After travelling by train fromLondon he alights at Buffborough(Loughborough) to be driven by a'very neat phaeton' to a heavyGothic building, near to which is'a huge mass of rock surmountedby a tall cross' (Mount St BernardsAbbey).

His guest-master, FatherLawrence, walks him for a serviceat the close-by reformatory forCatholic boys but Dickens' briefstay is rendered 'Out of the World'not only by the physical andsocial remoteness of hissurroundings but also by thesudden death of Father Lawrence,who is then borne on an openbier by four fellow monks, beforemaking his return journey by thenight train.

Most, if not all, readers will befamiliar with the relativelymodern Leicestershire literaryassociations of the playwright,Joe Orton, and the creator of'Adrian Mole', Sue Townsend butthere are several suchconnections with the countyamongst the great literary giantsof the nineteenth century.

Again, the inspiration fomented inSir Walter Scott when in thesummer of 1819 Sir GeorgeBeaumont took him to the top of awatch tower, now long disappeared,to view the keep of Ashby Castleacross fields, where knightlytournaments had taken place inmedieval times, to be used in

, which was published laterin that year, is well known.

Sir George Beaumontcommissioned the building of theGothic styled Coleorton Hall, atwhich he entertained severalleading literary figures. During thespring of 1807 the Lake PoetsWilliam Wordsworth and SamuelTaylor Coleridge, the latter of whomhad very recently returned from alengthy sojourn in theMediterranean, stayed at nearbyColeorton Farm (the Hall was full ofworkmen) for several months. It wasthere that for the first timeColeridge heard Wordsworth giveevening readings of hisautobiographical work .

Early on during their stay, in amood of despair arising from apossible liaison between his adored'Asra' – Sara Hutchinson - andWordsworth, Coleridge starteddrinking the 'strong ale' at the localinn, the Queen's Head. Their lettersto Sir George and Lady Beaumont,together with those from DorothyWordsworth, Robert Southey and,indeed, Sir Walter

Literary LeicestershireVisitations of nineteenth century literarygreatsSTEPHEN ALLEN

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Given the county associationswith major Romantic poetsmentioned above, insofar asRutland was an integral part ofLeicestershire from 1974 until1997 a notable literaryconnection, for even such a short-lived expanded county and inany event with part of theunexpanded county, cannot passwithout mention.

In 1824 Lord Byron's funeralcortege passed out of London tostop overnight at Welwyn, HighamFerrers, Oakham and Nottinghamto leave early in the followingmorning for burial in the familyvault at Hucknall, near toNewstead Abbey, the ancient seatof Lord Byron's family.

An examination of the map willshow that the likeliest route fromHigham Ferrers to Oakham is viaKettering and Uppingham. Thecortege, then, crossed the RiverWelland at Rockingham to followthe northerly route throughRutland and thence theunexpanded county.

Forgive the extended quotation:

In close proximity to the remainsof his adored leader, the noblepoet, that 'honest tar' strode alongwhat is now the A6003 andsubsequently the A6006 fromMelton Mowbray to Nottingham.

NOTES

(1) Robert Stephen Hawker , 1836,'Clovelly' v, lines 7,8. RSH was the famous Vicar of Morwenstow in NorthCornwall from 1834 to 1875.

(2) Nikolaus Pevsner1960, p 90.

(3) Coleridge contributed four poems including 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' to by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published in 1798. This ground-breaking work was described as the manifesto of the romantic movement to, inter alia, use everyday language in poetry.

(4) Ibid p 83. The North West Leicestershire Mining Heritage Fund website reports that a large house, rebuilt in 1827, stands at the beginning of The Rowlands, which used to be a licensed pub bearing the name 'The Queen's Head'.

(5) xedited by William Knight, 1887.

(6) , ed. Robert Eadon Leader, 1897, 8-9, 29.

(7) Thomas Love Peacock , 1815.

(8) Thomas Love Peacock , 1817.

(9) xSaturday 21 May, 1859

(10)x Samuel Palmer, ed.,

869, p 76

(11) Ibid p 74.

Ashby Castle. A key inspiration for Sir Walter Scott who is said to haveviewed the structure from a watch tower at the Manor House in nearbySmisby in 1819 at the invitation of Sir George Beaumont

10

11

The diary of Sarah Ogden1842-51

Sarah Ogden (1817-95) was a daughter of Benjamin Cort who was aprosperous iron founder in Leicester and the owner, through his father,of one of the largest foundries in the city, the Britannia Foundry locatedat the public wharf in Belgrave Gate.

Sarah was brought up in an impressive eight-bedroom house inWelford Place in the city. Her diary commences with her marriage in1842 to her first cousin Benjamin Cort Ogden, an employee of Clarke,Phillips, Mitchell and Smith, Bankers of Leicester.

However, the bank’s collapse the following year led to Ogden’sappointment as manager of the Stamford, Spalding and Boston BankingCompany in Uppingham, where the couple lived for the next five years.

In 1848, Ogden opened a branch of that bank in Grantham, where theythen settled. Sarah’s diary ends in 1851 when they were living at18 High Street, Grantham with a groom and two servants.

The Ogdens were a prosperous middle class couple. They had nochildren and were Strict Baptists. The diary gives a vivid picture of theirsocial life in Leicester, Uppingham and Grantham.

The diary has been transcribed and annotated by Nigel Webb, adescendant of Sarah's father. Uppingham historian Peter Lane hasprovided a commentary as an appendix with notes on individualsappearing in the diary for the Ogdens' time of residence in Uppingham.

