Coleorton Wood

Coleorton ( kə-LOR-tən) is a village and civil parish in North West Leicestershire, England. It is situated on the A512 road approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Ashby de la Zouch. Nearby villages include Newbold, to the north, Thringstone to the east, and Swannington to the south-east. In the 2001 census, the population of the parish was 1,016, increasing to 1,177 at the 2011 census.The village's name means 'farm/settlement on a ridge'. 'Cole' derives from the Old English col meaning coal, which was first appended here in 1443Formerly an ancient parish in West Goscote hundred, Coleorton became part of Ashby de la Zouch Rural District which was created in 1894.Coal mining was an important industry in the area since the 15th century. In 1572, the miners worked in gangs of 10-20 men, with the gang paid one shilling for each 'rook' they dug out (the rook was a fixed quantity, believed to be c. 1-2 tons). Coleorton Colliery, which was between Coleorton and Swannington, is now closed, and a woodland Coleorton Wood was planted in 1991–2 on the colliery site as part of the National Forest. Opencast mining operated between 1985 and 1995.Coleorton was the birthplace of William Stenson (1771–1861), founder of Whitwick Colliery and 'Father of Coalville' The Grade II* listed Coleorton Hall, in the west of the parish, was built in 1804-8 for the art patron Sir George Beaumont. William Wordsworth was a regular and frequent guest of Sir George Beaumont at the Hall. Between 1948 and 1997 the house was owned by the National Coal Board and used as offices, and it has now been converted into apartments.Coleorton has a post office and is served by three public bus services.

North West Leicestershire is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Andrew Bridgen, originally a Conservative who sat as an Independent following his suspension in January 2023 and subsequent expulsion, until he joined the Reclaim Party in May 2023.

New Lount is a 21.3 hectares (53 acres) Local Nature Reserve north-east of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire. It is owned and managed by Leicestershire County Council.This site has a diverse bird population, such as green woodpeckers, chiffchaffs, blackcaps, willow warblers and goldcrests. Soprano and common pipistrelles catch insects over the site's four ponds.There is access from Melbourne Road.

Hough windmill, Swannington, Leicestershire is a tower windmill built in the late 18th century on the boundary between Swannington, Leicestershire and Thringstone. The mill served a coal mining community, the structure is surrounded by the remains of ancient shallow coal mines and local maps show many footpaths, -tracks made by the miners who walked between them. The mill and surrounding area is owned by the Swannington Heritage Trust.

Swannington railway station was a railway station at Swannington in North West Leicestershire, England. Swannington has had two railway stations. The first opened in 1832 as the western terminus of the Leicester and Swannington Railway. Trains reached it via the Swannington Incline, which had a 1 in 17 gradient and was worked by a stationary engine. The Midland Railway took over the line in 1845 and extended it westwards to Burton-on-Trent in 1848, creating the Leicester to Burton upon Trent Line. The extension avoided the Swannington Incline by taking a new alignment beginning from a junction east of Swannington near Coalville Town. The new line passed south of the original terminus and a new Swannington station was opened on it, leaving the original Swannington terminus to remain as a goods depot. The second Swannington station was closed in 1951 but the line remains open for freight traffic.

Alton is a deserted medieval village between Coalville and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in North West Leicestershire, England. The earliest documentation of the village is found in the Domesday Book where it appears as Heletone. The land was rented out to someone by Hugh de Grandmesnil, and had a total value of 60 shillings. There were 25 villagers, 1 being a man at arms and 4 smallholders. There were 8 ploughs, 1 mill, 4 acres of meadow, woodland 1 league long. The name is probably derived from ald, and the suffix tūn, meaning "old settlement".It is one of only four villages in Leicestershire that seems to have been deserted as a result of grange formation, the others being Dishley, Ringlethorp and Weston. The most important possessor of granges in Leicestershire was the Cistercian Garendon Abbey whose economy was largely based on sheep farming. Nothing remains of the village other than a few vague topographical features.

