Local Government in Leicestershire: Leicester, High Sheriff of Leicestershire, Harborough, North West Leicestershire, Hinckley and Bosworth

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 24. Chapters: Leicester, High Sheriff of Leicestershire, Harborough, North West Leicestershire, Hinckley and Bosworth, Leicestershire County Council, Melton, Charnwood, Blaby, Oadby and Wigston, Lutterworth Rural District, Market Bosworth Rural District, Hallaton Rural District, Hinckley Rural District, Market Harborough Rural District, Melton Rural District, Loughborough Rural District. Excerpt: Leicester ( -t r) is a city and unitary authority area in the East Midlands area of England. It is also the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest. In 2006, the population of the Leicester unitary authority was estimated at 289,700, the largest in the East Midlands, whilst 441,213 people lived in the wider Leicester Urban Area. Eurostat's Larger Urban Zone listed the population of the area at 772,400 people as of 2004. Leicester is the 10th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom using the 2001 census definitions and the urban area is the fifteenth largest conurbation in the UK, the second largest in the region behind the Nottingham Urban Area. Ancient Roman pavements and baths remain in Leicester from its early settlement as Ratae Corieltauvorum, a Roman military outpost in a region inhabited by the Celtic Corieltauvi tribe. Following the demise of Roman society the early medieval Ratae Corieltauvorum is shrouded in obscurity, but when the settlement was captured by the Danes it became one of five fortified towns important to the Danelaw. The name Leicester is thought to derive from the words castra of the Ligore, meaning a camp on the River Legro, an early name for the River Soar. Leicester appears in the Domesday Book as Ledecestre. Leicester continued to grow throughout the Early Modern period as a market town, although it was the Industrial Revolution that ...