Wigston, or Wigston Magna, is a town in

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 ...

, England, just south of

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

on the A5199. It had a population of 32,321 in 2011.

Geography

Wigston is south of the city of Leicester, at the centre of Leicestershire and the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, L ...

. Oadby is to the east, connected by the B582 road. To the west along the B582, or Blaby Road is

South Wigston South Wigston is a large village to the south of Leicester, England. It is outside the city boundary, forming part of the Oadby and Wigston district of Leicestershire. The population of the ward rose slightly from 7,471 at the 2001 census to 7,4 ...

, (). Wigston is the largest of Leicester's satellite towns. The

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter ...

runs along a southern route below Wigston from Newton Harcourt ,

Kilby Bridge Kilby Bridge is a hamlet on the A5199 Welford Road south of the city of Leicester in the borough of Oadby and Wigston, Leicestershire, England. The population of the hamlet at the 2011 census was 36. Geography Kilby Bridge forms part of the bo ...

, and for several miles through

, Glen Parva ,

Blaby Blaby () is a large village in the Blaby District in central Leicestershire, England, some five miles south of Leicester city centre. At the time of the 2011 census, Blaby had a population of 6,194, a slight fall from 6,240 in 2001 figures). B ...

and on towards

. Wigston's population of approximately 32,000 live in both the post-war private suburban housing estates surrounding the old town centre, and the 19th century buildings now sandwiched between modern housing developments. The oldest of the post-war developments is

Wigston Fields Wigston Fields is a district of the borough of Oadby and Wigston in Leicestershire, England. It lies between Leicester and the town of Wigston on the A5199 road The A5199 road is the direct road from Northampton to Leicester in England. ...

north of Wigston towards Knighton and Leicester; the Meadows and Little Hill estates were developed in the 1970s and 1980s to the east and south of Wigston's old centre. Wigston Harcourt is an area of housing developed up until the early 1990s between the Little Hill and Meadows estates. These three estates mark the boundary of the greater Leicester urban area, beyond which lies agricultural land.

History

One of the earliest records of Wigston is in the

Domesday book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as ''Wichingstone'' in the ancient

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, ...

Guthlaxton Guthlaxton is an ancient hundred of Leicestershire. Its jurisdiction was in the south of the county, and covered Lutterworth and Wigston Magna. At the time of the Domesday Book, it was one of Leicestershire's four wapentakes, and covered a much l ...

, listed amongst the lands held by Hugh de Grandmesnil''Domesday Book: A Complete Transliteration''. London: Penguin, 2003. p. 652 for the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

it was known as Wigston Two Spires as, unusually, there were two mediaeval churches there, All Saints' and St Wistan's. St Wistan's is so called because it was one of the places where the body of St Wistan or Wigstan rested before burial. Wigstan was a Mercian prince who was assassinated, but was regarded as a martyr. He was initially buried at Repton, but his body was then moved to

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It lies within the Vale of Eves ...

. It was the birthplace of George Davenport, a notorious highwayman; Abigail Herrick, the mother of

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Du ...

, author of ''

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...

''; former Leicester Tigers and England scrum-half Harry Ellis who attended Bushloe High School; and former Leicester Sound and BBC Radio Leicester presenter, Mark Hayman. Graham Chapman, of

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over fou ...

fame, lived (around 1951/52) in what was then Wigston police station, (the building on the corner of Pullman Road – opposite the swimming baths) during the time that his father was the inspector there. He attended South Wigston Junior School. Author and journalist John Marquis was born in Wigston and educated at Abington and Guthlaxton schools. The Leicester City footballer Howard Riley was also Wigston born and bred. Composer and piano virtuoso Michael Garrett was educated at Guthlaxton school. The music hall star

Gertie Gitana Gertie Gitana (born Gertrude Mary Astbury; 27 December 1887 – 5 January 1957) was an English music hall entertainer. Biography She was born in Shirley Street, Longport, Stoke-on-Trent.Don Ross, who was born in the town. She died in the 1950s, having been a showbiz celebrity in the early years of the 20th century. Another Guthlaxton pupil was prominent policeman Geoffrey Barrett, who received a Governor's commendation as a member of the Hong Kong anti-corruption squad in the 1970s and ended his career as head of the Leicester murder squad. The Framework Knitters Museum (geograph 7301746)

The Framework Knitters Museum (geograph 7301746)

Bushloe House, presently the offices of Oadby and Wigston Borough Council, was originally a c1850 house which was extended in c1880. The interior decoration of the house and the design of most of the furniture (and possibly the design of the extension) was carried out by

Christopher Dresser Christopher Dresser (4 July 1834 – 24 November 1904) was a British designer and design theorist, now widely known as one of the first and most important, independent designers. He was a pivotal figure in the Aesthetic Movement and a major con ...

for the owner, his solicitor, Hiram Abiff Owston (1830–1905). Henry Davis Pochin the manufacturing chemist who later owned the Bodnant Estate (now the National Trust's Bodnant Garden) was born in Wigston, son of another notable householder William Pochin. There is a

Framework Knitting A stocking frame was a mechanical knitting machine used in the textiles industry. It was invented by William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham in 1589. Its use, known traditionally as framework knitting, was the first major stage in the mechan ...

