Leicestershire

Leicestershire (, abbreviation Leics., is a landlocked county in central . It takes its name from the heavily populated, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester  is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire. The county borders onto , , , , , , and . The border with Warwickshire is  (the ).

County Hall, situated in, about 3 s (5 ) northwest of Leicester city centre, is the seat of and the headquarters of the county authority. The City of Leicester is administered from offices in Leicester itself and the City Council meets at Leicester Town Hall.

The rises to the east of Hinckley, in the far south of the county, and flows northward through Leicester before emptying into the  at the. A large part of the northwest of the county, around, forms part of the new area extending into Derbyshire and Staffordshire. The highest point of the county is at 278 m/912 ft, which is also a.

As part of a, the plant conservation charity chose the  as the.

History
Leicestershire was recorded in the in four s:, ,  and. These later became s, with the division of Goscote into and, and the addition of  hundred. In 1087, the first recorded use of the name was as Laegrecastrescir.

Leicestershire's external boundaries have changed little since the Domesday Survey. The - of  has been exchanged for the  area, and the urban expansion of  has caused, previously in  to be annexed.

In 1974, the abolished the  status of Leicester city and the county status of neighbouring , converting both to administrative  of Leicestershire. These actions were reversed on, when Rutland and the City of Leicester became unitary authorities.

The symbol of the county council, and, is the. Leicestershire is considered to be the birthplace of as it is known today. , who lived in, is known as the father of fox hunting. and have associations with fox hunting, as has neighbouring Rutland.

Demographics
The population of Leicestershire (excluding the city of Leicester) is 609,579. The county covers an area of 2,084 km² (804 sq mi).

The largest population centre is, followed by. Other major towns include, , , , , and.

Engineering
Engineering has long been an important part of the economy of Leicestershire. continues a history of bellfounding in Loughborough since the 14th century. In 1881 John Taylors cast the largest bell in Britain, "Great Paul", for St Paul's Cathedral in London. Norman & Underwood have been making sand cast sheet lead roofing and stained glass since 1825 working on many of England's major cathedrals and historic buildings, including Salisbury Cathedral, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, Hampton Court Palace, and Chatsworth House. is built on one of three coal mines that operated in Coalville from the 1820's until 1986. houses four enormous steam powered beam engines built in Leicester in the 1890's in the Vulcan factory owned by Josiah Gimson, whose son was an influential furniture designer and architect of the English.

Engineering companies today include maker  in,  in , Jones & Shipman (machine tools), Metalfacture (sheet metal work), Richards Engineering (foundry equipment), Transmon Engineering (materials handling equipment), Trelleborg Industrial AVS in  (industrial suspension components), Parker Plant (quarrying equipment), Aggregate Industries UK (construction materials), Infotec in  (electronic information display boards), Alstec in  (airport baggage handling systems), and  (railway locomotives) in. Local commitment to nurturing the upcoming cadre of British engineers includes apprenticeship schemes with local companies, and academic-industrial connections with the engineering departments at, , and. The Systems Engineering Innovation Centre and Centre for Excellence for low carbon and fuel cell technologies are both based at. Private sector research and development organisations include PERA - the technology based consultancy in Melton Mowbray, and MIRA - the automotive research and development centre based on the outskirts of Hinckley. Automotive and aerospace engineers use the test facilities at, and and proving ground. On 18 October 2007, the last airworthy was flown from  after 10 years of restoration there by aerospace engineers of the Vulcan Operating Company.

Farming
Leicestershire has a long history of sheep farming which continues today. (1725 - 1795) was a revolutionary in the field of selective breeding, and his Leicester Longwool sheep was much prized by American colonial farmers and is today a heritage breed admired all over the world.

In 2006 in Leicestershire and Rutland there were 6,450 people working as farmers, managers and farm labourers on 2,719 farms with 192,181 acres of farmed land. The animal population was 122,284 cattle, 57,059 pigs and 314,214 sheep Source DEFRA.

The Leicestershire County Show is held on the first Bank Holiday in May each year and includes animal showings, trade exhibitions, and show jumping. Melton Mowbray Market is an important regional livestock market.

