The Heart of the Shires is steeped in history.
A view from the bottom of Castle Street,
Hinckley in the 1990's
A view from the bottom of Castle Street,
Hinckley in the 1930's
Crossways Farm is situated a half mile from the village of Burbage on the Leicestershire/Warwickshire border. It enjoys some excellent views across open countryside towards the Roman Center of England where the Roman roads of Watling Street and the Fosse Way meet at High Cross. The A5 (The Watling Street) stretches from London to North Wales, whereas the Fosse Way comes up through the Cotswolds from Somerset to Nottinghamshire and beyond. At High Cross, the Fosse Way becomes a cart track for a while where it is possible to walk in the path of the Romans of about the middle of the first Century A.D. when this great frontier road was first constructed.
"And Sir, do you mean to stop any of William's wages about the sack he lost the other day at Hinckley fair?"
This mention of Hinckley in Shakespeares play 'Henry IV part II' might come as a surprise to many people because this thriving industrial Leicestershire town is not thought of in historical terms in the same way as other county towns such as Melton Mowbray or Market Harborough. Nevertheless, Hinckley is a very ancient place and its name owes its origin to the Saxon settlement in the "ley" or clearing in the woodland occupied by the followers of Hinck. There is also evidence of a Roman settlement having pre-dated the Saxon one.
After the Norman conquest in the eleventh Century, The Doomsday Book records that there were 69 families in the town - four times as many as in contemporary Birmingham! Of the Norman period, all that remains to be seen today is the bailey and part of the moat of the castle erected by 1151. The Argents Mead, adjacent to the castle, is public landscaped gardens surrounding the Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council offices.
With the building of the castle the original settlement around The Borough and Bond Street extended into what is now known as Castle Street. Throughout the Middle Ages, Hinckley was a typical market town with a market established since at least 1311. In 1551, King Edward VI granted permission for a market to be held every Monday, and today the town boasts a general market on Mondays (except Bank Holidays) and Saturdays and a Bric-a-Brac market on Fridays.
In 1640, an event occurred of great future significance for the town when William Iliffe set up the first stocking frame in Hinckley, thus marking the beginning of the hosiery and knitwear industry which has made Hinckley internationally known. A surviving example of framework knitters' cottages are preserved in Lower Bond Street and now house the Hinckley and District Museum. Opposite the cottages, the counterpart hosiery factory is the successor of Atkins of Hinckley founded in 1722, the oldest hosiery manufacturer in the world.