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.
Geography
The village is in the borough of Charnwood, surrounding a steep hill, once crowned by a castle, and is bordered to the east by the River Soar.
The village is renowned for the Buttercross Market in the village centre as well as its granite quarry, the largest in Europe. The Leicester arm of the Grand Union Canal runs through Mountsorrel.
The civil parish meets with Rothley to the south, and some houses are actually in Rothley parish near the southern A6 junction. To the west of the parish is a nature reserve. North of here, the Leicestershire Round passes east–west through the north of the village. The parish boundary meets Quorndon where it first meets the quarry near Buddon Wood. North of there, it crosses the former A6, towards Quorn from the roundabout for the A6 roundabout. Close to the bypass, the River Soar becomes the parish boundary and south of the A6 northern junction it meets Sileby at the point where it crosses the A6 bypass. south of there, the boundary leaves the river to the west, with the river becoming the Sileby-Rothley boundary.
Geology
The local area is built on granite. Leicester's Humberstone came from this granite (igneous rock), and was originally known as Hunbeort's Stan. Another piece of Mountsorrel granite is at an RAF memorial at Screveton in Nottinghamshire near the A46.
History
Early history
A castle was built in 1080 by Hugh Lupus, but there is evidence of an earlier Norman settlement in the area in the form of pottery fragments. A Roman villa is supposed to have existed on Broad Hill during the 4th century AD, the site of today's quarry, as quarrying during the late 1800s revealed many artefacts including a preserved wooden bucket. However, the first recording of the village was in 1377, when it had a population of 156.
In 1151, Robert le Bossu, the Earl of Leicester and deputy to Henry II of England, who was the Justicar, or Chief Justice of the Peace for the area, acquired the tenancy of Mountsorrel castle. According to the historian Jim Bradbury, the acquisition of the castle by the Earl of Leicester was as a result of a 'final concord of peace' with Ranulf, Earl of Chester.
Whilst the origin of the name 'Mountsorrel' is still not understood fully, it is thought that the English nobility of the time named Mountsorrel after Montsoreau castle, a castle in France close to Fontevrault, where Henry II was buried. The name Mountsorrel is of Norman-French origin and is thought to have developed due to the close likeness of Montsoreau and Mountsorrel – both settlements sit on rivers, the Loire and the Soar respectively, and are overshadowed by surrounding hills.
Mountsorrel castle was used as a bastion against King Stephen, and was subsequently destroyed in 1217 by the King's men from Nottingham, branded "a nest of the Devil and den of thieves and robbers". The future King Louis VIII of France had sent support in the form of 20,000 men to the besieged barons in the castle, but this force had failed to arrive in time to prevent the razing to the ground of the castle. All that remains of the castle today is a granite crag on Castle Hill. The hill is also the site of a memorial (by Shirley Harrison, 1926) to those who lost their lives in World War I.
One of the parish churches is Christ Church and the other, a Grade II* listed building, is dedicated to St Peter.
Recent history
The village was visited by Methodist preacher John Wesley, where he preached in a building which now belongs to Stonehurst Family Farm, a tourist attraction. By an act of Parliament passed on 22 July 1782 Henry Walkery of Thurmaston and John Sultzer of Burton Overy were empowered to enclose the open fields and common grounds of Mountsorrel, some . The Leicester Navigation was opened in 1794 and the first barges between Loughborough and Leicester departed on 26 October.
Mountsorrel was the site for a hospital for the mentally ill, which had 91 beds in 1979, but this has since closed and been converted to a housing estate.