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Abbey Park is Leicester’s premier park and opened in 1882. It includes gardens, lakes, a café, sports pitches and facilities for bowling, tennis and boating. It is a place for families and lies about a mile north of the city centre. The River Soar divides it into two distinct parts – a Victorian park with shrubberies, boating lake and miniature railway, and the western part which includes the remains of the 12th century Leicester Abbey, where Cardinal Wolsey died and was buried, and the ruins of the 17th century Cavendish House, a mansion which was Charles I’s HQ before the Battle of Naseby. It was destroyed and plundered by Royalist troops.
Leicester
Say 'beaver'. The name is derived from Norman-French meaning 'nice view' but, apparently, the Anglo-Saxon peasants couldn't pronounce it.
Belvoir Castle has been the home to the Dukes of Rutland’s family since 1067 and home to the Manners family for more than five centuries. The present castle, built in the early 19th century, is the fourth to stand on the site. High on a hill, it commands magnificent views over the counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire and is considered one of England’s finest Regency houses. The house is packed with artwork, period furniture, tapestries and other treasures. And you may hear tales of witches and seiges.
The Belvoir Estate of almost 15,000 acres includes formal gardens and woodland, as well as a retail village, the Engine Yard, in restored Victorian buildings. Belvoir has also featured in several film and TV productions, including the Netflix series ‘The Crown’, as well as films such as ‘The Young Victoria’ and ‘Victoria & Abdul’ starring Judi Dench.
Image credit: Historic Houses
Astonishing Stuart mansion, mid-way between a castle and a country house, built to entertain and impress by the staunchly Royalist Charles Cavendish. The place is full of surprises, including some intriguing and lavish decoration, a beautiful garden, wall walk and an unusual riding house. There is an informative exhibition which puts things in perspective before you tour - and a great childrens' playground!
Bolsover
Burghley is a grand 16th century house and estate on the edge of the charming East Midlands town of Stamford. The house was built by Elizabeth I's chief advisor and Lord High Treasurer Sir William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, and is still lived in by his descendents. The house contains an extensive collection of artwork and painted murals, including Verrio's 'Hell Staircase' (seen in 'The Da Vinci Code') and the hall has a magnificent hammerbeam roof. There are extensive gardens, statues and a fine park. Burghley is also famous for its annual Burghley Horse Trials, held in the autumn (best avoid visiting then!).
The Cork Stone is one of a number of natural stone pillars on Derbyshire’s Stanton Moor. It is a well-known landmark, a piece of weathered sandstone that has stood for thousands of years, eroded into a mushroom shape resembling an enormous cork. It is covered in graffiti dating from at least the 19th century and has step holes cut out of one side to facilitate climbing to the top. Metal rods were added later, possibly in Victorian times according to a nearby information board. There is a hollow bowl on top of the stone.
There is no postcode. The address is for guidance only. The Cork Stone will be found a short distance from a lay-by and information board on the east side of Birchover Road.
between Birchover and Stanton in Peak,
W of the A6
Croyland, or Crowland, Abbey was a monastery first founded in the early 8th C by Ethelbald, King of Mercia from 716-757, on the site of the hermitage of St Guthlac. It was destroyed by the Danes in 866 and re-founded as a Benedictine abbey in the mid-tenth century. From the 10th to the 15th centuries the monastic buildings were extended and rebuilt and the abbey was one of the wealthiest in East Anglia. It was dissolved in 1539 and the monastic buildings demolished, with the exception of the nave and aisles of the abbey church which were taken into use as the parish church. During the 17th C Civil War, the church served as a Royalist stronghold, defended by earthworks. The nave and south aisle of the church fell into disrepair in the 18th C and parish use became restricted to the north aisle, which remains the case today. Both the existing church and ruins have some fascinating features. As well as the visible remains, the site is also important as that of a pre-conquest monastery, the buried remains of the Anglo-Saxon hermitage and monastery, the medieval monastic buildings and the Civil War defences.
Crowland is also known as the likely home of the Croyland Chronicle, a unique primary source for English medieval history.
Crowland
Peterborough
Empingham is an attractive village, with a striking looking church, on the road between Stamford and Oakham. It sits in the Gwash Valley at the dam (eastern) end of Rutland Water and there has been a settlement there since at least Saxon times (the name means something like ‘the settlement of the followers of Empa’.) The church, St Peter’s, is mostly 15th century, but dates from the 13th century; its impressive tower is 14th century. Most of the village’s buildings date from the late 18th/ and 19th centuries.
To the north east near Tickencote is the site of the Battle of Empingham, also known as Battle of Losecoat Field, which was fought on 12 March 1470 during the Wars of the Roses. It was a very short battle and a victory for the Yorkists.
Exton in Rutland is one of those villages that could be described as ‘quintessentially English’. It probably isn’t, because it is too picture-perfect, with a large number of chocolate-box cottages much loved by Instagrammers, an attractive tree-planted village green with a pub, the Fox and Hounds, and an interesting historic church dedicated to St Peter and St Paul, which dates from the 13th century. Nearby is a large country estate, Exton Park, and Barnsdale Gardens, created by Geoff Hamilton of the BBC television series Gardeners' World. Exton is also very handy for Rutland Water.
The village has an interesting history going back before the Norman Conquest, and is mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086, but the current buildings are mostly Victorian.
Leicester Abbey was an Augustinian House, founded by the 2nd Earl of Leicester, Robert le Bossu, in 1143. It is famous for being the place where Cardinal Wolsey died on 29 November 1530, on his way south to face the wrath of his king, Henry VIII, and a charge of treason. Wolsey was also buried in the abbey, but his remains have never been found. The abbey was dissolved on Henry VIII’s orders in 1538 and the stones were re-used to construct what became Cavendish House, a mansion acquired by the Earl of Devonshire, William Cavendish, where Charles I lodged before the Battle of Naseby in 1645. Cavendish House was plundered and destroyed by Royalist troops after the battle. Though a massive complex in its heyday, the exact location of the abbey was lost until the 1920s/30s. The lines of its walls are now marked by low stone walls and there is a memorial to Wolsey near what would have been the high altar of the abbey church.
Leicester
Leicester Cathedral is dedicated to St Martin, a 4th century Roman soldier, and possibly stands on the site of a Roman temple and Anglo-Saxon church. The first Bishop of Leicester was Cuthwine, in 680AD, but the last Saxon bishop fled from the Danes in the 9th century and, for a thousand years, Leicester had no bishop - until the church of St Martins was made Leicester Cathedral in 1927. The Cathedral is probably best known since 2015 as the burial place of Richard III and there are a number of exhibits (as well as his tomb) relating to the king in the church, including modern stained glass windows depicting his life in St Katherine's Chapel. Other features include the medieval north porch and the new cathedra and cross. Though the original church of St Martin's was built by the Normans, most of the current building, including the 220 foot high spire, is Victorian. Keen and helpful guides...it's almost dangerous on your own.
Leicester
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