Any reader who would be willing to undertake a similar appendix forthe Leicester and Grantham periods, or can provide any backgroundinformation regarding the events recorded in the diary, is invited tocontact Nigel Webb at nandcwebb@gmail.com.

The transcript can be downloaded from the Rutland Local History andRecord Society website at: www.rutlandhistory.org/sarahogden.htm

A diary which records the life and attitudes of a young woman froma Strict Baptist family from Leicester, living in Leicester, Uppinghamand Grantham in the middle of the nineteenth century, has beenpublished by the Rutland Local History and Record Society.

50th Anniversary Celebrationsfor Leicestershire HistoricChurches TrustTo celebrate its Golden Anniversary, and also the 25th Anniversary ofthe Leicestershire Ride+Stride, the Leicestershire Historic ChurchesTrust has held a series of special events across the county, which is toculminate in a Service of Thanksgiving at St James the Greater, LondonRoad, Leicester on Sunday 28 September 2014 at 6.30pm.

The Trust was formed in 1964, principally to provide grants to to help repairthe historic churches and chapels of Leicester and Leicestershire that areopen for public worship, but also to encourage interest in and knowledgeof these buildings, and to generate enthusiasm for their care andpreservation.

Much of the Trust's income comes from the annual Sponsored Ride+Stride.It also receives donations from individuals, church councils, other trustsand legacies. All of its officials and helpers are volunteers. The Trust is non-denominational and is an independent charity.

Ride+Stride is the major annual fundraising event in the LeicestershireHistoric Churches Trust calendar, and always takes place on the secondSaturday in September.

The first Ride in Leicester and Leicestershire was held in 1990 and has beengoing strong ever since. The total amount raised in Leicester/shire nowexceeds £877,000. Half of this sum has been donated directly to churchesand chapels nominated by participants while the other half has been givenout by the Trust to churches and chapels eligible for, and deemed by thetrustees deserving of, a repairs grant.

Participants plan their own routes (which may cross county borders), withthe assistance of each county’s printed list of churches and chapels that areopen on the day. Riders and striders ask their relations, friends andcolleagues to sponsor them for an amount for each church or chapel theyvisit between 10.00 am and 6.00 pm on the day, or a lump sum. This isrecorded on a special sponsor form, and participants can take part for aslong or short a time, within the day, as is convenient for them.

50% of sponsorship money goes to the churchor chapel chosen by the participant, with theother 50% going to the Trust.

This year’s Ride+Stride takes place onSaturday 13 September 2014. Details of theLeicestershire event can be obtained bycontacting the County Co-ordinator, DavidKnowles on 01509 268354.

Members of the LAHS are invited tojoin the Trust at its Service of

Thanksgiving at St James the Greater,London Road, Leicester on Sunday

28 September 2014 at 6.30pm

With thanks,from Cadeby‘Cadeby Church is currentlybeing re-roofed and havingguttering and rainwater goodsrepaired as part of a £161,000project supported by EnglishHeritage and the HeritageLottery Fund.

The work was part-financed by agenerous bequest and small fabricfund but residents of the 70+household rural parish were left tofind another £50,000 within a yearto enable the work to go ahead.

As well as personal donations,grants were sought fromorganisations and trusts, includingthe Leicestershire HistoricChurches Trust, which gave us ourbiggest single donation, of £7,500.

Although we didn’t know it at thetime, this also turned out to be thebiggest single grant the trust hasissued, so we feel doubly gratefulfor its support.’

Rachel Parrish, Co-ordinator,Cadeby Church Roof Appeal

“The battle ofBosworth is one ofthe iconic battles inBritish history. Ihave long felt thenecessity of furtheradvanced study ofthe battle. We needto instil theimportance of thehistorical aspectswhile alsopreserving,maintaining andmaking thebattlefield siteaccessible for furtherresearch.”Joe Ann Ricca, Founder andCEO/President

News and information on how tojoin The Bosworth BattlefieldHeritage Society is availablethrough various social mediaincluding a dedicated Website,Facebook page, Twitter and afuture e-newsletter.

Email:Bosworthbattlefieldheritage@aol.com.

Facebook:‘Bosworth Battlefield HeritageSociety’, a fast growingcommunity for discussion, news,video, photos and links to articlesand membership forms.

Twitter:BBHS@BosworthSoc

New society formed tofurther research atBosworth

A new society has been established to foster and promotearchaeological and research work in and around the site of the Battleof Bosworth. The Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Society is supported byhonorary patron, Robert Hardy, CBE, FSA. Their first official eventcoincided with the anniversary re-enactments in August.

With the motto ‘‘Two Kings – One Battle’ , the intent is to be neither a Yorkistnor Tudor organisation, but to learn about the battle in every aspect fromthe commanders and the men who fought, to artefacts and battlefieldarchaeology, and the geophysics of the site itself.

Over the past two decades, up until 2011, research has provided a betterunderstanding of the battle, and the discovery in 2013 of the remains ofRichard III has sharpened interest in the battlefield itself.

The permanent preservation of the battlefield site is vital to future research.The geographical aspects of the site need to remain as a point of historicinterest and for the benefit of the general public. The Bosworth BattlefieldHeritage Society aims to promote the area as an integrated educationalresource leading to raised public awareness of the events leading up to thebattle. Working in conjunction with landowners, individuals andorganizations the Society will help develop and communicate knowledge ofthe battlefield and the surrounding areas. These objectives will besupported by the fostering and promotion of programmes that encompassfield work, archaeology, geography, geophysics, research, interpretation,genealogy and conversation.

