Over the castles 800-year history many powerful people have stayed here.  Simon De Montfort was a powerful man who inherited Leicester Castle and became the 6th Earl of Leicester in 1208. In 1264 Simon De Montfort led the Barons’ rebellion. He defeated King Henry III to become the uncrowned King Of England.

John of Gaunt, third son of King Edward III, inherited Leicester Castle in 1361. He was a solider, statesman and one of the richest men in England. He always liked Leicester Castle and made many improvements to it making it an extremely grand venue, he stayed here until his death in 1399.

Leicester Castle was also besieged, captured and ransacked during the English Civil War by the Royalist under the command of King Charles I and Prince Rupert in May 1645.

In 1821 the Great Hall was converted in courtrooms and used up until 1992, it was here where the trial took place for the famous Leicester’s Green Bicycle Murder.

Today it is home to Leicester Castle Business Castle, part of De Montfort University.

A house demolished and rebuilt 4 times

Originally built as a deer park in the 13th century the house would have initially been built around an enclosed courtyard.
The house has been demolished and rebuilt a total of 4 times however the courtyard area has remained unchanged.

The Herrick family owned this property as a family residence for 350 years but in 1939 the building was taken over by the Ministry of Defence and worked as a sub listening station to Bletchley Park.

You wont be disappointed!

It is believed that Robert De Herle bought the land and had the house built between 1258 & 1295.
For nearly 700 years the house remained a family dwelling. In the early part of the 16th century, the house was modernised and it was around this period the house may have been owned by the Digby family, who were caught up in the War of the Roses and the Battle at Bosworth in 1485. And as history tell us Sir Everard Digby achieved notoriety as one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot in 1605; as an associate of Guy Fawkes

Site of a former priory

Not a great deal is known about the building other than it was once owned by the Allyn family.

The current building can be dated back 1556 (Mary 1 Queen of England), however it was built on the site of a former priory which would have been part of the dissolution of the monasteries 1536-1541.

The surrounding area would have been a mix of coal mining and farming.

The Museum dates back to 1857

With long standing and temporary exhibit, the Museum and Art Gallery is fascinating with historic artefacts from thousands of years ago. The highlights of the gallery are the two Egyptian mummies given to the museum by Joseph Strutt, the former Mayor of Derby. The Mummies have been on display at the museum since it opened in 1879.

Very little early history is known of Upton Hall. The earliest available records show that in 1335 the site was home to Robert Bagenham. It stood on land that King Edwy had donated to Archbishop Oscytel of York in 956, one hundred and ten years before the Norman Conquest.  The hall changed hands several times throughout the years. According to the 1841 Census Thomas Wright and his wife Frances lived at the hall.  Thomas died in 1845 at the age of 72, leaving the Hall to his son, the Reverend Joseph Banks Wright. There is no record of Joseph living in the Hall  instead it is inhabited by magistrate Henry Hawkes and his family.

The hall quickly changed hands, being purchased by the order of the Fathers of the Holy Ghost in 1939. Because of the onset of war, the Hall was requisitioned to provide a home for a school of partially-sighted children who had been evacuated from Sussex. In 1945 the Fathers of the Holy Ghost did actually take up residency and the St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Theological Church was established in the Hall.    The British Horological Institute (BHI) bought Upton Hall from the Fathers of the Holy Ghost in 1972.