Blog
We aim to publish short pieces on a wide range of topics relating to different aspects of Leicestershire and Rutland’s past. If you have an interest or research project that you would like to share through the blog or an idea for one to explore further, please contact us at website@lahs.org.uk.
Sunday 16 June 2024
‘Almost an Englishman’ – a French refugee and his family in Leicester
LAHS Newsletter Editor, Cynthia Brown presents the life of Charles Camille Caillard, a French nobleman who made his home in 19th Century Leicester
Sunday 9 June 2024
‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ Witchcraft in Leicestershire
LAHS Member Steve Marquis takes a look at the history of witchcraft prosecutions in 17th and 18th Century Leicestershire.
Sunday 2 June 2024
Polish Resettlement Camps in Leicestershire
LAHS Member Jakub Milcarz considers life in the Polish Resettlement Camps of post-war Leicestershire.
Sunday 26 May 2024
The ‘Forgotten’ Alabaster of Burton on the Wolds
Joan Shaw and Bob Trubshaw examine the little known history of alabaster quarrying in Leicestershire.
Sunday 19 May 2024
A Ritual Landscape
LAHS Member Stuart Evans examines the evidence of a Neolithic and Early Bronze Age ritual landscape on the northeast boundary of Leicestershire with Lincolnshire.
Sunday 12 May 2024
At the Going Down of the Sun
LAHS Member Denis Kenyon shares his experiences as co-founder of the Leicester City, County & Rutland At Risk War Memorials Project.
Sunday 5 May 2024
A Picture Postcard Puzzle: The burial and re-burial of Friar John
LAHS Member Nick Miller recounts the intriguing story of a medieval burial, re-discovered in Edwardian times on the site of an old friary, culminating in a funeral to remember for a local town.
Sunday 28 April 2024
New Angles on Saxon Leicestershire
LAHS member (and archaeologist at ULAS) Dr Gavin Speed, has recently co-authored a new book on the important discoveries of an early Anglo-Saxon settlement from Eye Kettleby. Here he looks at the growing archaeological evidence for the people and their places in early Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire and Rutland.
Sunday 21 April 2024
675 years ago, this weekend: a field headland at the Kilby parish boundary
LAHS Treasurer Simon Atkins assesses what features in the landscape can tell us about the past, through an analysis of maps and LIDAR images, combined with what is still visible today.
Sunday 7 April 2024
Snakes with glass eyes and other distractions…
LAHS Newsletter and Reviews Editor, Cynthia Brown illustrates the power of sometimes allowing yourself to be driven by simple curiosity and a more random approach when considering local history research.
Monday 1 April 2024
Leicestershire and Rutland’s Holy Wells
LAHS Member Bob Trubshaw takes a fresh look at some of the area's Holy Wells, exploring both their roots and the folklore surrounding them.
Sunday 24 March 2024
The Iron Age Landscape of the Salt Way
LAHS member Stuart Evans considers the Salt Way, an ancient route running from Donington in Lincolnshire across to Barrow upon Soar in Leicestershire and through a review of the archaeological evidence, discusses its possible Iron Age origins.
Sunday 17 March 2024
A house at 93 Main Street, Lyddington, Rutland - A history of ownership and occupation over 400 years
LAHS Member Trevor Harrington shares a portion of his house history, exploring how even in the 18th Century, life could still be shaped by the manorial system, discussing in particular the "Borough English" custom of land inheritance and the stark consequences it could and did have for women.
Sunday 10 March 2024
The Bean-Bellies of Leicestershire – an Eco-History of a Name
LAHS Trustee and Committee Member, Elizabeth Tingle explores the now forgotten importance of the humble bean as a widespread staple food crop in Leicestershire across the centuries.
Sunday 3 March 2024
Why do three adjacent villages have rare C17th fonts?
LAHS Member Bob Trubshaw examines three local examples of rare baptismal fonts found in the villages of Bottesford, Orston and Muston, exploring their links to Archbishop Laud's counter-reformation of the mid 17th Century.
Sunday 25 February 2024
Luddism and Chartism and the part played by Leicestershire Women
LAHS member Steve Marquis looks at the often overlooked role played by Leicestershire women in these important 19th Century political working class movements.
Sunday 18 February 2024
A Polish homeopath in Leicester
LAHS Newsletter and Reviews Editor, Cynthia Brown tells the intriguing story of Severin Wielobycki, a 19th century Polish homeopath who lived and worked in Leicester during the 1860s.
Sunday 11 February 2024
The Smeeton Westerby Beaker burial revisited
Almost 50 years ago, an ancient Beaker burial was found on Smeeton Hill in south Leicestershire. LAHS Vice-President, Dr Patrick Clay takes a fresh look at how far our understanding of late Neolithic/ early Bronze Age Leicestershire has come since then.
Sunday 4 February 2024
Northfields Council Estate remembered
LAHS Member Dave Fogg Postles looks back on life on the Northfields Council Estate in Leicester.
Thursday 18 January 2024
The 1645 Siege of Leicester
LAHS member Steve Marquis, recounts the infamous siege of Leicester in 1645 during the height of the English Civil War