Narborough is a large 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Blaby Blaby () is a town 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, falling slightly from 6,240 in 2001. Given Blaby's pr ...

district of

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

, England, around southwest of

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

. The population of the civil parish (including Littlethorpe) was 8,498. The name is derived from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''north burh'', meaning "north fort or stronghold". At the 2001 Census, the parish had a population of 8,402. Surrounding villages include Enderby, Whetstone, Littlethorpe, Cosby, and Huncote.

Location

Narborough is situated on or near several major transport corridors. The

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

passes through the east of Narborough, and the Leicester to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

railway line runs beside the

River Soar The River Soar () is a major tributary of the River Trent in the East Midlands as well as the principal river of Leicestershire, England. The source of the river is midway between Hinckley and Lutterworth. The river then flows north throug ...

on its way through the village. Coventry Road in the village centre runs along the course of the

Fosse Way The Fosse Way was a Roman road built in Britain during the first and second centuries AD that linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the southwest and Lindum Colonia ( Lincoln) to the northeast, via Lindinis ( Ilchester), Aquae Sulis ( Bat ...

(Roman road), which then joins back onto the present course of the B4114 link from Birmingham to Leicester. Narborough is often split into two distinct parts, the (old) village core to the South and the newer Pastures estate to the north east. These areas are separated by the B4114 which runs through the middle of the two areas.

Transport

Bus

Narborough is served by Arriva Midlands services 50 and X84 both linking the village with Rugby, Enderby, Croft, Fosse Shopping Park, and Leicester city centre

There is also a park and ride service which stops opposite Enderby Police station which runs electric buses into Leicester City Centre.

Rail

Narborough railway station is situated in the village centre and offers an hourly service with South Wigston and Leicester to the north, and

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England, administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughborough, and is about halfway between L ...

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire to the north-east.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...

and Birmingham in the south and west.

Amenities

To the north-east of the village lies Carlton Park, a

business park A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...

that included the headquarters of

Alliance & Leicester Alliance & Leicester plc was a British bank and former building society, formed by the merger in 1985 of the Alliance Building Society and the Leicester Building Society. The business Demutualisation, demutualised in the middle of 1997, when ...

(defunct 2011), who employed over 1,800 people locally. Carlton Park also has a Racquets and Health Club, David Lloyd (formerly Next Generation), which opened in the summer of 2006. Near to the village centre are the Blaby District Council offices. As well as Greystoke Primary School in the village, The Pastures and Red Hill Field are the two other primary schools serving the locality. Pupils from these schools generally continue their education at Brockington College in Enderby or Lutterworth College. There are two large GP practices in the old village centre; The Limes Medical Centre and Narborough Health Centre. The village also contains a variety of retail outlets, pubs, restaurants, coffee shops and other amenities. Narborough is home to the Narborough Foxes Football Club which promotes fun and friendly football for all ages.

Politics and government

Narborough is part of the South Leicestershire constituency and is currently represented in the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

, Alberto Costa.

Religion

In addition to the Anglican Parish Church of All Saints, Narborough also has a Congregational Church situated on ''School Lane'' and a Catholic church, St. Pius X, on ''Leicester Road''. Narborough has been home to The Buddhist House, HQ for the Amida Trust, a Pureland Buddhist school, since 2001.

Crime

Narborough was where

Colin Pitchfork Colin Pitchfork (born 23 March 1960) is an English child-murderer and child-rapist. He was the first person convicted of rape and murder using DNA profiling after he murdered two girls in neighbouring Leicestershire villages: Lynda Mann in Nar ...

raped and murdered a 15-year-old schoolgirl, Lynda Mann, in 1983. He also killed a girl of the same age, Dawn Ashworth, in nearby Enderby in 1986. Initially a 17-year-old youth was suspected, and even confessed to one of the murders, but DNA testing cleared him. Following what was the first mass DNA screening of an entire community, Pitchfork was the first person in the world to be convicted of murder using

DNA profiling DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting and genetic fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is cal ...

Industry

The Empire Stone Works was founded in Narborough in 1900. It specialised in producing pre-cast concrete for cladding, which could be coloured with pigments and hand-finished to match natural stone cills, copings and cornices. The factory was the largest employer in Narborough, employing over 300 people, and had its own railway sidings. The company ceased trading in 1994, soon after the completion of the

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

building at

Vauxhall Cross Vauxhall ( , ) is an area of South London, within the London Borough of Lambeth. Named after a medieval manor called Fox Hall, it became well known for the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. From the Victorian period until the mid-20th century, Va ...

which features in many of the later

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

films.

References

External links

Parish Council

Narborough Congregational Church Website
{{authority control Villages in Leicestershire Civil parishes in Leicestershire Blaby