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Secret Leicestershire Episodes

  1. The Bouskell Park Ice House

    Before the fridge… was the ‘Ice House’

  2. The book that saved Shakespeare’s Macbeth

    Shakespeare’s Fourth Folio is one of the most influential texts in the England language.

  3. The birthplace of coal mining in Leicestershire

    The earliest documented form of coal mining in Swannington dates back to around 1204.

  4. The Bilstone Gibbet Post: The Gruesome Truth

    One wooden post and it's connection to an infamous murder in 1801

  5. The ancient oak that gave ‘Gartree’ its name

    The Gartree was an ancient oak where jurors handed out justice and administered taxes.

  6. The ancient castle at the heart of Oakham

    Oakham Castle is one of the best examples of domestic Norman architecture in England.

  7. The 450-year-old love story in Sign Language

    The first recorded use of sign language in England at Leicester Cathedral

  8. The 18th U.S. President pays Leicester a visit

    Ulysses S. Grant stops off in Leicester on the 31st of May 1877.

  9. The ‘lost’ pleasure gardens of Stonton Wyville

    Stonton Wyville has the remnants of a banqueting house with its own pleasure gardens.

  10. The ‘lost’ beacon on Beacon Hill

    Beacon Hill is the home of an ancient beacon.

  11. Rothley’s unbelievable Viking survivor

    Rothley’s Anglo-Saxon cross dates from around the time of the Vikings in the 9th century.

  13. Richard III's last resting place?

    The bed in which Richard III slept the night before the Battle of Bosworth exists today.

  14. Paying rent with one sock a year

    The workshop of Leicester’s last master hosier is a unique record of his working life

  15. Lilian Lenton – Rebel Suffragette

    Inspired by the Women’s Suffrage campaigns Lilian Lenton was a militant Suffragette.

  16. Leicestershire’s medieval shrunken village

    The remains of the medieval shrunken village were uncovered at Loddington.

  17. Leicester’s unsung hero of the British Grand Prix

    Leicester’s Bob Gerard was one of Britain’s top racing drivers of the post-war period.

  18. Leicester’s medieval ‘party palace of Europe’

    Leicester Castle’s Great Hall hosted many illustrious visitors including Richard III.

  19. Leicester’s brass band music controversy of 1856

    An outdoor concert in Leicester in 1856 caused outrage and some people ended up in court.

  20. Leicester's Four Gaols and 'the Crank'

    Leicester had four gaols (jails) in the 18th century, one still visible near Highcross

  21. Leicester's connection to a modern nursing pioneer

    Nightingale wards were named after Florence Nightingale, a pioneer of modern nursing.

  22. Leicester Town Hall: 150 years of stories

    The well-known and lesser-known sides of Leicester’s civic history

  23. Leicester Cathedral’s 'secret' medieval porch

    Leicester Cathedral's porch over the North Door dates back to the medieval period.

  24. Leicester Castle Gallows

    What lies beneath. The buried truth at Leicester castle.

  25. Launde Abbey (Part Two): The Cromwell Connection

    "Myself for Launde” wrote Thomas Cromwell. The abbey chapel shares its secrets.

  26. Launde Abbey (Part One) : History in the making

    Launde Abbey has been a place of worship since the 1100s with a story to tell.

  27. Lady Rolleston and the street boys from Leicester

    A Leicester woman's vision that still drives the local charity she started

  28. Is this where Chaucer tied the knot?

    Why historians think the English Poet Geoffrey Chaucer may have got married in Leicester

  29. Inside the home of the magistrate who tried witches

    Long Clawson’s Old Manor House reveals its hidden history - persecuting suspected witches

  30. Inside Leicester's unique Norman Wisdom archive

    Leicester is the home to a unique collection from Sir Norman Wisdom’s 60-year career.

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