Alton, Leicestershire

Coleorton Wood is a woodland in the village of Coleorton, near Coalville in northwest Leicestershire, England. It is a six-hectare (15-acre) mixed woodland that was planted during the early days of the National Forest. The site was formerly Coleorton Pit, or colliery, which opened in 1875, and closed in the 1930s. It gained the local nickname of 'Bug and Wink' colliery.Coleorton Wood is on the route of the Mining Heritage Trail, which is a nine-mile (14 km) walk tracing the coal mining history of this part of Leicestershire.

Ashby de la Zouch Rural District was a rural district in England, near Ashby de la Zouch (which was an urban district). It was formed in 1894 along with most other rural districts. In 1974 it was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, to form the non-metropolitan district of North West Leicestershire. The district originally consisted of three detached fragments. The larger part was between Ashby and Coalville. The parish of Blackfordby, west of Ashby, was split between the urban districts of Ashby de la Zouch and Ashby Woulds in 1936, whilst the parish of Bardon, east of Coalville, remained a detached portion.

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.

The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Wood (initially known as the Flagship Diamond Wood) is a woodland in Leicestershire, UK created in 2012. Covering 186 hectares (460 acres), it is the centrepiece of a wide-ranging Jubilee Project by the Woodland Trust to mark the 2012 Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. The site incorporates a former opencast coal mine which now has a newly created lake, as well as former arable land and 7 hectares (17 acres) of existing ancient woodland and old hedgerows. Situated between the villages of Normanton le Heath, Heather and Ravenstone, and close to Coalville and Ashby de la Zouch, it is in the middle of the National Forest.

Normanton le Heath is a village and civil parish situated between the parishes of Packington, Ravenstone and Heather in North West Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish was 131 at the 2001 census, rising to 165 at the 2011 census. It should not be confused with another Normanton in the county which is near Bottesford. The name, which in Old English means the settlement of Northmen on the heath, suggests that the current village was probably an English village taken over by a group of Norse or Danish settlers at the time of the original Viking settlement, and this fits well into the overall pattern of land occupation in the area. It lies on the edge of the great heath that once stretched Westwards from the edge of Charnwood Forest, something which is reflected in the names of a number of other settlements in the area, such as Heather and Donington le Heath. There are, however, signs of significant earlier land usage in the parish. Near to the boundary with Heather and Ravenstone an Iron Age settlement has been discovered. Equally, the newly discovered Roman road from Leicester to Chester has been discovered running through the centre of Normanton. Just over the parish boundary in the southern Ravenstone area there was a small Roman town. A track called the Swepstone Way can be traced running from the Iron Age settlement all the way to Tamworth. The Salt Way which ran through Measham can also be traced to Normanton. It is not totally implausible to suggest that a road/track ran through the centre from Ancaster to Wall. If this is correct it would suggest that this track was of Roman origin. However, this is very much a speculative road at the moment. The settlement is not mentioned in the Domesday Book and the first mention we have is in 1209. Much of the land in the early Middle Ages to the north was known to be woodland or heathland. Coal mining formed part of the economy of the area from a very early period and mines have been found at the abandoned village of Alton to the north of Normanton. To the east of the village was the Long Moor open cast coal mine managed by UK Coal. Over a three-year period from 2007 to 2010 this extracted 725,000 tons of coal. Following restoration, the 188 acres (76 ha) mine site has been acquired by the Woodland Trust. With adjoining agricultural land this will become the Flagship Diamond Wood, a 186 hectares (460 acres) new woodland to celebrate the 2012 Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Ravenstone with Snibston is a civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,149, increasing to 2,212 (including Donington le Heath) at the 2011 census. The parish includes Ravenstone, part of Snibston and the hamlet of Sinope. The parish was created in 1884.

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.

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.

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.

The A42 is a major trunk road in the East Midlands region of the United Kingdom. It links junction 23A of the M1 motorway to junction 11 of the M42 motorway. The A42 is in effect a continuation of the M42, and its junctions are numbered accordingly. It is built to a similar standard to the M42, being a grade separated dual carriageway. The 6-mile (9.7 km) Measham and Ashby-de-la-Zouch bypass section was opened in August 1989 at a cost of £33m.

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.

Heather St John's Football Club is a football club based in the village of Heather, Leicestershire, England. They are currently members of the Midland League Division One and play at St John's Park.