| The first is that the name is derived from a | | | | In 1464 trade was so strong that the cities |
| Celtic one, Coriletav. This theory is | | | | merchants managed to form a corporation and |
| supported by the name the Romans are known to | | | | Leicester could from then on elect its own |
| have given the settlement, Ratae | | | | Mayor to run the town. By 1500 the population |
| Corieltauvorum. The other theory is that a | | | | had doubled to 3000 and it continued to rise |
| mythical British King, Leir, founded the | | | | despite the frequent outbreaks of plague |
| settlement of Kaerleir around the same time | | | | which could decimate the population of a |
| as the Celts were supposedly in the area. | | | | town. In 1619 the town was granted a coat of |
| King Leir, is supposed to be buried under the | | | | arms. During the English Civil War Leicester |
| River Soar! | | | | declared itself for the Parliamentarians and |
| | | | was laid to siege by the Royalists in 1645 |
| What we do know for sure is that around in 47 | | | | who, after breaching the town wall, again |
| or 48 AD the Romans built a fort there and | | | | killed many of the inhabitants. At the |
| then by about 50AD a city had grown up around | | | | beginning of the 18th Century the population |
| it. Ratae Corieltauvorum was important to the | | | | had again doubled to about 6000 and the birth |
| Romans as it was one of the key staging posts | | | | of the industrial revolution saw both the |
| on a major Roman road, the Fosse Way, which | | | | population and prosperity of Leicester |
| linked what are now Exeter and Lincoln. | | | | flourish. By the end of the 18th Century the |
| Rapidly becoming a market town for local | | | | opening of the Soar canal in 1794 quite |
| people and their produce, the settlement | | | | literally fuelled the boom in industry, by |
| thrived on the trade that the Romans brought | | | | providing cheap and quick methods of |
| to the area. When the Romans left, moving | | | | transporting coal and iron into Leicester. |
| North to conquer more of England, the | | | | |
| settlement was well enough established to | | | | The first national census of 1801 gives the |
| continue to prosper. The main feature still | | | | population of Leicester as 17,000. The town |
| visible in Leicester of the Roman occupation | | | | expanded rapidly and places that were once |
| is the Jewry Wall and its Bath House. | | | | rural farms became subsumed in the city as |
| | | | boroughs. The Victorian era is accepted as |
| As with most of England, little is known of | | | | being an age of enlightenment in terms of |
| the history of Leicester during the Dark Ages | | | | science and engineering. In 1832 Leicester |
| following the departure of the Romans. The | | | | got its first railway line and in 1857 got a |
| next significant event was in 680 when | | | | line connecting it with London. Leicester got |
| Leicester is known to have been given a | | | | its first Public library in 1871, ten years |
| Bishop; life in Leicester at this time seems | | | | later its first telephone exchange and in |
| to have been a good one with the settlement | | | | 1894 its first electric street lights. By the |
| continuing to prosper. Artefacts have been | | | | time of the 1901 census the population had |
| found showing that Leicester, alongside its | | | | grown to a staggering 210,000 with boot and |
| farming community, had cloth weavers, | | | | hosiery manufacturing being the main source |
| potters, blacksmiths and carpenters. The | | | | of employment. Civic pride must have been at |
| ninth century saw a down-turn in fortunes | | | | an all time high during the Edwardian period |
| when the settlement fell to the Danish Viking | | | | when in 1919 Leicester was made a city by |
| invaders. The Bishop ran away which, for some | | | | Royal Charter; in 1926 it regained its Bishop |
| canonical reason, left Leicester without a | | | | and a Cathedral and in 1928 had its first |
| Bishop until the twentieth century. | | | | Lord Mayor. A period of light engineering |
| | | | expansion took place when the Imperial |
| The Norman Conquest sees Leicester mentioned | | | | Typewriter Company set up premises in the |
| in the Doomsday book as Ledcestre. This name | | | | city and between 1908 and 1950 the number of |
| is thought to have been derived from | | | | people employed in Light engineering in the |
| Ligeraceaster; a combination of Castra - Camp | | | | city more than doubled from 6,000 to 13,500. |
| and Ligore - Legro, an early name of the | | | | |
| River Soar. In medieval times Leicester was a | | | | Leicester escaped any heavy bombing during |
| city of some importance. With a population of | | | | the Second World War but a slum-clearance |
| some 1500 the Normans deemed it important | | | | programme was instigated in 1945 to rid the |
| enough to build a wooden fort, which in the | | | | city of much of the old housing built in the |
| 12th century was re-built with stone. As was | | | | boom years of the previous century. At this |
| custom in those days Leicester was ruled by | | | | time there were influxes of Jewish, Latvian |
| an Earl. Unfortunately, in 1173 Robert - Earl | | | | and Polish refugees into the city. These were |
| of Leicester - rebelled against the King | | | | followed in the 1950s by West Indian |
| (Henry II), causing the citizens much | | | | immigrants and then in the 1960s the |
| suffering, indeed such was the King's wrath | | | | population was swelled by the arrival of |
| with Robert that many were killed. It was | | | | Asian immigrants. The last major influxes of |
| during the Middle Ages that Leicester became | | | | immigrants were mainly Indians who had been |
| well known for the quality of the wool cloth | | | | forced to leave Uganda in the early 1970s. |
| it produced and the hosiery it made from the | | | | Recently there has been a small community of |
| wool. At this time leather was also an | | | | Somali refugees arriving in the city, |
| important industry in Leicester, giving rise | | | | apparently drawn by its free and easy |
| to its association with shoes and footwear. | | | | attitude and the number of Mosques within its |
| | | | boundaries. |