Rothley railway station

Rothley Court is a country house at Rothley in Leicestershire, England. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book and later, as Rothley Temple, associated with the Knights Templar. At the Dissolution it became a private house and the seat of the Babington family; Thomas Babington Macaulay was born there in 1800. It now functions as the Rothley Court Hotel.The preceptory's chapel and part of the domestic buildings still exist. Rothley Court incorporates part of the preceptory that was converted for residential use in the 16th century. Much of what can be seen today is from substantial renovation and extension works conducted by John Ely of Manchester, between 1894 and 1895. In 1951, Rothley Court and chapel were protected as Grade I listed buildings.In 1988 Mike Gatting was sacked as England cricket captain after an alleged off-field indiscretion with a barmaid at the hotel.

Swithland Sidings is a set of railway sidings on the preserved Great Central Railway, situated just south of Swithland Reservoir and Swithland Viaduct which crosses it.

Rothley Temple, or more correctly Rothley Preceptory, (pronounced Rowth-Ley) was a preceptory (a religious establishment operated by certain orders of monastic knights) in the village of Rothley, Leicestershire, England, associated with both the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller. The preceptory's chapel, constructed by the Knights Templar, is currently part of the Rothley Court Hotel.

Swithland was a railway station which was constructed on the Great Central Main Line between Rothley and Quorn and Woodhouse. The station was due to open in March 1899 but was never completed although the line opened as planned in March 1899. The line through the station site was closed in May 1969. The line through the station was reopened in 1990 as the Great Central Railway.

Swithland Hall is a 19th-century Neoclassical country house in Swithland, Leicestershire, designed by James Pennethorne .

Mountsorrel is a village in Leicestershire on the River Soar, just south of Loughborough with a population in 2001 of 6,662 inhabitants, increasing to 8,223 at the 2011 census.

Thurcaston and Cropston is a civil parish in Leicestershire, England. As its name suggests, it consists of the villages of Thurcaston and Cropston. The parish had a population at the 2001 Census of 2,076, with around 1,200 in Cropston and 800 in Thurcaston. The population of the civil parish was 2,074 at the 2011 census. The villages are separated by the Rothley Brook.

The Mountsorrel Cross is a market cross that dates from the Middle Ages. It originally stood on Main Street in the village of Mountsorrel, Leicestershire, but was moved in the late 18th century to a position 250 metres south-east of St Leonard's Church, Swithland, where it still stands. It is a Grade I listed feature.

Halstead Road Centenary Pasture is a 3.2-hectare (7.9-acre) local nature reserve in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire. It is owned and managed by Charnwood Borough Council.This unimproved flower meadow has surviving medieval ridge and furrow. An outcrop of granite is covered with lichens and mosses, and there is a hawthorn and sloe hedge. Birds include yellowhammers and linnets.There is access from Halstead Road.

Swithland Viaduct is a railway viaduct in Leicestershire that carries the former Great Central Main Line over Swithland Reservoir. It is unusual in that it carries the line over a reservoir rather than a valley. It actually consists of two separate viaducts, with an embankment over Brazil Island in the centre of the reservoir. The line now carries the Great Central Railway. The viaducts (bridges No. 349 and 350) were constructed in c.1895/7 by Messrs John Aird & Sons, as a sub-contract to Henry Lovatt & Co. of Wolverhampton. Lovatts were contracted to the Great Central to execute contract number 2 on their extension line to London, East Leake to Aylestone, but the Corporation of Leicester insisted that those portions of the work that could delay or hinder the completion of their new water works at Swithland were to be executed by the main contractors for that job.The south viaduct has a skew girder section approximately halfway along its length, this having been provided to bridge the weir which separates the reservoir into two unequal portions. As of September 2015 extensive maintenance work is being carried out on this span in order to replace wasted plates within the girders, and this work is expected to carry on until the end of the year. Originally the lineside telegraph wires were carried along the eastern wall of the viaduct on wooden trunking, except where they were carried over the previously mentioned iron-girder span in structure 350. A telegraph pole, sat on top of the masonry of the parapet wall and guyed appropriately, was provided a short distance from each end of this span, and the circuits were then carried over the span between the two poles. Although little sign of these poles remains from on top of the viaduct, the remains of the guying on the exterior of the parapet wall can still be clearly seen from the reservoir. As part of the resignalling of much of the GCML, carried out in the early 1940s by Westinghouse to increase capacity, cable hangers were installed on the western walls of the viaducts, and the new lineside signalling and power cables required by the work were strung along them. This cable route was restored to work, albeit with new cables, during the recent resignalling of Swithland Sidings. As part of the same scheme a pair of mechanical signals (Swithland Sidings' Up Inner Distant and Up Outer Home) was installed on Brazil Island, between the two viaducts. Photography may be undertaken from the south from Main Street, or at very long range from the dam which carries Kinchley Lane. If one has a lineside permit, one can walk south from Quorn and photograph trains coming north off the viaduct. The viaduct itself however is out of bounds. The best location is probably from the east at Kinchley Hill but there is no public access there (the land is owned by Severn Trent)

Swithland Reservoir is a reservoir in the English county of Leicestershire. It is north-east of the village of Swithland from which it takes its name, north-west of Rothley and approximately 133 metres (145 yd) south-west of Mountsorrel Quarry. It is part of the 187.1-hectare (462-acre) Buddon Wood and Swithland Reservoir Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Thurcaston is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Thurcaston and Cropston, in the Charnwood district, in Leicestershire, England. It was the home of Bishop Hugh Latimer. It borders the villages of Anstey and Cropston, as well as the Leicester suburb of Beaumont Leys. The Rothley Brook flows through the village. The A46 Leicester Western Bypass runs close to the village, separating it from Leicester, Birstall, and Beaumont Leys. The village of Thurcaston has existed since at least the 8th century AD, and includes a church and several old houses, along with a very small Methodist Chapel. In general, there are few commercial properties, but there exists a pub, The Wheatsheaf Inn, and an electrical showroom, Tebbatts Electronics. There is a single bus service, the 154 run by Centrebus at a maximum frequency of every hour. The previous service, the 55, was shut down in the late 2000s. Large fields between the Great Central Railway line and the houses of the residents of Leicester Road form a popular place for walking dogs and horses. A planned housing development is currently being discussed with Charnwood Borough council, upon which will see the erection of up to 50 dwellings, community centre and park, including sustainable drainage system with access off Mill Road, the large area of land is to the east off Mill Road.