Considerable emphasis will be given to archaeology and research and aproposal is in development to work in cooperation with the LeicestershireCounty Council. This project is designed to augment the efforts undertakenin the late 1990’s when a small group of volunteers undertook metaldetecting around the current battlefield Heritage Centre. The addition of agrant to the Leicestershire County Council in 2005 enabled the expandedeffort to include experts brought in to determine the exact location of thebattle. Continued refinements in searching led to an announcement in2009 by the team and Leicestershire County Council that the question ofwhere the battle had been fought could at long last be answered. With theanswer to this question came many more unanswered ones. Along withthe fifteenth century finds, discovery of evidence from other historicalperiods were made. With the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Society’s questto continue the archaeological research .

The Society proposes that any research undertaken into the battle wouldinclude aspects of all sides; intending to understand who was involved andwhere the fighting took place as well as why it took place in a specific area.Evidence of camp sites and possible lines of route will also be scrutinised.To achieve these aims the BBHS suggests that the research area be widenedto include areas around the site of the former Merevale Abbey and an areasouthwest of Stoke Golding, known locally as the ‘Dining Table’. The Abbeycould prove to be a resting place for Henry Tudor on the eve of the battlewhere he met with Stanley.

In addition to archaeological research the Society will look to undertakevarious other possible projects. Individuals and groups with relatedprojects and ideas are invited to submit a brief to the Society.

John Nichols and themystery of Edmund RoosLocal historian Neil Fortey finds a mystery in thepages of Nichols' .

Nichols’ account of the history of Belvoir contains the passage (right)within the transcript of an Act of Parliament of 1492, by which EdmundRoos (Ros) was obliged to remain at Elsing Manor, Middlesex, his mother'sproperty, under the restraining ‘guidance’ of Sir Thomas Lovell. What hadhe done to be deprived of his property? Was he mad, bad, or snared in theintrigues of Henry VII's government? Edmund lived on until 1508, afterwhich the Ros estates became, under the 1492 Act, property of Lovell who,on his death in 1524 left them to his great-nephew Sir Thomas Manners,later Earl of Rutland.

Edmund Roos, son of the attainted 9th Baron Ros, had lived in exilethrough the reigns of Edward IV and Richard III. Nichols reproduces thepetition he presented to Henry VII in 1486 for restoration of his father'sestate and titles, which was granted but with a rider requiring that the‘profits’ be delivered to the king. This presumably meant that occupants ofRos properties became tenants of Edmund, who was to pass the incomethey generated to the crown. He was in a difficult position. The mainresidence, Helmsley Castle, was probably held by Sir Robert Manners, hiswife Eleanor (Edmund's sister) and son George. Would they have willinglyyield income from 'their' estates to Henry Tudor? Belvoir, its castle ruined,may have been vacant following the execution of Hastings and the deathof Richard III. Returning it to Edmund Roos would resolve the question ofits ownership while retaining the profits of the Belvoir estate for the king.

Henry VII needed funds to strengthen his government. The 1492 Actmakes sense if Roos had failed to deliver the expected funds, and wasperhaps suspected of squirrelling 'his' money away. Time to send in astrong man, Sir Thomas Lovell, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Speakerof Parliament. In effect, Lovell appointed himself to farm the estates for theking's benefit. The Act provided for 700 marks to be paid annually, over£100,000 today, and was back-dated to 1486, adding possibly a further4200 marks of arrears. After Henry VII’s death in 1509, Sir George Mannerswas released from the annuity. Lovell re-fashioned Elsing as a Tudorpalace which he left to Sir Thomas Manners, son of Sir George, who thensold it to Henry VIII.

We can see Edmund as trying to restore the past glory of his family butbecoming engulfed in the energy and ambitions of a new aristocracy.Ironically, had he been content to live quietly at Elsing after 1485 he couldhave spared himself the effort of petitioning for his father's estates and allthe trouble that brought him.

This account contains a good deal of supposition, and there remain manyuncertainties. Additional information and suggestions would be mostwelcome: neilfortey@metronet.co.uk.

(History and Antiquities of theCounty of Leicestershire Vol.IIPart I, p.39).

Countdownto JohnNicholsBi-centenaryJohn Nichol’s epic work, theHistory and Antiquities of theCounty of Leicestershire, wascompleted in 1815 when thefinal volume (on the town ofLeicester) was published.

Two hundred years later, this vast compendium of Leicestershire’s history isstill consulted, quoted and recognised as an indispensable source foranyone researching the county’s past.

LAHS President Michael Wood, in his , writes of thework: ‘It has many errors of course, but its vast assemblage of material,though uneven in its scholarship by today’s standards, was anindispensable tool for the searcher after the history of Middle England. He(John Nichols) taught them, and us, where, and how, to look..’

LAHS Officer Caroline Wessel is producing a Society publication reflectingon the legacy of Nichol’s ‘Leicestershire’. The book will includecontributions from a number of local researchers and experts. An orderform for members and readers will be included in the next issue of thisMagazine.

Your Society has also organised a ‘Night with Nichols’ dinner at The CityRooms in Leicester on Friday 15 May 2015 with a menu based on a feastdescribed in a Nichols' letter. Please make a note of this date now as weexpect this event to be over-subscribed.

Julian Pooley

Julian Pooley is an HonoraryVisiting Fellow of the Centre forEnglish Local History at theUniversity of Leicester.

He has been researching thepapers and letters of the greaterNichols family for many years andhas received two research grantsfrom the LAHS in 2001 and 2013.