Field Sports remain an important part of the rural economy of Leicestershire, with stables, kennels, and gunsmiths based in the county.

Thatched roofs are built and maintained by members of Rutland & Leicestershire Master Thatchers Association.

Food and drink
, cheese, and the  are three of Leicestershire's most famous contributions to.

Leicestershire food producers include Claybrooke mill one of the very few commercially working watermills left in Britain producing a range of over 40 flours, meat from rare and minority breeds from Brockleby's, Christmas turkey and goose from Seldom Seen Farm, and the only manufacturer of Red Leicester cheese based in the county the Leicestershire Handmade Cheese Company.

All natural non-alcoholic fruit cordials and presse drinks are made by Belvoir Fruit Farms and sold in supermarkets across Britain. Swithland Spring Water is sourced from the Charnwood hills. Breweries in Leicestershire and Rutland are listed on the Leicester CAMRA website. The county's largest beer brewer is, and there are several microbreweries such as Brewsters, Belvoir, Parish, Grainstore, Hathern and Langton. Vineyards in Leicestershire include Chevelswarde Vineyard, Welland Valley Vineyard , and Eglantine. Melton Mowbray Sloe Gin is a liqueur with a distinctive flavour.

Markets are held across the county, a list of some of the larger markets is here. A list of certified Farmers Markets in Leicestershire is here. A list of smaller country markets, supported by members of the Women's Institute, is here. Leicester Market is the largest outdoor covered marketplace in Europe and among the products on sale are fruit and vegetables sold by enthusiastic market stallholders who shout out their prices, and fresh fish and meat in the Indoor Market.

The annual East Midlands Food & Drink Festival held in Melton Mowbray had over 200 exhibitors and 20,000 visitors attending in 2006 making it the largest British regional food festival.

Food processing in the city and county includes popular British fish and chip shop pie who are based in Syston. Walkers Midshire Foods, part of the Samworth Brothers group, makes sausages and pies in its Beaumont Leys factories. Samworth Brothers has operations in Leicestershire and Cornwall, making a range of products from sandwiches to desserts for UK retailers under their brands as well the company's own portfolio of brands including Dickinson & Morris, producers of s and Melton Hunt Cake. crisps are made in Beaumont Leys using Lincolnshire potatoes. have their distribution centre in. The UK factory at Melton Mowbray produces petfood for brands such as Cesar,, PAL, Pedigree, , , Aquarian and Trill. Hand made chocolates are produced by Chocolate Perfection in.

Some 15 major Indian food manufacturers are based in Leicester including Mayur Foods, Cofresh Snack Foods Ltd, Farsan, Apni Roti, and Spice n Tice. The 'Mithai' Indian sweet market is catered for by award winning Indian restaurants - for instance the vegetable samosas approved by the Vegetarian Society sold at The Sharmilee on Belgrave Road. The growing market for Indian food has afforded new opportunities to long standing local companies, for example the Long Clawson dairy, a co-operative manufacturer of now also makes  cheese used in the Indian dish.

Leicestershire food links, set up by the and, provides information for and about Leicestershire farmers and food producers. It is currently running projects aimed at publicising farmers markets, using local food in schools, and improving distribution.

Leicestershire food exported abroad includes cheese from the Long Clawson dairy which is sold in supermarkets in Canada and the United States via a network of distributors coordinated by Taunton based company Somerdale. Belvoir Fruit Farms cordials and pressé drinks are sold on the United States east coast in, and in specialized British food stores such as Myers of Keswick (New York City), and the British Pantry (near Washington, D.C.).

Leicestershire County Council publishes a quarterly food and drink newsletter. The Leicester Mercury publishes a weekly food page titled Taste of Leicestershire.

The annual Leicestershire & Rutland Restaurant Awards has several categories including Leicestershire & Rutland Restaurant of the Year, Best Asian Restaurant, Best Service, Best Newcomer, Best Fine Dining Restaurant, Best Value for Money, Best Drinks/Wine List, Best Local Produce Menu, Best Gastro Pub, Best Neighbourhood Restaurant, Best Business Lunch, and Leicestershire & Rutland Young Chef of the Year.

