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 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.

Wednesday 30 October 2024

Two Incursions a Millennium Apart into Leicester by the Marquis Family

LAHS Member Steve Marquis explores his own connection to the 10th Century Viking occupation of Leicester.

Sunday 27 October 2024

Leicestershire’s Marco Polo? Anthony Jenkinson (1529-1611)

LAHS Trustee, Elizabeth Tingle explores themes of travel, globalisation and slavery, through the life of this Tudor merchant adventurer.

Sunday 20 October 2024

Ghost Woods of Leighfield Forest

Guest blogger, Andy Lear of the Wildlife Trust, sets out to re-discover the location of a lost area of woodland.

Sunday 13 October 2024

The Mysterious Archaeology of Saltby Heath: Part 2 The Excavations

LAHS Vice-President Robert Hartley provides a personal insight into this landmark Bronze Age site dig.

Sunday 6 October 2024

The Mysterious Archaeology of Saltby Heath: Part 1 The Heath

LAHS Vice-President Robert Hartley considers the long history of human activity in this distinctive landscape.

Sunday 6 October 2024

Thurnby Lodge Street Names: A mystery solved (with the aid of LAHS)

LAHS Member Brian Screaton uncovers the unexpected origins of the street names of this Leicester post-war housing estate.

Sunday 29 September 2024

A Wife’s Dilemma: Debt and The Married Women’s Property Act

LAHS Member Dave Fogg Postles presents a case study from Victorian Loughborough exploring an aspect of the impact of this Act.

Sunday 29 September 2024

Salt Ways In Leicestershire

LAHS Member Bob Trubshaw explores the history of these ancient trackways.

Sunday 22 September 2024

Loughborough’s First Workhouse

LAHS Member Dr Pam Fisher explores the founding of an early mid-18th century workhouse.

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.