He has compiled, and runs, theNichols Archive Project, a databasewith calendars of over twelvethousand letters and papers of theNichols family including thosefrom private collections.

Julian Pooley is archivist in chargeof Public Services at Surrey HistoryCentre.

A special lecture to celebrate the bi-centenary of this landmark publicationwill be given by Julian Pooley on Thursday 16 October 2014 at 7.30 pm inthe Victorian Gallery, New Walk Museum, Leicester.

This event will also be open to all members of the LAHS Networks Groups,and is an addition to the 2014/15 season of Thursday evening talks.

Admission for LAHS members is free. Non-members will be invited to makea donation on the door of £2.00 per ticket.

To book your seats please go to www.lahs.org.uk

Reports from ULASRecent work by University of LeicesterArchaeological Services

Barrow on Soar, Cotes Road, Strancliffe Hall(Leon Hunt, Jamie Patrick)

An excavation on the north-western edge of Barrow onland associated with Strancliffe Hall along the CotesRoad identified four examples of clamp kilns. Theremains of a post-medieval- modern outbuilding werealso discovered. Pottery retrieved from a pit associatedwith a clamp kiln gave a modern date for the feature,suggesting this type of clamp kiln was used locally intothe 20th century.

Bradgate Park(Lynden Cooper, James Harvey)

Test pits at the locus of the known Late UpperPalaeolithic site have identified a focal point to the flintscatter.. Surprisingly there were deeper deposits thananticipated and flints have been located atconsiderable depth (500mm+) towards the centre. Oneof the first finds from the first pit opened was aCheddar point, while there are also very many brokenpiercers/borers which, together with several burins,are probably remnants of an antler workshop. Thework was assisted by Graham and Christine Coombswho made the first finds from the site back in 2000/1.

The analysis of 0.5m resolution Lidar survey data ofBradgate Park commissioned from the EnvironmentAgency has helped to further expand the extent andnumber of new features within the Park, some of thesefeatures having been identified in recent years by FredHartley and Tony Squires following bracken rolling andaerial photography.

Belton, Grace Dieu Priory(Mathew Morris)

Four small trenches have recently been excavated intothe large earthwork bank of one of the medieval/post-medieval fishponds next to the priory ruins. This wasto try and explain why water is being lost from thepond so that the Friends of Grace Dieu can implementrepairs and re-flood the pond.

Trenching revealed that the bank was a very complexstructure, its early ‘medieval’ core being clay and stonerubble which had subsequently been built up withlarge quantities of recycled building material, probablyscavenged from the priory ruin during the site post-dissolution mansion phase. Narrow walls were foundalong the top of the bank, possibly garden features, butno evidence of water management systems was founddespite trenches being placed as potential outfalls.Water loss appeared to be due to damaged pond andsubsurface water retention in alluvial sand and gravelbeneath the pond.

.

Burrough Hill(John Thomas, Andy Hyam, Sophie Adams)

The final season of the University field school has beencompleted at Burrough hill.

A trench was located in the centre of the hillfort toexamine a large amorphous anomaly revealed by thegeophysical survey. This appears to have been a largequarry, probably for clay extraction. Pottery recoveredfrom the backfill suggests a Late Iron Age – EarlyRoman date. One large Iron Age pit in the trenchcorner hinted at more exciting activity beyond theexcavation area. This produced a good assemblage ofdomestic material including pottery, a cattle skull andthe upper part of a beehive rotary quern.

The second trench revisited last year’s excavation inthe south-west corner to try and pin down the elusive‘backdoor’ of the hillfort – was it really there or had theramparts been slighted at a later date? A few more IronAge pits were revealed including one very deepcylindrical example and a large and shallow featurecontaining a large domestic assemblage and a bronze,possible finger ring. The western terminal of our EarlyBronze Age ‘hengiform’ feature located in 2013 wasalso excavated and another sherd of Beaker potteryfound.

Closer examination of the ramparts revealed evidenceto support the idea that the gap in the SW corner wasindeed an original entrance (access to a water sourcevia the natural springs on the western side of thehillfort perhaps being one reason for this).

Excavation of the rampart contents showed a clearterminal to the western arm of the defences as itreached the gap, and hints of a framework of largerironstone boulders supporting the whole construction,as we had previously seen in the main entrance. Thegap was blocked at some point during the Iron Age bya well-built drystone wall – this year’s work revealed ashallow foundation cut into the earlier deposits. Layersoverlying the wall, and collapsed rubble from it,contained Iron Age domestic remains suggesting thatthe blocking wall had started to collapse beforeoccupation of the hillfort had ceased.

Finally two trenches on the outside of the hillfort wereopened to gain further information on the externalsettlement. The first was located over a largeenclosure/roundhouse that appeared to be cutthrough on its western side by the hillfort quarry ditch.The relationship between the two features was notestablished but it is possible that the large quarry ditchacted as a western edge for the enclosure/roundhouse,which was also Iron Age in date.

A small square annexe to the southern side was alsofound, which had evidence for stake holes in the base.Some evidence for Roman activity was also found inthis trench. A spread of stone & cobbles incorporatingseveral re-used saddle querns was apparently part ofwhat had once been a larger surface. It had been badlydamaged by ploughing but adds to increasingevidence for a late Roman farmstead located in andaround the northern part of the hillfort.

