Billesdon, Market Place c.1955

Photo ref: B593002

More about this scene

The A47 Leicester-Uppingham road forms one side of the roughly triangular market place; although the photograph shows, in the main, modest cottages of 17th- and 18th-century date, more impressive houses are to be found behind the camera. Until recently the long established Geary Brothers, builders and joiners, occupied the building to the right. The Friday market was discontinued at the end of the 18th century. Not only does the ancient 'Jurassic Trackway' run on a north-south line to the east of the village towards Tilton-on-the Hill, but a Neolithic road from Leicester, eastwards towards Ingarsby, skirts the northern boundary of the parish. In its turn that same road line was utilised to demarcate part of the boundary to the Saxon estate belonging to Tochi, now translated as Tugby, a village three miles to the east of Billesdon. In this north-western sector of a remarkable parish it is possible to go back two thousand years at a glance, from the ancient trackway to an abandoned railway line, courtesy of Dr Beeching. Also within this very small area is Billesdon Coplow, a prominent wooded hill, and within its lee Botany Bay fox covert, which is thus clearly dated soon after 1788, when the infamous penal colony was established in Australia.

An extract from Leicestershire Photographic Memories.