About Leicestershire
The County of Leicestershire is in the heart of England, in a region called the East Midlands. You can see on the map that the County surrounds the City of Leicester. Large towns in Leicestershire include Loughborough, Lutterworth, Oadby, Wigston, Hinckley and Coalville. There are many villages as well. The East Midlands region is part of England. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland make up the United Kingdom.
Leicester was an important early Roman settlement (called Ratae Corieltauvorum).
The first great Roman road in this country (Fosse Way) ran through Leicester. Fosse is still a name that has Leicester links. Fosse Road is a major thoroughfare in the City, and Leicester City Football Club were originally called Leicester Fosse.
Simon de Montfort (after whom one of Leicester's Universities is named) was Earl of Leicester in the Thirteenth Century. He led a revolt of barons against the reigning monarch, Henry III.
The Battle of Bosworth, in which King Richard III was killed and overthrown by Henry Tudor to end the Wars of the Roses, took place in 1485. The battlefi eld lies just South of the town of Market Bosworth.
Lady Jane Grey (Queen of England for just nine days in 1553) lived at Bradgate Park, six miles North West of the City of Leicester.
Almost certainly the largest character in Leicester's history was Daniel Lambert (born in Leicester in 1770). He has achieved national fame as at one stage he weighed nearly 53 stone and had a waist measurement of 9 feet!
The first public trip by train was organised by Thomas Cook (founder of the modern travel industry and whose name features in many a town and city centre in the UK), and took place between Leicester and Loughborough in 1841. Cook lived in Leicester for 50 years.
Other famous Leicestershire people include the footballers Peter Shilton and Gary Lineker, Joseph Merrick (a sufferer from Proteus Syndrome, cruelly known and made famous as ‘The Elephant Man'), the singers Engelbert Humperdinck and Mark Morrison, and the Attenborough brothers (Sir David and Sir Richard).
A much smaller version of the Statue of Liberty stood on top of the Liberty Shoe factory on Eastern Boulevard in Leicester for many years. Eventually the factory was demolished to make way for student flats and the statue has now, unfortunately, gone.
Leicestershire is famous for the 
now illegal country pastime of fox hunting with dogs. The hunt at Quorn in Charnwood is particularly famous. The emblem of Leicestershire County Council contains a fox and the nickname of both the City's football team and the County's cricket team is ‘the foxes'.
Diwali celebrations in Leicester are said to be the largest outside of India. The City's Caribbean Carnival is also the biggest after Notting Hill in London.
The National Space Centre is situated in Leicester. It is the UK's biggest attraction devoted to space.