The last trench re-visited a trench first examined in2011, to complete the picture of buildings andenclosures that had previously been examined. Therear of one of the 2011 roundhouses was revealed, aswell as a smaller, circular roundhouse/enclosure,within which was a pit cluster. It is possible that thepits were deliberately contained within the circularditch, as we have seen on other areas of the hillfort.Pottery from these features indicated a very late IronAge – Early Roman date for their backfilling, withseveral sherds of transitional combed ware recovered.A nice little glass bead was also found in one of thepits.

It has been a real privilege to work at Burrough Hilland everyone involved has done a fantastic job inrecovering the evidence that will enable a detailedaccount of the hillfort’s history to be told. Hopefully inthe future, Burrough will be viewed in a similar way tosome of the more well publicised hillforts.

Charnwood Roots(Matthew Beamish)

Analysis of existing Environment Agency LiDAR datawithin the Charnwood region for the Charnwood Rootsproject has brought to light hundreds of possible newsites and extensions of existing ones from Desford toWhitwick to Quorn. New sites include enclosures ofvarious sizes and forms, field systems, and routeways,whilst extensions have been identified for moated sitesand rabbit warrens.

Previously unidentified earthwork enclosures havebeen found in woodland (LiDAR scanning canpenetrate deciduous woodland and provide detailedground survey), an example of which is in Felicity’swood, to the north of Beacon Hill (below). Othernotable new discoveries are large rectangularenclosures within Martinshaw Wood, andunsuspected medieval field systems within areas ofwoodland.

Coalville, N and S of Grange Road(Gavin Speed)

An archaeological evaluation (over a vast 173.25ha)by trial trenching on land to the south-east of Coalvillewas undertaken in advance of a major proposeddevelopment. The evaluation revealed archaeologicalsettlement evidence dating to the Mid to Late Iron Age(400 BC – 43 AD) and the mid-late Roman period (2nd

to 4th centuries AD). This included an Iron Age sub-rectangular enclosure (c.65m by 55m), whichcontained a possible roundhouse. Surrounding thiswere numerous field boundaries (including a verylarge ditch over 3m wide, which contained at leastthree recuts), together with pits and post-holes, somedating to the Roman period.

Leicester, The Newarke, De Montfort University,Former Fletcher Building(Mathew Morris and Tim Higgins)

An evaluation and subsequent excavation have beencompleted on part of the recently demolished FletcherBuilding on De Montfort University’s campus.

The western half of the site was located between theNewarke close and the river and little archaeology wasrecorded, evidence suggesting that much of the areawas low-lying ground prone to flooding up until thelate 19th century when the ground was deliberatelyraised. The work did reveal the Newarke precinct wallwhich had very wide partial freestanding foundationcut.

The stone foundation measured approximately 1.20mwide and 1.20m deep, and was constructed with largeroughly hewn Dane Hills sandstone blocks and hadinner rubble core, which were all mortared bonded.

Leicester, Jubilee Square(Wayne Jarvis)

A watching brief during groundworks for the JubileeSquare development revealed stone walls on thefrontage of St. Nicholas Place, next to the 15th centuryWygston’s House, and just 500mm down from currentground levels..

The substantial new treepits have come down ontomedieval levels and in areas onto Roman stratigraphytoo. The surfaces of the medieval street of Hotgatesurvived in one treepit, in an area otherwise cellaredduring the Victorian era. Some medieval occupationhas also been identified, with slate lined cesspitsbeing exposed.

The Roman levels have produced the edges (bothsides) of the Fosse Way as it runs through town herejust south of the forum. South of the road, was aroadside ditch and wall and the north-west corner of astone building. Floor levels adjacent to this may beassociated with a ‘mud-brick’ structure.

The Fosse Way itself survives well, with over 0.75mstill preserved, and including metalling and areas oflevelling on its margin. Half of a column drum ofmillstone grit was recovered from demolition abovethese levels.

RememberingPaul

Paul was born in Bristol, andbegan his digging career inNorthamptonshire before movingto Gateway School in Leicester atthe age of sixteen where he dugwith the Archaeological Unit.

His first degree was inArchaeology at Cardiff. This wasfollowed by an MA in EnglishLocal History at Leicester and aPhD thesis on the landscapehistory of Gwent in South-eastWales.

Paul was an expert on Welshpottery and on medieval and latersmall finds. He was co-editor ofthe journal Post-MedievalArchaeology.

His main interests were in thecombination of historical andarchaeological evidence havinghad training in both disciplines.He had a long interest in NorthAmerican historical archaeologyand also had interests in pan-European archaeology butespecially France and the LowCountries.

His research ranged fromdirecting excavations at TinternAbbey to researching the originsof the Saintonge pottery ofthirteenth century France.

The first of over one hundredpapers (on monastic granges) waspublished in this Society’sTransactions in 1981. He washonoured with an award by theAmerican Society for HistoricalArchaeology at their Leicesterconference in January 2013.

Locally, his work on monasticgranges, Anstey and on variousaspects of Leicester’s history andarchaeology will be a valuableasset to other researchers formany years to come.

Paul Courtney MemorialConference18 October 2014

On Saturday 18 October 2014 a conference will be held in the Frank andKatherine May Lecture Theatre in the Henry Wellcome Building at theUniversity of Leicester in memory of Dr Paul Courtney, long-standingmember of the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology, the LeicestershireArchaeological and Historical Society and former editor of the SPMA’sjournal ‘Post-Medieval Archaeology’.

The meeting, held jointly by the Finds Research Group and the Society forPost-Medieval Archaeology, in collaboration with Yolanda Courtney, will bea celebration of Paul’s many interests including his contribution to localhistory, finds research, ceramic studies and fortifications both here andabroad, and there will be a chance at the end of the day for those attendingto raise a glass in Paul’s memory.