Gelsmoor is a hamlet within the parish of Worthington in the English county of Leicestershire. It is noted for having a 'petrifying spring' in a nineteenth-century gazetteer, and also a Wesleyan Chapel.

The Califat Coal Mine began in 1852, when William Worswick signed a lease with Wyggeston Hospital, Leicester. The Coleorton No 2 Colliery was then sunk. It was named after the town of Calafat, now in Romania, then in the Ottoman Empire, which was under siege by Russian forces. The site has been subject to various excavations and restorations since the 1960s.

Newbold otherwise Newbold Coleorton is a large hamlet in the parish of Worthington, Leicestershire, England. It is situated in the North West Leicestershire district, approximately midway between the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch and the village of Whitwick, just to the north of the B5324 route. Nearby villages include Worthington, Coleorton, Osgathorpe, Thringstone and Swannington. In the nineteenth century it was also sometimes referred to as Newbold Juxta Worthington. An account of 1863 records that Newbold comprised approximately 500 acres (2.0 km2) in the ownership of Earl Ferrers and Sir G H Beaumont Bart; also that it had a colliery. The colliery was closed in the 1980s and has since been transformed into a nature reserve with large ponds and rich forest. Newbold today has a small village school (Newbold Church of England Primary School), a pub (the Cross Keys), and a nature reserve (New Lount Nature Reserve). On 12 September 2019 three homes were evacuated, and a cordon was placed on Vicarage Close in Newbold Coleorton. Bomb disposal experts, paramedics, police and the fire service all attended the incident and a local man was arrested on suspicion of making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances. Matthew Montanow, 29 pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing explosive substances, two counts of making explosive substances, and four of possessing prohibited ammunition at Leicester Crown Court in January 2020; he was subsequently sentenced on 8 July 2020.

Peggs Green is a hamlet within the parish of Coleorton, Leicestershire. For many years it had formed part of the civil parish of Thringstone, until this was dissolved in 1936.It is probable that the hamlet derives its name from that of a former landowner, as nineteenth century references to it usually carry an apostrophe: "Pegg's Green" A colliery was opened here in 1830, but had closed during the later part of the nineteenth century, presumably due to the coal here having been worked out or deemed too costly to mine at a profit.Joe Bradford, the former England and Birmingham footballer was born here in 1901. In 1920, Bradford scored fourteen goals in a match for Peggs Green Victoria against Birstall Rovers! Both Aston Villa and Derby County gave him trials, but it was the 'Blues' who signed him on 11 February 1920, Peggs Green receiving £100 and a further £25 when he made his debut. Bradford was to remain at Birmingham for fifteen years, where he made 445 appearances and scored 267 goals. This remains a club record. He was capped twelve times and scored seven goals for England, and following his Birmingham career played a final season for Bristol City.For many years, Joe's brother was landlord of the New Inn at Peggs Green.

Ravenstone is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ravenstone with Snibstone, in the North West Leicestershire district, in the county of Leicestershire, England. It is within the National Forest, just off the A511 road between Coalville and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in 2001 it had a population of 2,149.

Swannington is a former mining village situated between Coalville and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England. A document of 1520 mentions five pits at Swannington. It was a terminus of the early (1832) Leicester and Swannington Railway that was built to serve the townships of Swannington and Thringstone and is built on a spot reputedly chosen by William Wordsworth, a frequent guest of Sir George Beaumont (the 8th Baronet, 1799–1845) of nearby Coleorton Hall. It is possible that the dedication of the church to Saint George is derived from its association with this George Beaumont. A windmill in Swannington called Hough Mill was built near a nature reserve established on the remains of Califat colliery (a 19th-century mine). It has been claimed as the birthplace of Robin Hood.Administratively, Swannington is a civil parish forming part of the district of North West Leicestershire in Coalville. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,270. Nearby villages and hamlets include Whitwick, Coleorton, Thringstone, Ravenstone, Gelsmoor, Peggs Green and Sinope.