Asfordby 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 authorit ...

in the Melton district of Leicestershire, to the west of

Melton Mowbray Melton Mowbray () is a town in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester, and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, known below Melton as the Wreake. The town had a population 27,670 in 2019. The town is sometimes promo ...

on the

A6006 road List of A roads in zone 6 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island ...

. The village is north-east of Leicester. The village's name means 'farm/settlement of Asfrothr'. The parish consists of Asfordby proper,

Asfordby Valley Asfordby is a village and civil parish in the Melton district of Leicestershire, to the west of Melton Mowbray on the A6006 road. The village is north-east of Leicester. The village's name means 'farm/settlement of Asfrothr'. The parish cons ...

and

Asfordby Hill Asfordby Hill is a hamlet on the A6006 road, in the parish of Asfordby, in the Melton district, in the English county of Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the E ...

, which together have a population of around 3,000 (1995 est). The population had increased to 3,286 at the 2011 census. The villages are 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 ...

, with Asfordby Hill situated east of Asfordby proper, closer to Melton, and Asfordby Valley to the north. Asfordby proper is just over a mile away from the neighbouring village of Frisby on the Wreake. Within Asfordby proper, there are few shops, including a convenience stores, a fish & chip shop, an Indian restaurant, a kitchen store and a Co-operative shop. Asfordby Hall was demolished in 1965. Asfordby was the site of a modern deep coal pit,

Asfordby Colliery Asfordby Colliery (also known as Asfordby super-pit and Asfordby Mine) was a coal mine located in the village of Asfordby, near to Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, England. It was the last deep coal mine to be sunk in England in 1987 and was exp ...

, built between 1984 and 1993, but closed in 1997 due to numerous geological difficulties and the low price of coal at the time.

Railway test track

The original Old Dalby

test track Test Track is a high-speed slot car thrill ride located in World Discovery at Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The ride is a simulated excursion through the rigorous testing procedures that General Mo ...

is owned by BRB (Residuary) Ltd. and runs from

via Asfordby to

Edwalton Edwalton is an area of West Bridgford in the Borough of Rushcliffe, in Nottinghamshire, England, covering Gamston and the older Edwalton village. The population of the Rushcliffe Ward was 3,908 at the 2011 Census. A 2019 estimate put it at 4, ...

. In the early 2000s it was leased to Alstom Transport Limited who upgraded and electrified the line and used it for testing the UK version of

Pendolino Pendolino (from Italian ''pendolo'' "pendulum", and ''-ino,'' a diminutive suffix) is an Italian family of tilting trains used in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the UK, the US, ...

tilting train A tilting train is a train that has a mechanism enabling increased speed on regular rail tracks. As a train (or other vehicle) rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide ab ...

s. After completion of the Pendolino testing in early 2005 the line was

mothball Mothballs are small balls of chemical pesticide and deodorant, sometimes used when storing clothing and other materials susceptible to damage from mold or moth larvae (especially clothes moths like '' Tineola bisselliella''). Composition Older ...

ed. On 12 February 2007,

Metronet Metronet may refer to: *Metronet (British infrastructure company), who maintained London Underground infrastructure between 2003 and 2008. *Metronet (Western Australia), government agency formed in 2017, responsible for managing extensions to Perth ...

announced that they had leased the track and would be refitting part of it to test the next generation of

air conditioned Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

tube Tube or tubes may refer to: * ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * ''The Tube'' (TV series), a music related TV series by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a ...

trains. The Alstom Midlands Test Centre (AMTC) HQ now occupies various buildings at the former mine complex at Asfordby.

References

External links

Asfordby Parish Council

* {{Authority control Villages in Leicestershire Civil parishes in Leicestershire Borough of Melton