The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

   

Leicestershire

Sites in this group:

8 posts
Beacon Hill Hillfort
1 post
Birstall enclosure settlement Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork
8 posts
Breedon on the Hill Hillfort
19 posts
Burrough Hill Hillfort
1 post
Bury Camp Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork
3 posts
Cossington Barrows Round Barrow(s)
2 posts
Croft Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork
1 post
Earl Shilton Barrows Round Barrow(s)
8 posts
Fenny Drayton Round Barrow(s)
Forest Field Enclosure
3 posts
Grace Dieu Priory Standing Stone / Menhir
23 posts
The Humber Stone Standing Stone / Menhir
2 posts
1 site
King Lud's Entrenchments Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork
1 post
Lockington Barrow / Cairn Cemetery (Destroyed)
5 posts
Misterton Barrow / Cairn Cemetery
1 post
The Moody Bush Stone Standing Stone / Menhir
2 posts
North Kilworth Barrows Round Barrow(s)
8 posts
Peckleton Barrow Round Barrow(s)
1 post
Piper Hole Farm Barrow Round Barrow(s)
2 posts
Robin-a-Tiptoe Hill Enclosure
1 post
Sharnford Barrow Round Barrow(s)
South Kilworth Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork
4 posts
St. John's or Little John's Stone (destroyed) Standing Stone / Menhir
12 posts
Sutton Cheney Barrows Round Barrow(s)
1 post
Syston Barrow (Round Hill) Round Barrow(s)
3 posts
Temple Grange Rothley Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork
Thurlaston Enclosure
2 posts
Wanlip Cairn(s)
4 posts
Wigston Parva Round Barrow(s)
2 posts
Windmill Hill Round Barrow(s)
Sites of disputed antiquity:
1 post
The Billesdon Stone Standing Stone / Menhir
3 posts
Bradgate Stone & Ring Standing Stone / Menhir
The Grey Hangman's Stone Standing Stone / Menhir
1 post
Grimr's Stones Standing Stone / Menhir
1 post
Hanging Stone Natural Rock Feature
6 posts
The Judith Stone Standing Stone / Menhir
2 posts
Peter's Pence Stone Standing Stone / Menhir
Wishing Stone Natural Rock Feature

News

Add news Add news
'Phenomenal' 2,300-year-old bark shield found in Leicestershire

Archaeologists hail iron age object a ‘marvellous, internationally important find’

More: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/may/23/2300-year-old-iron-age-bark-shield-leicestershire?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
ryaner Posted by ryaner
24th May 2019ce

The Peatling Magna Hoard


Iron age gold coins go on disply in Market Harborough... continues...
Chance Posted by Chance
25th July 2012ce
Edited 25th July 2012ce

Leicestershire archaeology enthusiasts required..


Leicestershire Museums Archaeological Fieldwork Group is looking for new members.

The group is co-ordinated by the county council's archeological team and calls on the authority's history experts to tell people about recent finds... continues...
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
3rd September 2006ce
Edited 3rd September 2006ce

Leicester Archaeologists find 5000-year-old Human Remains


By Corinne Field 01/04/2004

Bones of a man and woman dating back to 3000BC have been found in a gravel pit in Leicestershire. The extraordinary find, including a skull, vertebrae and long bones, are the earliest human remains ever found in the county... continues...
Posted by BrigantesNation
2nd April 2004ce
Edited 15th February 2006ce

Links

Add a link Add a link

University of Leicester Archaeological Services


Leicestershire and Rutland in the First Millennium BC by Patrick Clay
Chance Posted by Chance
16th February 2014ce
Edited 24th February 2014ce

Latest posts for Leicestershire

Showing 1-10 of 144 posts. Most recent first | Next 10

Breedon on the Hill (Hillfort) — Folklore

The Haunted Hill of Breedon.

Breedon Hill is a weird and uncanny place. Sensitive people, it is said, cannot stay there, but are glad to get away. From old days queer traditions hung about the height. It was a place of refuge from ancient times, but as the ages passed the place became solitary, even desolate, and as such the monks found it a haven of peace and there they founded a cell which depended upon the House at Nostell.

The monks were human. They did not seek to place the cell on the hill; they built it at the foot. But the morning after the first day of building the recluses were astonished and dismayed to find that their foundation had been dug up and the bricks laid out on the summit of the hill. Each accused the other of a silly trick, and they again essayed to build at the bottom of the hill. Alas! Every day the same thing happened. The bricks were carried up the steep declivity each night.

