Last weekend saw the Download Festival 2015, the rock music event in the Leicestershire village of Castle Donington, held at Donington Park. Donington has hosted such festivals for many years now, being home to the Monsters of Rock festival, which was the reason I first visited the village, for Monsters of Rock 1996. 19 years…
The World Superbikes 2015’s stop in the UK was to Donington Park, a popular track among bikers, and for me, there was the extra interest that the rider leading the championship, Jonathan Rea, grew up in the same town as me, and even went to the same school as me. I went along, and of…
The Donington Historic Festival has been held at the beginning of May over the last five years, and the recent May Day bank holiday saw the Donington Historic Festival 2015 being held at the Leicestershire circuit. For those not familiar with it, the festival sees a series of historic races over three days with a…
As the name may suggest, the Leicestershire town of Coalville has an industrial past that includes mining, and one of the former pits in the area now forms the centre of Snibston Discovery Museum and park. Visitors can learn about how technical innovation has changed the lives of people over the last five centuries, and…
Today marks a most remarkable event in history, as the funeral cortege of King Richard III makes its way to Leicester. Richard was killed at the Battle of Bosworth field in 1485, in an event that changed British history. He was succeeded by Henry Tudor, who became King Henry VII, and with that ended the…
The village of Heather is a pleasant place in North West Leicestershire, and dates back to the Doomsday Book on 1086, when it was recorded as Hadre, or The Heathland. These days, you might know it for its pubs and live music – very good considering a population of just under 1000 – or at…
I wrote last year about the 2013 Heart of the Forest Festival in the village of Measham, Leicestershire, right in the middle of the National Forest, hence the name, that included motorbike stunts, wild west shows, and all sorts of exciting things. Today saw the Heart of the Forest Festival 2014, and as normal, I…
Last weekend saw the 2014 Moira Canal Festival, which celebrates and raises money for the restoration of the Ashby Canal, on the Derbyshire / Leicestershire border. I wrote about last year’s festival, which was a great show, and included a fly by from a Mark IX Spitfire. The 2014 event saw two air shows, one…
As I got to the train station the morning for my daily commute, there were blue skies over Loughborough train station, and in that blue sky the moon could clearly be seen with Venus appearing to be quite near by. It was a pretty sight as I crossed over the bridge at the station, and…
My car is being serviced at the moment, so I ended up getting to the train station later than normal. I know that sunrise at Loughborough train station is probably not something that would be expected to be particularly noteworthy. However, as the first light arrived in the sky at 0640 this morning, commuters were…
Among the many excellent sites managed by English Heritage is the ruins of Kirby Muxloe Castle, or Kirby Castle for short, in Leicestershire, not far from Leicester itself. It is an interesting site in the small town of Kirby Muxloe, in a residential area of the town. The castle is actually a fortified manor house,…
One of the side effects of the growth of the Internet has been the ability to buy all sorts of odd things that you never thought or knew that you needed, but as soon as you see them, you wonder how on earth your life could have felt so complete for so long without a…