The Story of Leicester

Siobhan Begley

• Publisher: Phillimore & Co Ltd
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781860776953, 9781860776953
• eBook ISBN: 9780752498065
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

The Story of Leicester traces the evolution of this remarkable city. When the Romans arrived they developed an existing settlement into Ratae, an administrative capital. During the Tudor, Stuart and Georgian periods the town lost status, but remained an important market town. Industrialisation and population growth radically changed Leicester during Victorian times and it became prosperous, its economy underpinned by the hosiery, boot and shoe and engineering industries – the basis of modern Leicester. This popular history brings the story of the city up to date and provides new insights that will delight both residents and visitors.

NOTES

Chapter One

Ratae Corieltavorum: the Town at the Crossroads

1J. Giles (ed.), Six Old English Chronicles (London, 1848), pp.114–16.

2M. Morris, R. Buckley and M. Codd, Visions of Ancient Leicester (Leicester, 2011); A. Connor, Roman and Medieval Occupation in Causeway Lane Leicester: Excavations 1980 and 1981 (Leicester, 1999), N.J. Cooper and R. Buckley, ‘New Light on Roman Leicester’ in P. Wilson (ed.), The Archaeology of Roman Towns, Studies in Honour of John Wacher (Oxford, 2003), pp.31–43. These three sources have been an invaluable source in writing this first chapter, as have the exhibitions and information given at Jewry Wall Museum.

3The information about Ratae and wider information about Roman Britain given in this section is based on information derived from A.E. Brown, ‘Roman Leicester’ in A.E. Brown (ed.), The Growth of Leicester (Leicester, 1972), pp.11–18; M. Hebditch, ‘Roman Leicester’ in C. Ellis, History in Leicester (second edition, Leicester, 1969), pp.13–22; J. Mellor, ‘Roman Leicester’ in C. Ellis, History in Leicester (third edition, Leicester, 1976), pp.16–21; Morris, Buckley and Codd, Visions of Ancient Leicester (Leicester, 2011); J. Simmons, Leicester Past and Present, vol.1, Ancient Borough (London, 1974); P. Salway, Roman Britain (Oxford, 1981); M. Todd, The Coritani (second edition, Oxford, 1991); J. Wacher, Towns of Roman Britain (third edition, London, 1995); J. Wacher, Roman Britain (third edition, Stroud, 1999). Many of these sources are also drawn on in the second and third sections.

4This derivation is given in Wacher, Towns of Roman Britain, p.343.

Romano-British Town

5The information given on the buildings of Ratae in this section is largely derived from Wacher, Roman Towns of Britain, pp.343–62; Todd, The Coritani, pp.47–67; Morris, Buckley and Codd, Visions of Ancient Leicester, pp.17–39 and information given at the Jewry Wall Museum, Leicester.

6O.D. Harris, ‘Jews, Jurats and the Jewry Wall: a name in context’, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, vol.82 (2008), pp.113–23.

7Todd, The Coritani, p.63.

8Morris, Buckley and Codd, Visions of Ancient Leicester, p.33.

9Mellor, ‘Roman Leicester’, p.21.

The People of Ratae

10Wacher, Roman Towns, p.359.

11Ibid., Simmons, Leicester Past and Present, pp.7–8.

12Cooper and Buckley, ‘New light on Roman Leicester’ pp.31–43; O’Connor, Roman and Medieval Occupation in Causeway Lane Leicester: Excavations 1980 and 1981, pp.55–6; Morris, Buckley and Codd, Visions of Ancient Leicester, p.25.

13O’Connor, Roman and Medieval Occupation in Causeway Lane Leicester: Excavations 1980 and 1981, pp.57–8.

14Hebditch, ‘Roman Britain’, pp.17; Mellor, ‘Roman Britain’, p.21.

15Cooper and Buckley, ‘New Light on Roman Leicester’, pp.40–1; Wacher, Roman Towns, p.362.

16Wacher, Roman Towns, 1998, p.409.

Saxon and Danish Leicester

17Giles, Six Old English Chronicles, pp.299–314.

18Sources used in the third section of the chapter include J. Campbell, E. John and P. Wormald, The Anglo-Saxons (London, 1991); C. Ellis, History in Leicester (Leicester, 1976), 25–34; Simmons, Leicester Past and Present, pp.11–18; B. Yorke, The Anglo Saxons (Stroud, 1999); J.D. Richards, Viking Age England (London, 1991).

19Morris, Buckley and Codd, Visions of Ancient Leicester, p.39.

20This description is bas...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• One Beginnings Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Danes
• Two Medieval Leicester The Lords, the Townspeople and the Clerics
• Three Tudor and Early Stuart Leicester Religious Change, Economic Struggle and Civil War
• Four Early Modern Leicester New Industry, Communications, Repression and Reform
• Five Renaissance in Mid-Victorian Leicester New Industry, Improved Public Health and the Rebuilding of the Town
• Six Late Victorian and Edwardian Leicester The Yearly Calendar
• Seven The Great War and the Interwar Years
• Eight The Second World War and the Decades that Followed
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Copyright
• Plates