The Henry Wellcome Building is located on Lancaster Road, with ample carparking nearby.

Conference registration costs £15 for students/retired/unwaged delegates,£20 for others, and includes all refreshments, lunch, and a post-conferencewine reception. To register for the conference download this registrationform and send it with a cheque for the required amount made payable to"Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology" to:

Emma Dwyerc/o Enterprise & Business Development OfficeFielding Johnson BuildingUniversity of LeicesterUniversity RoadLeicester LE1 7RH

Programme (chaired by David Barker, Independent Archaeologist)

10.30–11.00 Registration & coffee11.00–11.10 Welcome and introduction11.10–11.25 Yolanda Courtney: Images of Paul11.25–11.50 Neil Finn (Independent archaeologist): “The Civil War defences of Leicester: evidence from excavations 2003–2013”11.50–12.15 John Allan (Independent archaeologist): “Church woodcarvings and the archaeology of immigrant communities in South-West England, 1500–1600”12.15–12.40 Deirdre O’Sullivan (University of Leicester): “From Places to Spaces: Recovering monastic dissolution in English towns in the 16th century”12.40–14.00 Lunch and Finds Research Group AGM14.00–14.25 Duncan Brown (English Heritage): “Ceramics, Cloisters, Castles and a little bit of Courtney”14.25–14.50 Steph Mastoris (National Museum Wales, Swansea): "Mapping contrasting landscapes in 17th century England: William Senior's estate surveys for the first Duke of Newcastle”14.50–14.50–15.15 Hugh Willmott (University of Sheffield): “A Bawdy Joke or Refined Dining? The Problems of Assigning Status and Meaning as Exemplified by Phallic Jugs”15.15–15.45 Tea break15.45–16.10 Julie Cassidy (Portable Antiquities Scheme/Finds Research Group): “Some finds from the Portable Antiquities Scheme”16.10–16.35 Stuart Campbell (Treasure Trove, National Museums Scotland): “The archaeology of a subculture; the material culture of the Georgian army”16.45 Close; wine reception with canapés by Claire Hill

News from the Society’s LibraryAUBREY STEVENSONHon Librarian

Use of the Library, both for borrowing and research,has been very low this year. Members must havestopped reading, or, what I suspect is more likely, isthat access to this part of the city is now so difficult,both for walkers and especially for motorists, thatpeople have given up trying to reach the Guildhall. Thebusiest day was at the beginning of June when aGuildhall tour came into the Jury Room and I was ableto give the Society some publicity by telling the visitorsabout our presence there and how the Society “saved”the building years ago. Membership leaflets were dulyhanded out too.

Time has also been taken dealing with a number ofenquiries from non-members (often with nosubsequent thanks) who think that the Society runs afree research service. Nevertheless material continuesto be acquired for the Library in spite of the lack ofshelf/cupboard space. We are particularly grateful tothose authors (some members, some not) andpublishers who generously donate copies of theirbooks, pamphlets, and periodicals.

BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS

BANBURY, P. The Leicester & Swannington Railway ina nutshell. 2014. Donated by Mr.C.Hossack for theLeicestershire Industrial History Society.BEGLEY, S. The story of Leicester. 2013.BROWN, C. Leicester Secular Society – ‘ Cricket Wars ‘1885. 2013. Donated by the author.

CARROLL, P. The towers and bells of Leicestershire.2014.CARSON, A. ed. Finding Richard III : the officialaccount of research by the Retrieval and ReburialProject. 2014.CLOUGH, T. ed. The 1712 Land Tax assessments andthe 1710 Poll Book for Rutland. 2005.COX, B. The place-names of Leicestershire. Pt. 6Sparkenhoe Hundred. 2014.DAVIS, B. & ZIENTEK, J. St. Leonard’s Mistertonchurch guide. 2014. Donated by the authors.ELVERSTONE, R. Absent through want of boots: diaryof a Victorian school in Leicestershire. 2014. [AlbertRoad Board School, Hinckley ].FOARD, G. & CURRY, A. Bosworth 1485: a battlefieldrediscovered. 2013.HOLYOAK, V. But for these things: Leicester and itspeople in World War II. 2014. Donated by the author.Lest we forget: in memory of the fallen in the GreatWar: North West Leicestershire. 2014. [1] Appleby Magna and Parva, Ashby de la Zouch,Blackfordby, Breedon, Coleorton, Measham,Packington, Ravenstone, Smisby, Staunton Harold. [2] Bagworth, Ellistown & Battram, Heather, Ibstock,Nailstone, Newton Burgoland, Normanton- le- Heath,Odstone, Snarestone, Swepstone. [3] Belton, Castle Donington, Diseworth, Hemingtoncum Lockington, Kegworth, Long Whatton,Osgathorpe, Worthington.

These three volumes are the first in a series of five andhave been donated by the North West LeicestershireHeritage Forum. A further volume is to be published atthe end of this year with the final due in 2015.

