Shawell is a small village in the Harborough 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. Its population at the

2001 United Kingdom census A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th Census in the United Kingdom, UK census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194. The 2001 UK census was organise ...

was 126, increasing to 162 at the 2011 census. Shawell Castle - geograph

It lies less than a mile from the M1 and M6 motorways. The site of the Roman town of Tripontium is on the A5 (

Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England, running from Dover and London in the southeast, via St Albans to Wroxeter. The road crosses the River Thames at London and was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the M ...

), west of the village. Near to the church are the earthwork remains of a

motte and bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy ...

castle. The Great Central main railway line, the last main line to be built from the north of England to London, was opened on 15 March 1899 and ran just to the west of Shawell, mainly in a deep cutting where an important signal box was also sited. Although there was never a station at Shawell, one was proposed a little way to the south-west where the line crossed over the A5 and would have been named "Watling Street". The station, which would have lain roughly at the midpoint between Rugby and

Lutterworth Lutterworth is an historic market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, close to the borders with Warwicks ...

, was never built however, and the line closed on 5 May 1969, the cutting now being partly filled in.

References

External links

Lutterworth Online-Shawell
* Villages in Leicestershire Civil parishes in Harborough District {{Leicestershire-geo-stub