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 25 May 2025
The English Sparrow – friend or foe?
LAHS Newsletter Editor Cynthia Brown explores attitudes to the house sparrow as an agricultural ‘pest’ in the later 19th century.
Sunday 18 May 2025
An Insight into the late 18th Century Wymeswold Malting Trade
LAHS Member Dave Fogg Postles examines a reckoning detailing barley, malt and hops trading between Wymeswold and Loughborough.
Sunday 11 May 2025
Leicestershire’s Notorious Outlaws: George Davenport
LAHS Member Steve Marquis tells the story of an 18th Century Highwayman from Wigston.
Sunday 4 May 2025
The Indian-inspired ‘Islamesque’ in Rutland
LAHS Member Bob Trubshaw explores influences on Romanesque architecture, in the ‘foliage-sprouting faces’ of Tickencote and Stoke Dry.
Monday 28 April 2025
Yes, here comes Richard III to Leicester. No, not now – but 542 years ago!
LAHS Vice-President and Committee Member, Caroline Wessel considers some of Richard IIIs lesser known visits to Leicester.
Sunday 6 April 2025
Ancient Trails & Salt Ways in South Leicestershire
LAHS Member, John Lacey, investigates a lesser known pre-historic trading route from north to south.
Sunday 23 March 2025
Resolving the Flaws of Previously Published Folville Pedigrees
Guest Blogger, David J. Lewis, traces the genealogy of this medieval Leicestershire dynasty.
Sunday 2 March 2025
Leicestershire’s Notorious Outlaws: The Folvilles
LAHS Member Steve Marquis examines the consequences of famine, political instability and lawlessness in the early 14th Century.
Sunday 23 February 2025
Exploring Leicester’s Popular Music Scene
Guest Blogger, Colin Hyde of the East Midlands Oral History Archive, reviews Leicester’s music scene, from Dance Bands to Hip Hop.
Sunday 16 February 2025
The Melton Mowbray Polish Resettlement Camp: Differing Perspectives
LAHS Member, Jakub Milcarz, explores the contrasting views of the British government and Polish inhabitants of the camp during the 1950s.
Sunday 9 February 2025
Leicestershire’s Notorious Outlaws: Roger Godberd
LAHS Member Steve Marquis explores the aftermath of Simon de Montfort’s rebellion and the origins of the legend of Robin Hood.
Sunday 19 January 2025
Roman Lead Sealings Found in Leicester and What They Can Tell Us
LAHS Vice-President Patrick Clay, explores some of Roman Leicester’s links to military legions and the wider Roman Empire.
Sunday 12 January 2025
Farming During The Later Bronze Age - Part 2 Animal Husbandry
LAHS Member Stuart Evans considers the Bronze Age movement of animals between the Fenlands and the Leicestershire river valleys.
Sunday 15 December 2024
The Early-Fifteenth-Century Wymeswold Bye-Laws Revisited
LAHS Member, Dave Fogg Postles, explores the significance of these late medieval regulations, covering many aspects of daily village life.
Sunday 8 December 2024
The Woodlands and Park of Launde Abbey
Guest blogger, Andy Lear, explores both the historic woodland boundaries and the possible location of a medieval deer park at Launde Abbey.
Sunday 1 December 2024
The March Phillipps de Lisle Family and Leicestershire over 340 years
LAHS Vice-President, Squire Gerard de Lisle, reflects on his family’s long association with the county.
Sunday 24 November 2024
A Walk Through Leicester. Susanna Watts (1768 – 1842)
Guest blogger, John Parker, retraces the footsteps of Susanna Watts. Abolitionist, author, translator, and artist.
Sunday 17 November 2024
Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire. The exceptional available evidence
LAHS Member Bob Trubshaw reviews the abundant evidence now available from archaeological, iconographical, place-name and landscape studies.
Sunday 10 November 2024
Animal Magnetism - A Mesmerising Debate
LAHS Newsletter & Reviews Editor, Cynthia Brown, explores the unsettling practice of mesmerism in early Victorian Leicester.
Sunday 3 November 2024
Farming During The Later Bronze Age - Part 1 Land Division
LAHS Member Stuart Evans, assesses the context and use of pit alignments and field systems in Bronze Age Leicestershire.