See also Leicester food & drink

Clothing
Leicester and Leicestershire has had a traditional industry of, and , and the sheep on the county's coat of arms is recognition of this. The rich history of the East Midlands knitting/knitwear industry is chronicled on the Knitting Together website. The local manufacturing industry, which began with hand knitting in the Middle Ages, and was fully industrialized by the end of the 19th century, survived until the end of the 20th century through retailers buying UK sourced products, and government measures such as the protection of the which ended in 2004. Cheaper global competition, coupled with the 1999 slump in the UK fashion retail sector, led to the end of much of the cheaper clothing manufacturing industry. Today Leicestershire companies focus on high quality clothing and specialty textiles, such as the socks and knitwear made by Pantherella and Commando Knitwear, technical textiles for industrial or medical purposes, and clothing and fabric for the community - for example Saree Mandir sells silk 's and salwar suits for women whose design patterns closely follow contemporary Indian trends. Also the creative side is in very good shape, with the design centre for in Enderby, and the design centre for George Clothing (Asda/Walmart) in Lutterworth. has, in the form of its Fashion and Contour Design course a leading design department for female underwear. It also has the only UK University courses in Footwear Design providing future designers for local shoemakers Shoefayre, Stead and Simpson, and, who all have their headquarters in the county.

Healthcare
NHS Trust employs 12,000 in the city and county. Leicestershire County and Rutland Primary Care Trust employs 3,300 staff in healthcare services in the county. Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust employs 3,000 staff providing mental health and learning disability services in the city and county.

Biomedical industries
Pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical instrument manufacturing companies include pharmaceuticals,, Bridgehead International in Melton, Fisher Scientific in Loughborough, and Ashfield Healthcare in Ashby de-la-Zouch.

Freight and distribution
Transportation links are good. is one mile south of, next to the in North West Leicestershire, and is the second largest freight airport in the United Kingdom after London Heathrow. have a large purpose built facility at EMA, and courier companies and  also use the airport as a base. is also a regular user of East Midlands, and the airport is a primary hub for. The M1 is Leicestershire's other important transport hub. The start of the, and part of the briefly intersect with the southern tip of Leicestershire. Many large retail companies have huge warehouses at the Magna Park complex near Lutterworth including ASDA, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Argos, ECF, Sara Lee, Unipart, DHL, Britvic Soft Drinks, LIDL, Merck, BT, Exel, P&O, The Disney Store, Panasonic, Kingfield Heath, Costco, Computer 2000, and TNT. Pall-Ex of provide automated palletised freight distribution services from their location off Junction 22 of the M1. The provides important connections to Yorkshire and London, and the  is essentially Leicestershire's east-west connection from Hinckley to Melton.

Other
Ibstock based developer  was bought in 2007 by  plc in a GBP2.2 billion deal. Charles Street Buildings (Leicester) and Jelson Homes are two other successful Leicester based property companies.

Syston based Dunelm Mill is a growing home furnishings retailer. The company started in 1979 as a family business selling curtains from a Leicester market stall whose first store opened in Churchgate Leicester in 1984. In 2006 Dunelm opened its 80th store, and the company floated on the stock market, placing the company's founders the Adderley family among Britain's most successful entrepreneurs.

Hamilton based LPC Group manufactures more than 600 million toilet rolls and kitchen towel rolls per year in its Leicestershire factories.

Oadby based Invicta Plastics manufacture the red noses used for 's Red Nose Day campaign.

Much loved toy car company is based at the Meridian Business Park.

Hairdresser Barrie Hedley operates three Barrie Stephen salons in the city and county, and has been a finalist in the British hairdressing awards 2004, 2005, and 2006. In 2007 Hedley won the Entrepreneur of the year at the Leicestershire Business Awards.

Lumbers, of Market Street Leicester, was a finalist in the Independent Retailer category of the UK Jewellery Awards 2007.

Ulverscroft Large Print Books, of, are a leading publisher of books for the visually impaired.

