Did You Know?

Hinckley started as a Saxon village which was known as Hinca's Leah, the meaning of Leah is a clearing in the wood. By 1086 Hinckley was a big village with a population of around 300 people. In the Middle Ages Hinckley had a fair which was a market that was held normally once a year. People came from all over Leicestershire and Warwickshire to either buy or trade at the fair.

The Battle of Bosworth Field, the last great battle of the War of the Roses took place about five miles north of Hinckley. The Yorkist King Richard III was killed, to be succeeded by Henry VII.

Dick Turpin the notorious highwayman would ride Black Bess along Watling Street and stop at the deserted medieval village of Stretton Baskerville, he was also known to hide at The Cock Inn at Sibson.

In the 17th century, the town developed a hosiery industry, producing stockings and similar items. Hinckley played a prominent part in the English Civil War. Its proximity to several rival strongholds—the royalist garrisons at Caldicote, Ashby de la Zouch and Leicester, those of the Parliamentarians at Tamworth and Coventry, and the presence of parties of troops or brigands occupying several fortified houses in nearby Warwickshire—ensured frequent visits by the warring parties.

At the time of the first national census in 1801, Hinckley had a population of 5,158: twenty years later it had increased by about a thousand. The largest industry in the early 19th century was the making of hosiery and only Leicester had a larger output of stockings. In the district, it was estimated ca. 1830 that 6,000 persons were employed in this work.

Hinckley’s first telephone exchange was operating in Hinckley by 1898. Mr Orton was in charge of it and there were 20 subscribers each with a phone.

During September of 1932, Hinckley tennis ace Harold Wightman, the well-known local outfitter and county coach to Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire played at the London Championships.

During July of 1939, a local councillor said that the Hinckley Fire Brigade was being compared to the Fred Karno Brigade (a musical hall comedy act). The councillor said that a new fire engine was needed and he made a challenge that from a standing start he could race the present engine up Shilton Hill!

Hinckley at one time enjoyed considerable distinction as a spa. When the glory departed, the town boasted of a very healthy climate. A Doctor Paterson, a former physician to the Danish Legation, spoke of the qualities of the local air as being bracing and exhilarating.

Hinckley's first self-service supermarket was called Lawrences and it was in the old drill hall on New Buildings in town. It was owned by Lawrence Mackey and opened in September 1955. He had visited the USA a few years earlier and had seen self-service shops at first hand.