History & Background
Leicester History
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, the city of Leicester was founded by King Lear although the evidence for this is generally considered to be rather shaky now (Ellis 1976, p22).
The confirmed history of Leicester goes back over 2000 years. The city has its foundations as the Roman town of Ratae Coritanorum , and was the capital of the Coritani, a British, Iron age tribe ‘whose territory covered the modern counties of Leicestershire and Lincolnshire and extended towards the Trent and the Nene.’ (Ellis 1976, p 13). Prior to c.AD 47 and Roman occupation, Leicester had not been the capital and it was in the time of Vespasian that Romanisation and civic development really began to take place. Over the years it has had a range of influences that are visible through fragmentary archaeological evidence and place names – Saxon, Danish and Norman influences have all left their mark although during the Norman period, the city was sacked three times in a hundred years which which ‘probably robbed us of some notable Roman, Saxon, and early Norman buildings’ (Ellis 1976, p38).
By the end of the Tudor period (late 16th Century), Leicester had developed into a traditional county town surrounded by a ring of smaller, market towns (Royle 1981). In the late 17th, early 18th Centuries Leicester became a centre for the textile industry and took over from London as the centre for hosiery production (due primarily to cheaper labour and capital that was not already tied up in other industries) (Royle 1981). The beginnings of the engineering industry can be discerned by the end of the 18th Century and these became the foundation for Leicester’s boom in industry and population (along with the development of the shoe and boot industry in the 1850s).
Leicester Suburbs
An increase in the engineering industry saw a requirement for improved infrastructure which saw railways being built that put the city in ‘direct touch with London, Leeds and York’ (Simmons 1975, p3) and eased the transport of large quantities of coal from nearby West Leicestershire. The boom in industry and trade drew large numbers of people to the city and saw a massive population increase – between 1801 and 1901, the population increased by 13 times (from 17,000 to 211,000) (Brown 1970).
The ensuing requirement for housing saw areas like Clarendon Park being developed and the result is the ‘rows of red-brick terraced houses’ (1970 Brown, p63) that we see in this and other areas throughout Leicester. The houses to the east of the area are larger and very different buildings that were constructed along London road during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. This area is already protected as it forms part of the Stoneygate Conservation Area.