Financial and business services
Financial and business service companies with operations in Leicestershire include, , , , and. Companies that have their head office based in the area include, and British Gas Business.

Invest Leicesteshire provides information to businesses looking to relocate to the city or county, or to established local companies wanting to develop. Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce is another good source for business advice.

Business awards
The Leicestershire Business Awards has categories including Investing in Leicestershire, Contribution to the Community, and Entrepreneur of the Year.

Recent Leicestershire winners of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise are listed on the Lord Lieutenant's website.

Statistics
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire and (it does not include the ) at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Education
Publicly funded secondary schools in Leicestershire are comprehensive. The schools are segregated by age in some areas to ages 10-14 (s), and 14 to 16 or 18 (s). The schools, compared to other s, have large numbers on the roll with school enrollment often 2000 and more. For Melton and Blaby districts, although there is division by middle and upper schools, there is only one school for that whole district (for one particular age group); there is no choice of school. Charnwood has the largest school population - four times the size of the Melton district.

Private schools
Private schools in Leicestershire include (mixed),  (girls),  (boys),  (girls),  (primary school - mixed),  (military 6th form college - mixed),  (Roman Catholic - mixed), Grace Dieu Manor School (Roman Catholic - mixed), Stoneygate school (primary school - mixed), and Leicester Montessori School (mixed).

Overall results for city and county
In the East Midlands, Leicestershire is the third best LEA, after Rutland (56.1%) and Lincolnshire and produces results (46.7% of pupils gaining 5 GCSEs A-C including English and Maths) above the England average (45.8%). The best performing state school at GCSE in the county, is the in  with 66%, followed by the  in Loughborough with 61% and  with 60%. The worst performing school is the King Edward VII Science and Sport College in Coalville with 31%, followed by the Burleigh Community College in Loughborough with 36% (but nearby counties and Leicester LEA have much worse schools than that). For state schools at A-level, the De Lisle Catholic Science College performs the best with excellent results, followed by in  and the  in Hinckley. The county performs just under the England average and the city performs well under the average. Overall at A-level, the independent Loughborough High School gets the best results, followed by Loughborough Grammar School, in, Leicester Grammar School, then Leicester High School for Girls (although the last two are not in Leicestershire), all independent schools.

Average score at GCSE by council district (%)
% of pupils gaining 5 grades A-C including English and Maths in 2006:
 * 1. Harborough 55.8
 * 2. Oadby and Wigston 52.2
 * 3. Hinckley and Bosworth 46.6
 * 4. North West Leicestershire 43.1
 * 5. Charnwood 42.9
 * 6. Melton 42.0
 * 7. Blaby 38.0
 * (Leicester City Unitary Authority) 33.5

Higher education
Leicestershire has three universities,, , and.

Symphony Orchestra
The internationally famous (LSSO) is a youth  based in Leicester. The players, aged between 15 and 18, are all drawn from secondary schools in the county of Leicestershire and the City of Leicester.

Towns and villages
See the .

Places of interest
Top Deck Tours is a tour bus service linking many of the major tourist sites in the county.


 * May Fayre
 * (former railway path to )
 * and proving ground
 * and the museum
 * and Conkers
 * the National Diving Centre
 * Ulverscroft Priory
 * Wigston Framework Knitters Museum
 * (former railway path to )
 * and proving ground
 * and the museum
 * and Conkers
 * the National Diving Centre
 * Ulverscroft Priory
 * Wigston Framework Knitters Museum
 * and Conkers
 * the National Diving Centre
 * Ulverscroft Priory
 * Wigston Framework Knitters Museum
 * and Conkers
 * the National Diving Centre
 * Ulverscroft Priory
 * Wigston Framework Knitters Museum
 * and Conkers
 * the National Diving Centre
 * Ulverscroft Priory
 * Wigston Framework Knitters Museum
 * the National Diving Centre
 * Ulverscroft Priory
 * Wigston Framework Knitters Museum
 * Ulverscroft Priory
 * Wigston Framework Knitters Museum
 * Wigston Framework Knitters Museum
 * Wigston Framework Knitters Museum
 * Wigston Framework Knitters Museum