News from the Society’s Library(concluded)

LUCAS, D. and others Wigston in the First World War.2014.McNEILL, B. and the B.U. History Group BU people:memories of the British United Shoe MachineryCompany of Leicester. 2013.MAYHEW, C. Lyndon, Rutland: a guide. 1999.NEWITT, N. A people’s history of Leicester: a pictorialhistory of working class life and politics. 2008.PARKIN, D. The history of the Hospital of Saint Johnthe Evangelist and of Saint Anne in Okeham. 2000.This is Oakham in Rutland.PITTS, M. Digging for Richard III: how archaeologyfound the king. 2014.RICHARDSON, M. Leicester in the Great War. 2014.ROGERS, A. ed. The wardens: managing a latemedieval hospital: Browne’s Hospital, Stamford 1495 –1518. 2013. The book includes estates in Rutland.SHARPLING, P. Stained glass in Rutland churches: anhistorical survey. 1997.SKIDMORE, C. Bosworth: the birth of the Tudors.2014. ( First published in 2013 ).S.P.A.B. Annual review 2013.UPTON, J. A shop for everything: the growth of KirbyMuxloe. 2014. Donated by Kirby Muxloe Local HistoryGroup.WELLS-FURBY, B. ed. Medieval property transactionsin Rutland: abstracts of feet of fines 1197 – 1509. 2013.YOUNG, R. comp. Syston past. Vol. 4. 2013. Donatedby the compiler.

Mr. O. Cufflin of Knighton, Leicester kindly donatedcopies of two older local books:HARTOPP, H. Roll of the Mayors of the Borough andLord Mayors of the City of Leicester 1209 – 1935.WADDINGTON, R.G. Leicester the making of amodern city.

PERIODICALS

Current Archaeology is not a magazine to which theLibrary has ever subscribed. However we haveacquired a copy of Issue 294 Sept. 2014 which has twoarticles of particular local interest:Finding Richard III: behind the scenes at the GreyFriars dig, which features the Committee’s ChairmanRichard BuckleyRichard revisited, about the new Visitor Centre.

The regular range of local and national titles continuesto be received; some are from other societies inexchange for our Transactions. Some items of interest:Ecclesiology Today 47 & 48 Jul. 2013 (pub. 2014) hasan article on the Ledgerstone Survey of England andWales which is looking for assistance. Any volunteers ?Donated by Mr. I. Stevens.Hinckley Historian 73 Summer 2014 is published in a

new A5 format and includes Hall’s War ( 2nd Lt. ErnestLouis Hall, d. 6 Nov. 1917 ) and Burbage Charities.Donated by Mr. P. Lindley of Hinckley and DistrictMuseum.Leicestershire Industrial History Society NewsletterSpring 2014. Donated by Mr. C. Hossack.Rutland Record 33 2013 and Rutland Record Indexof numbers 11 – 20 ( 1991 – 2000 ). 2011.SPAB Magazine Spring 2014 includes a supplementEnergy Efficiency in Old Buildings.Summer 2014 has a report on Oakham Castle.West Midlands History Vol.2 no.1 Spring 2014 featuresthe glass industry of that area. ( Sample issue ).Worcestershire Recorder Spring 2014 includesBromsgrove Cemetery and the John Adams Memorial.John Adams was born in Ashby de la Zouch in 1766,the son of Thomas and Mary. By 1792 he was apartner in Coltman Adams & Co., hosiers, of Leicester.He died in 1858.

LIBRARY CLOSURE

Please note that the Library will be closed as usualfrom November to January. Sunday 19 October will bethe final opening this year. It should reopen onSunday 1 February 2015.

The story ofour parksNow in the Development stage ofthe Heritage Lottery Fundapplication process, the projectteam is looking to develop anddesign an Activity Plan which setsout a programme of events andactivities that will run until theend of the project in December2016.

This will include archivalresearch and oral history projectsas well as events such as guidedwalks, family fun days and anexhibition.

If you would like to help developany activities, please get in touch;we would love to hear anysuggestions and to create newpartnerships.

Victoria Park, Leicester:Gate Restoration ProjectLeicester City Council is developing a grant application to the HeritageLottery Fund to restore the historic wrought iron gates located inVictoria Park, designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens andcommissioned by Sir Jonathan North in memory of his late wife.

Lutyens, born in London 1869, was one of the finest British architects ofhis time. He is best known for designing country houses, a number of highprofile buildings in New Delhi and war memorials across Europe includingthe memorial in Victoria Park, which incidentally is a very close match tothe India Gate, another of Lutyens’ memorials. He also designed the ParkLodges on London Road, along with the gates, and those at the end ofPeace Walk, leading out onto University Road.

Little is known about the gates or in fact the lady they were dedicated too,other than her husband was Sir Jonathan North. Born in Rothley in 1855,North became Mayor of Leicester in the First World War. He was re-electedthree times and remained Mayor for the majority of the war. He wasresponsible for the development of the war memorial and commissionedthe development of the lodges and gates in memory of his late wife, whodied in 1930.

The gates are now Grade II listed and in poor condition so it is thereforeessential to restore the gates and preserve this important piece of local andnational history. We will be undertaking research into the gates themselvesand would like anyone with knowledge or an interest in this subject to getinvolved.

The project will also look to connect residents to their local parks byresearching the history of all the other large parks in Leicester. Thisincludes; Abbey Park, Aylestone Hall Gardens, Aylestone Meadows,Beaumont Park, Bede Park, Braunstone Park, Castle Gardens, Castle HillCountry Park, Evington Park, Humberstone Park, Knighton Park, ShadyLane Arboretum, Spinney Hill Park, Victoria Park, Watermead Country Parkand Western Park.

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens,OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA1869-1944

If you would like to get involved orsign up to the project newsletter toreceive updates and volunteeringopportunities please contactGraduate Park Officer, Jess Boydon.

Jessica.Boydon@leicester.gov.uk0116 454 4935

Membership MattersMATT BEAMISH (Membership Secretary)

The summer months have been quiet ones for yourMembership Secretary so far as my LAHS duties areconcerned. The late winter was busy withadministrative duties and a need to establish clearcommunication with the Inland Revenue in orderto secure the Gift Aid tax rebates which will give avery welcome boost to the Society’s income.

