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History information for Hinckley and places above it in the hierarchy

Hinckley

  • The parish used to hold a fair for cattle, horses and sheep on each 26th of August.
     
  • Most of the male residents of the parish were either Framework Knitters or farmers. Hinckley became one of the chief centres of the hosiery trade after 1640, the year Mr. WIlliam ILIFF introduced the stocking frame.  In 1849 there were an estimated 1,500 frames in the town.
     
  • At the top of Castle Street is a spot called "Castle Hill." Here once stood the castle of Baron Hugh de Grentemaisnel. Only traces of the moat remain. The house now standing on the site was built in 1770.
     
  • Boot and shoe manufacturing became an important industry here in the 1800s.
     
  • The Luddites were active here in 1812.
     
  • Joseph HANSON built the first Hansom cab here in 1835.
     
  • The Hinckley Library, established in 1857, opened on Station Road in 1888.
     
  • The Urban District Council offices opened on Station Road in 1904.
     
  • The Hinckley Times reports the town's history from Saxon times to the present day.
     
  • The Hinckley Times website has a Century of News section featuring stories from each decade of the 20th century taken from the paper's archives.
     

Leicestershire

The East Midlands Oral History Archive site has over 550 recordings, and also has An on-line guide to the history of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

British History Online provides an extensive history of the Gartree Hundred, around Market Harborough. This is material from the Victoria County History.

In the Anglo-Saxon period the area was originally in the territory of the Middle Angles and later Mercia. After the Danish invasions it was included in the Danelaw, whose boundary ran on the south-western boundary of the shire.

England

  • England - History - links and information.

UK and Ireland

  • UK & Ireland - History - links and information.