Ratcliffe on the Wreake is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the Charnwood district of

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 179. It is just to the north of the

River Wreake The River Wreake is a river in Leicestershire, England. It is a tributary of the River Soar. The river between Stapleford Park and Melton Mowbray is known as the River Eye and becomes the Wreake below Melton Mowbray. It flows southwest, pas ...

, opposite

East Goscote East Goscote is a modern village and civil parish in the Borough of Charnwood district of Leicestershire, England, just north of the market town of Syston. It is a medium-sized village, with a population measured at 2,866 in the 2011 censu ...

. The village is small enough not to have a parish council; instead it has a

parish meeting A parish meeting, in England, is a meeting to which all the electors in a civil parish are entitled to attend. In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish cou ...

consisting of all the electorate. The 14th-century St Botolph parish church is a Grade II* listed building. Ratcliffe Hall is a Grade II listed country house built c. 1812 by Robert Shirley, 7th Earl Ferrers and was inherited by his granddaughter,

Caroline Shirley, Duchess Sforza Cesarini Caroline Shirley, Duchess Sforza Cesarini (December 1818 – 17 November 1897) was an Englishwoman who married into the Italian aristocracy at the age of eighteen. She is noteworthy for having become, half a century later, the patroness of the writ ...

, who had married into the Italian aristocracy. It subsequently descended to the pioneer aviator, Sir

William Lindsay Everard Sir William Lindsay Everard (13 March 1891 – 11 March 1949) was a brewer, politician, and philanthropist from Leicestershire, United Kingdom. As the founder and supporter of the Ratcliffe Aerodrome, Sir Lindsay was a pioneer aviator, knighte ...

, who set up

Ratcliffe Aerodrome Ratcliffe or Ratcliff may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Ratcliff or Ratcliffe, former hamlet, Tower Hamlets, London * Ratcliffe-on-Soar, a village in Nottinghamshire * Ratcliffe on the Wreake, a village in Leicestershire ** Ratcliffe College, ...

, which opened with a 'Grand Air Pageant' on 6 September 1930. Famed aviator

Amy Johnson Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records du ...

made an unexpected trip from London to participate with Sir

Sefton Brancker Air Vice Marshal Sir William Sefton Brancker, (22 March 1877 – 5 October 1930) was a British pioneer in civil and military aviation and senior officer of the Royal Flying Corps and later Royal Air Force. He was killed in an airship crash in 1 ...

, Director of Civil Aviation. Some 5,000 spectators were treated to a show with 100 planes and staged bombings of Chinese pirates. There was one crash, but no one was killed. Ratcliffe Aerodrome was one of the finest in civil aviation with a comfortable clubhouse and an outdoor pool. The hangars were first class and the many air shows and displays had the atmosphere of a garden party. Ratcliffe is known for its abundance in wildlife especially

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, mu ...

which inhabit the River Wreake right through the village.

RAF Ratcliffe

As RAF Ratcliffe, it was an important

Air Transport Auxiliary The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factori ...

ferry pool in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Apart from East Goscote, nearby places are

Thrussington Thrussington is a village and civil parish in the Charnwood district of Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 587. It is on the River Wreake, near to Rearsby, Ratcliffe on the Wreake, Hoby and ...

, further up the Wreake, Syston, further down, and

Sileby Sileby is a former industrial village and civil parish in the Soar Valley in Leicestershire, between Leicester and Loughborough. Nearby villages include Barrow upon Soar, Mountsorrel, Ratcliffe-on-the-Wreake, Seagrave and Cossington. The popul ...

, to the north-west.

References

External links

Villages in Leicestershire Civil parishes in Leicestershire Borough of Charnwood {{Leicestershire-geo-stub