Mountsorrel Heritage Group

08/09/2026

Fortnightly Photo – We’ve lost a lot of the village shops and amongst those that remain there have been many changes. Many folk will remember two by the Leicester Road crossing as being Braybrook’s Paper shop and the Post Office.

Today Braybrook’s has become the post office as well as still being a paper shop and general store whilst the former Post Office is now a Turkish Barbers.

One of our members remembers that “Along the road from the butcher’s, Stan Braybrook’s brother, Graydon, had a paper shop which sold - besides papers, comics and magazines - ci******es, sweets and stationery. We had our papers delivered from there and I remember going into the shop each week with our payment card to pay the bill. Another vivid memory is of rushing down there on a Saturday evening at about a quarter to six to wait for the “Green un” – the sports version of the Leicester Mercury which would be delivered to the shop by a man in a van who would hurl the bundle of papers from the van as he slowed up – but never stopped – outside the shop. Buying the “Green un” was vital for my Dad to check his football pools against the scores if we had been to Filbert Street and hadn’t got back in time to catch the results on the TV - via the teleprinter of course!”

Both shops have had a long and varied history and the first occupants we believe were, in what is now the Barbers, William Bancroft, a boot and shoemaker. He and his wife moved to the village in the 1890’s setting up at first by the Free Trade Inn that stood near to where the Leicester Road flats are today and later moving to these then modern premises. The other shop was run as a general dealer’s by Clara Billson, assisted following the death of her husband, by her niece and nephew, Samuel and Rachel Hewitt.
Our photos show the shops about 1910 and today.

There is more about the village shops on our website at https://mountsorrelarchive.org/category/commerce/shops

03/09/2026

Library Volunteers have done a brilliant job (as usual)

30/08/2026

Hooray for The Swan! They featured as the pub for Leicestershire in Saturday's Daily Telegraph article "A great pub for every English County". The writer even caught on to the pub's original name.

29/08/2026

We are working with the Library to support Turning Mountsorrel Pink and Blue, there will be a donations box in the library - do please give generously if you can. Thank You!

26/08/2026

We start our Autumn/Winter series of talks at Mountsorrel Memorial Centre on Tuesday 8th September when we welcome back Mathew Morris whose talk will be about "Discovering Greyfriars".

The Franciscan Friary in Leicester taking its name from the Franciscans grey coloured habit stood in the middle of Leicester from 1250 until the Dissolution of the Monasteries on the orders of King Henry VIII. The friary lives on in the name of the area today - Greyfriars and in Friar Lane but today is most well known as being the burial place of King Richard III,

As ever the talk will commence at 7:30pm with admission being £3 for Members and £4 for visitors.

23/08/2026

Fortnightly Photo – We’ve often looked at rail and canal transport for granite out of the village but before that road transport was used with horse drawn waggons carrying material locally and across to the rail head at Sileby before the building of the 1860 Bridge and the development of a direct connection to the Midland Railway. Horses remained a vital part of the workforce through to the 1930s to pull the waggons from the workface to the rail wagons with the stables being behind Granite House on Loughborough Road. A Mr Wainwright was the horseman at that time. He lived on the corner of New Road and was known for wearing hob nailed boots with no socks.

In 1918 Mountsorrel Granite Co introduced another kind of transport when a 5-6 ton Sentinel Steam Wagon was ordered from the Sentinel Wagon Works Ltd of Shrewsbury which cost £1,168 10s on delivery. This proved to be a success, and a second wagon was ordered in 1919.

Sadly, driving standards in the 1920s were no better than some we see today and in a collision photograph below between a Sentinel and two Model T Fords all three vehicles had damaged front axles.

Our photographs show:
Sentinel Steam Wagon bearing the Mountsorrel Granite Co logo
Road accident involving an MGC Steam Wagon – possibly in Quorn c1928

15/08/2026

Today marks the Centenary of Castle Hill War Memorial and the service to be held at 11:00am will be streamed on Youtibe for those unable to attend either at Castle Hill or at Mountsorrel Memorial Centre - links ar in the Parish Council's post below.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

13/08/2026

See below for the details of Saturday's events to commemorate the Centenary of the unveiling and dedication service of Castle Hill War Memorial.

With thanks to Mountsorrel Branch Royal British Legion, Mountsorrel Parish Council and the volunteers of Mountsorrel Community Team for making this event happen.

12/08/2026

The Group are partners with Charnwood Forest Geopark and host a "Geopark Corner" in the Museum. Earlier this month we were very pleased to have a visit from the UNESCO Evaluators reviewing the Charnwood Forest GeoPark's bid to become a UNESCO Global Geopark - more details in the link below.

https://www.charnwoodforest.org/charnwood-forest-welcomes-unesco-global-geopark-evaluators/

Those of you who watched the BBC TV 's recent Evolution series will have seen the final episode opening with the geology and fossils of Charnwood Forest which mirrors the display in our GeoPark Corner,

The Geopark recently hosted two evaluators from UNESCO, who were visiting to region to review Charnwood Forest’s application to become a UNESCO Global Geopark. Over four days, the pair comprising Egidio Calabrese from Italy and Gloria Maria Garcia Hoyo from Spain, had the opportunity to visit many...

10/08/2026

Having checked the weather forecast for Thursday and Friday we will not be opening the Museum on those days and as several volunteers are involved in the Castle Hill War Memorial Centenary on Saturday we regret we will also be unable to open then.

All being well normal openings resume on Thursday 20th August, but in the meantime you can follow us here on Facebook or on our wesbite.