So the monks sought advice from a holy man. The natural assumption, for we are all prone to think evil, was that the Prince of Darkness was at work. The holy man, however, knew better. He explained that what they saw was a miracle. The monks were clearly enjoined to look heavenwards, not below in the valley! An Angel of the Lord had intervened in their affairs and it behoved them to regard the heavenly command. The monks took the hint, and so the edifice was built on the summit of Breedon.

More than one supernatural legend lingers about Breedon. The church is called "Breedon Cradle" by old wives of a generation ago.

On the north side of the hill is a field, in which there is entry to a cavern which is said to run under the hill. It is called "Hobbe's Hole," after a personage of whom singular tales are told. Hobbe was evidently a poltergeist. It was his regular custom every week to visit a neighbouring tavern and do the churning for the inmates. All the necessary utensils were placed in readiness before the landlord retired to rest. Unhappily, one night the maid left a linen apron instead of the proper linsey-wolsey one. The nocturnal visitor took offence and never again favoured the inn with his services.
Offended by linen instead of linen-wool mix aprons? I can't imagine what a modern hobgoblin would think of modern fibres. Told in the Leicester Daily Mercury, 4th May 1929.

Hobbe's Hole is still marked on the map (it seems to be the field to the NW, off 'Squirrel Lane') but the area has been nibbled into by quarrying.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
11th June 2023ce

Burrough Hill (Hillfort) — Images (click to view fullsize)

<b>Burrough Hill</b>Posted by duncanh98<b>Burrough Hill</b>Posted by duncanh98<b>Burrough Hill</b>Posted by duncanh98<b>Burrough Hill</b>Posted by duncanh98 Posted by duncanh98
10th August 2021ce

Beacon Hill (Hillfort) — Images

<b>Beacon Hill</b>Posted by juamei juamei Posted by juamei
25th March 2018ce

Breedon on the Hill (Hillfort) — Images

<b>Breedon on the Hill</b>Posted by juamei juamei Posted by juamei
25th March 2018ce

Burrough Hill (Hillfort) — Images

<b>Burrough Hill</b>Posted by juamei juamei Posted by juamei
25th March 2018ce

Beacon Hill (Hillfort) — Images

<b>Beacon Hill</b>Posted by tomatoman Posted by tomatoman
11th March 2017ce

Beacon Hill (Hillfort) — Folklore

Beacon Fire- Mr. Langham, of "Needless Inn," informs me that he well remembers that thirty-four years ago there stood, on the highest point of Beacon, an erection of rude and ancient masonry, about six feet high, of a round form, and having in its centre a cavity about a yard deep and a yard in diameter, the sides of which were very thickly covered with burnt pitch. This, he says, had all the appearance of having been used for holding the beacon fires. He remembers, too, that at that period, the entrenchments were much more visible than they are now [...]
History and Antiquities of Charnwood Forest, T.R. Potter, 1842, p48.

Beacon Hill. - Not satisfied with my single opinion of these extraordinary remains, I requested Mr. Lester, a highly intelligent farmer and surveyor, who lives at the foot of Beacon, to examine them. He was perfectly astonished. Though long resident, almost upon the spot, and aware of the remains described as lying on the south-west side of the hill, it had never occurred to him that there were others. "Often," says he," as I have crossed that wonderful hill, and always with the feeling that it was a charmed spot, I have been either so occupied with the distant prospects, or so circumscribed in my immediate view by the inequalities of the surface, that I have never before once noticed the most remarkable fortifications to which you have directed me."
Potter, p49.

Wake at Nanpantan. - The Annual Wake, now kept on Nanpantan, but formerly kept on Beacon, the origin of which is lost in obscurity, may be a remnant of [a Druidical] festival.
Potter, p45.
I'll take the Druidical festival with a pinch of salt, but the Beacon must have seen its fair share of revels. I totally understand the farmer not being able to look round for "inequalities of the surface" (i.e. trying not to fall over) - that often affects me. And I like his italicisation of charmed... it hints at a fairyish spot.

Collected into 'County Folk-lore: Printed extracts no. 3, Leicestershire and Rutland' by C.J. Billson (1895).
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
6th March 2017ce
Edited 17th July 2018ce
Showing 1-10 of 144 posts. Most recent first | Next 10