Leicester

Leicester Leicestershire UK Hub

Approximate Population: 292,600

Leicester is a city and unitary authority area in the East Midlands of England. It is the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest. In 2004, the population of the city proper was estimated at 285,100, with 441,213 living in the wider Leicester Urban Area, making Leicester the most populous city in the East Midlands, the 10th most populous settlement in the UK and the 8th largest in England alone.

On 4 November 1530, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was arrested on charges of treason and taken from York Place.   On his way south to face dubious justice at the Tower of London, he fell ill.   The group escorting him was concerned enough to stop at Leicester.   There, Wolsey’s condition quickly worsened and he died on 29 November 1530 and was buried at Leicester Abbey, now Abbey Park.

Leicester was a Parliamentarian stronghold during the English Civil War.   In 1645, Prince Rupert decided to attack the city to draw the New Model Army away from the Royalist headquarters of Oxford.   Royalist guns were set up on Raw Dykes and after an unsatisfactory response to a demand for surrender, the Newarke was stormed and the city was sacked on 30 May. Although hundreds of people were killed by Rupert’s cavalry, reports of the severity of the sacking were exaggerated by the Parliamentary press in London.

The construction of the Grand Union Canal in the 1790s linked Leicester to London and Birmingham and by 1832 the railway had arrived in Leicester; the new Leicester and Swannington Railway providing a supply of coal to the town from nearby collieries.   By 1840 the Midland Counties Railway had linked Leicester to the national railway network and by the 1860s, Leicester had gained a direct rail link to London (St Pancras) with the completion of the Midland Main Line.

Leicester Leicestershire UK Hub