The arrangement is now in place, and we will bestarting to reap the benefit of the Gift Aid declarationsthat members have made. Each declaration increases

the value of a membership to the Society by 1/5th andfor those higher rate tax payers among you canreclaim the surplus of tax paid over and above thebasic rate gifted to the Society.

Society membership stands at 412 – a slight increaseon previous years which is good news and reflects thebenefits of membership and the excellent value thatthe subscription gives.

All members now have their own membershipnumber – you can find yours on the letter thataccompanies this Newsletter. The letter containsimportant information about your membership – yoursubscriptions paid, if we have an email address foryou, and whether or not you have completed a Gift Aiddeclaration for your subscription. A reminder that theIndividual rate is now £20, the Family rate is £25, andthe Student rate is £6.

The great majority of members have paid their subs for2014, although there are fifty or so of you yet to payand quite a number of you are still paying at the oldrates which were increased as of May 2012. Please docheck and act on the information in the enclosedletter.

You can appreciate that continually chasing membersfor outstanding subscriptions takes a considerabletime, and although the sums involved are generallysmall, they all add up. You can also appreciate that thecost of sending individual letters requesting thesesmall amounts substantially reduces their value to theSociety – so please do let us know an email addresswhich can be used to contact you if need be if we donot have one for you.

I am unable to directly increase any subscriptions withthe banks as all arrangements are Standing Ordersrather than Direct Debit, and any increase has to berequested by you either by contacting your bank, orcompleting a new mandate form and returning it tome. I will record the details and forward on to yourbank.

Members can now make any payments to the Societyby PayPal in addition to the existing methods. Theemail address for payments is payments@lahs.org.uk.

Although not essential, there are a number ofmembers with the same surnames, and the sameinitials, and quoting your membership number canhelp me not to make mistakes!

If your subscription is up to date, I have a currentemail address for you, and your Gift Aid declaration isup to date and reflects your wishes, you need donothing.

However, some of you do need to:

● Send me a cheque for subscription arrears fromthis, or possibly also previous years.

● Update your Standing Order Mandate with yourbank for 2015.

● Let me know a current email address which canbe used to communicate important informationabout the Society and your membership.

● Compete and return a Gift Aid declaration.

Forms for Standing Orders, address and email updates,and Gift Aid Declarations can be found as part of theMembership Form on our website – www.le.ac.uk/lahs

Please accept my apologies for any mistakes on mypart.

Value for money fromthe LAHSOur printers, 4word Ltd (Bristol) and CentralPrint at Leicestershire County Councilprovide an excellent service, and qualityproducts at a reasonable price.

However, the rising cost of distributionmeans that the overall cost of delivering theTransactions, Leicestershire Historian andMagazines to your door is more than yourannual subscription.

You can really help by ensuring that yoursubscription is up-to-date and is gift-aided.

Providing an email account enables us tocommunicate with you without costly mail-outs.

The Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical SocietyThe Guildhall, Guildhall Lane, Leicester. LE1 5FQ

Registered Charity No 503240

Membership Form

Individual Membership £20

Family Membership £25

Student Membership £6

Surname ______________________ Forename ______________________ Title ______ Initials ________

Address ________________________________________________________________________________

Post Code _________________ Telephone _________________________

Email Address __________________________________ (Email is essential but is only used for communicating information with members)

I wish to become a member at the rate indicated above. I enclose a cheque/completed Standing Order form/I have made aStanding Order arrangement with my bank/I have paid by PayPal (delete as applicable).

If paying by Standing Order please make your own arrangement with your bank/building society, or completeand return the mandate below to the Hon Membership Secretary. Pay online by Paypal at www.lahs.org.uk

Data Protection Act - I/We agree to my/our names being stored on a computer database

Signature/s _______________________________________ Date _______________

Gift Aid declarationLeicestershire Archaeological and Historical SocietyPlease treat my subscription payments as Gift Aid donations. I confirm I have paid or will pay an amount of Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Taxfor the current tax year (6 April to 5 April) that is at least equal to the amount of tax that all the charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubsthat I donate to will reclaim on my gifts for that tax year. I understand that other taxes such as VAT and Council Tax do not qualify. I understandthe charity will reclaim 25p of tax on every £1 that I have given.

Title _________ First name or initial(s) _________________ Surname ______________________________________________

Full Home address _______________________________________________________________________________________

Postcode ________________ Signature _______________________________________ Date _________________________

Please notify LAHS if you change your name or home address, wish to cancel this declaration, or no longer pay sufficient tax on your income and/or capital gains.

Please address all correspondence to:

Standing Order MandateTo __________________________________________ Bank/Building Society

Address: ________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________ Postcode ____________

Please pay Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society (LAHS): £______ now and on the 1st May next, and annually thereafter (deleteas applicable), to their bank at:Nat West Bank, Leicester Customer Service Centre, 1 Western Boulevard, Bede Island, Leicester LE2 7EJ.Sort Code 60-60-06 Account Number 87270080

Name (print) ________________________________________ Account Name _____________________________________

Sort Code ___ ___ ___ Account Number ________________

Signature _______________________________ Date ____________________

Mr. Matthew BeamishHon. Membership SecretaryLAHS, c/o ULAS, School of Archaeology and Ancient HistoryUniversity of LeicesterUniversity RoadLeicester LE1 7RHTel 0116 2525234 Email mgb3@le.ac.uk