LEICESTERSHIRE SCENES
Ancient and Old
A note about the pics, at the moment they're snapshots taken by me on visits. In spite of the odd deviation from the vertical none were taken around Coalville and are not due to subsidence, any leanings to the right have no political significance. I've tried to put an accurate description to the scenes but please feel free to correct me or to email more details. I'm hoping you'll all send in your snaps and captions, I'll stick 'em on the page with an acknowledgement and your email address unless you'd rather keep that to yourself. Feel free to copy and save any that tickle your fancy. Early days for this page, must do better.
THE JEWRY WALL
The Jewry Wall, or some say it should be the Jury Wall, is part of the Roman Forum and it's said that the wall is the only thing that stops the Saxon church of St. Nicholas in the background from falling down. The church has a lot of the old Roman material in it's structure, Steptoe lives. The forum was uncovered when digging of a new municipal swimming bath was started and is now covered by some educational college on stilts (Vaughan College?) so that access to the forum is OK. This snap was taken in October 1979 on our second trip home and the college was yet to be built.
THE GUILDHALL
The medieval old town hall in Guildhall Lane served as the court and the centre of local government for around four hundred years until 1876. My old school, Alderman Newton's Grammar, was next door, the single storey building on the left being the woodwork room. Mr. Shenton the woodwork teacher was a model yacht enthusiast and since I was keen on model ships I had good marks despite a certain lack of skill.
The next few snaps were taken at the entrances to Leicester Castle courtyard
CASTLE GATE FROM INSIDE THE CASTLE YARD
CASTLE GATE ENTRANCE TO CASTLE YARD
John of Gaunt and Simon de Montfort would both have rode through this Tudor Gateway, the northern entrance to the castle. It's all that remains of the entrance to the medieval seat of the Earls of Leicester where early parliaments made their laws. The attached Castle House is now the official lodgings for visiting judges of the Crown Court. the adjoining church of St. Mary de Castro saw the knighting of King Henry VI in 1426.
RUPERT'S GATEWAY
Rupert's Gateway, the castle walls were pierced in the mid 14th century to allow access to the New Works, the present day Newarkes, I guess it aquired that name during the civil war when Leicester was besieged and overcome by the Royalists. In 1952 my wife and I were living in a flat on the Bank at Wigston Magna, our landlady in her eighties said that the tracks of cannon on the way from Leicester to Naseby could still be seen across the fields down to the river Sence. Certainly we saw tracks but as the route was used by farm waggons, they may have had more than a bit to do with it. Our flat was on the second floor of an old Georgian Coaching house since destroyed by fire, I hope to dig out a snap of it.
CASTLE GARDENS
The Castle Gardens have the Castle on one side and the Grand Union Canal (The Cut) on the other. the snap taken in the gardens looks towards the mound where no doubt part of the castle lies buried. As a schoolboy I came into Leicester by Midland Red bus to Western Boulevard and walked, ran and mucked about in the gardens on the way to school. The gardener was not all that young and one day suprised us with his turn of speed when in pursuit of we members of the ragged A brigade. If you take a left out of the northern end of the gardens you can walk up King Richard's Road and cross the river Soar where the body of Richard III was said to have been thrown in. His body was interred in Grey Friars church after the Bottle of Basworth, or was that the Battle of Bosworth, yes I know that's an old chestnut. Upon the dissolution of the church in the next century a mob flung his bones into the river, they were recovered and buried near Bow Bridge on King Richards Rd, a plaque on the bridge refers to his last resting place.
Pay a Visit to Ray's Leicester Page, the source of this great snap of Bradgate Park
Well that's it for now, I've some canal scenes to add and Old John of course.
Visit my other pages by clicking on one of the following choices
Genealogy
Leics. Churches
Leics. Scenes
Homepage
Indexpage
In Memory Of
Saucy Postcards
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LEICESTERSHIRE SCENES
Ancient and Old
A note about the pics, at the moment they're snapshots taken by me on visits. In spite of the odd deviation from the vertical none were taken around Coalville and are not due to subsidence, any leanings to the right have no political significance. I've tried to put an accurate description to the scenes but please feel free to correct me or to email more details. I'm hoping you'll all send in your snaps and captions, I'll stick 'em on the page with an acknowledgement and your email address unless you'd rather keep that to yourself. Feel free to copy and save any that tickle your fancy. Early days for this page, must do better.
THE JEWRY WALL
The Jewry Wall, or some say it should be the Jury Wall, is part of the Roman Forum and it's said that the wall is the only thing that stops the Saxon church of St. Nicholas in the background from falling down. The church has a lot of the old Roman material in it's structure, Steptoe lives. The forum was uncovered when digging of a new municipal swimming bath was started and is now covered by some educational college on stilts (Vaughan College?) so that access to the forum is OK. This snap was taken in October 1979 on our second trip home and the college was yet to be built.
THE GUILDHALL
The medieval old town hall in Guildhall Lane served as the court and the centre of local government for around four hundred years until 1876. My old school, Alderman Newton's Grammar, was next door, the single storey building on the left being the woodwork room. Mr. Shenton the woodwork teacher was a model yacht enthusiast and since I was keen on model ships I had good marks despite a certain lack of skill.
The next few snaps were taken at the entrances to Leicester Castle courtyard
CASTLE GATE FROM INSIDE THE CASTLE YARD
CASTLE GATE ENTRANCE TO CASTLE YARD
John of Gaunt and Simon de Montfort would both have rode through this Tudor Gateway, the northern entrance to the castle. It's all that remains of the entrance to the medieval seat of the Earls of Leicester where early parliaments made their laws. The attached Castle House is now the official lodgings for visiting judges of the Crown Court. the adjoining church of St. Mary de Castro saw the knighting of King Henry VI in 1426.
RUPERT'S GATEWAY
Rupert's Gateway, the castle walls were pierced in the mid 14th century to allow access to the New Works, the present day Newarkes, I guess it aquired that name during the civil war when Leicester was besieged and overcome by the Royalists. In 1952 my wife and I were living in a flat on the Bank at Wigston Magna, our landlady in her eighties said that the tracks of cannon on the way from Leicester to Naseby could still be seen across the fields down to the river Sence. Certainly we saw tracks but as the route was used by farm waggons, they may have had more than a bit to do with it. Our flat was on the second floor of an old Georgian Coaching house since destroyed by fire, I hope to dig out a snap of it.
CASTLE GARDENS
The Castle Gardens have the Castle on one side and the Grand Union Canal (The Cut) on the other. the snap taken in the gardens looks towards the mound where no doubt part of the castle lies buried. As a schoolboy I came into Leicester by Midland Red bus to Western Boulevard and walked, ran and mucked about in the gardens on the way to school. The gardener was not all that young and one day suprised us with his turn of speed when in pursuit of we members of the ragged A brigade. If you take a left out of the northern end of the gardens you can walk up King Richard's Road and cross the river Soar where the body of Richard III was said to have been thrown in. His body was interred in Grey Friars church after the Bottle of Basworth, or was that the Battle of Bosworth, yes I know that's an old chestnut. Upon the dissolution of the church in the next century a mob flung his bones into the river, they were recovered and buried near Bow Bridge on King Richards Rd, a plaque on the bridge refers to his last resting place.
Pay a Visit to Ray's Leicester Page, the source of this great snap of Bradgate ParkWell that's it for now, I've some canal scenes to add and Old John of course.
Visit my other pages by clicking on one of the following choices
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