Museum here, as it was an important occupation in this area from the 17th to 19th centuries. Hosiery manufacture continued to be an important industry in the town after the decline of hand process of framework knitting with manufacturing firms such as Two Steeples, George Deacon and sons, Wigston Co-Operative Hosiers, A H Broughton and William Holmes. In neighbouring

Henry Bates was the leading hosiery manufacturer. Wigston was the subject of

W. G. Hoskins William George Hoskins (22 May 1908 – 11 January 1992) was an English local historian who founded the first university department of English Local History. His great contribution to the study of history was in the field of landscape history ...

's pioneering historical study, ''The Midland Peasant'' (London: Macmillan, 1965), which traced the

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

of this village from earliest recorded history into the 19th century.

Economy

Since the 1980s Wigston's retail economy has become increasingly dependent on national retailers. Up to 50% of retail in the town belongs to supermarkets and chain stores. The share of local business has caused local and independent businesses to close. This followed the trend of the 1990s homogenisation of British high streets. McDonald's, Sainsbury's, Peacocks, Boots, Poundland, Iceland, Superdrug, Farmfoods, Aldi, B&Q, Wetherspoons, Subway, Greggs, and Ladbrookes all hold businesses around the town centre or nearby. One particular unit in the town centre became a branch of International Stores in the late 1970s and was later successively a Gateway Foodmarket, Solo (a Gateway Foodmarket re-brand), Kwik Save,

Somerfield Somerfield (; originally Gateway) was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The company also previously owned the Kwik Save chain of discount food stores. The company was taken over by the Co-operati ...

, then Kwik Save and Somerfield again, before becoming vacant in late 2007. This unit was re-opened in July 2009 as a branch of

Wilko Wilko may refer to: People * Wilko Johnson (1947–2022), English musician * Wilko de Vogt (born 1975), Dutch football goalkeeper, mostly played for Dutch clubs * Wilko Risser (born 1982), Namibian-German football forward, mostly played for German ...

which relocated from Long Street.

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

opened a store on Bell Street in 1980 which stands on the site of Bell Street Primary School. There are also a number of independent stores including several charity shops, two car dealerships, hair and beauty salons, opticians, florists, fish and chip shop, newsagents, and public houses. On 22 January 2013 the Midlands Co-operative announced that eight of their department stores were to close, one of those being the Wigston department store. which closed in June 2013, although part of the unit was converted into a Co-op food store which itself closed in June 2016, the unit that was previously the department store is now home to Peacocks (features the local post office), Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Ponden Homes and Poundland. In January 2022, W.H.Cox greengrocers located on Leicester Road (opposite Bell Street) announced it would be closing after trading for 134 years.

Education

There are numerous

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s in Wigston including All Saints Primary School, Glenmere Primary School, Little Hill Primary School, The Meadow Community Primary School, Thythorn Field Community Primary School and Water Leys Primary School. Wigston Academy is the

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

for the area. It was formed in September 2015 from the merger of Abington Academy and Bushloe High School.

Wigston College Wigston College, previously known as Guthlaxton College, is a coeducational sixth form located in Wigston Magna in the English county of Leicestershire. The college forms part of The Wigston Academies Trust, together with neighbouring Wigston ...

(formerly known as Guthlaxton College) is the post-16 provider for the area. Both institutions are part of Wigston Academies Trust. Wigston Birkett House Community Special School is a

special school Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...

located in the town that serves the wider area. South Leicestershire College is a large

further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is education in addition to that received at secondary school, that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. It ...

provider for the area. It was rebuilt on Canal Street, South Wigston in 2010. 1461 (Wigston) Squadron of the Air Training Corps is located in Tigers Road, South Wigston, and recruits many members from the schools in Wigston.

Transportation

South Wigston railway station South Wigston railway station is a railway station serving South Wigston in Leicestershire. The station is on the Birmingham to Peterborough Line about south of , on the west - north loop of Wigston Junction. South Wigston station is owned ...

lies on the

Birmingham to Peterborough Line Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the Wes ...

. Trains to Leicester run every hour and take five minutes. Wigston Magna and the surrounding estates are served by bus services operated by Arriva Midlands and

Centrebus Centrebus is a bus company based in Leicester operating services in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. Centrebus have a 51% shareholding in High Peak Buses and since December 2019 through c ...

References

External links

Borough of Oadby and Wigston

The Wigston Historical Society's website
{{authority control Towns in Leicestershire Unparished areas in Leicestershire Oadby and Wigston