Powerflush nearby to Wigston
Wigston, also known as Wigston Magna, is a town in Leicestershire, England, located on the A5199 just south of Leicester. In 2011, it had a population of 32,321 people.
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HISTORY
Wigston is mentioned in the Domesday book as Wichingstone in the ancient wapentake of Guthlaxton, among the lands held by Hugh de Grandmesnil for the King.
It was known as Wigston Two Spires in the Middle Ages because it had two mediaeval churches, All Saints’ and St Wistan’s.
St Wistan’s is so named because it was one of the places where St Wistan’s or Wigstan’s body rested before burial. Wigstan was a Mercian prince who was assassinated but was considered a Martyr. He was buried in Repton at first, but his body was later moved to Evesham.
It was the birthplace of George Davenport, a notorious highwayman; Abigail Herrick, the mother of Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels; Harry Ellis, a former Leicester Tigers and England scrum-half who attended Bushloe High School; and Mark Hayman, a former Leicester Sound and BBC Radio Leicester presenter. Graham Chapman, of Monty Python fame, lived in what was then Wigston police station (the building on the corner of Pullman Road – opposite the swimming baths) while his father was the inspector there (around 1951/52). He was a student at South Wigston Junior School. John Marquis, an author and journalist, was born in Wigston and educated at Abington and Guthlaxton schools. Howard Riley, a Leicester City footballer, was also born and raised in Wigston. Michael Garrett, a composer and piano virtuoso, attended Guthlaxton School. Gertie Gitana, a music hall star, is buried in Wigston cemetery after a long marriage to local theatrical impresario Don Ross, who was born in the town. She died in the 1950s after having been a showbiz celebrity in the early twentieth century. Geoffrey Barrett, a prominent policeman 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, was another Guthlaxton pupil.
Bushloe House, now the Council Offices of the Oadby and Wigston Borough Council, was built around 1850 and expanded around 1880. Christopher Dresser designed the interior decoration of the house as well as the majority of the furniture (and possibly the extension) for the owner, his solicitor, Hiram Abiff Owston (1830–1905).
Henry Davis Pochin, a manufacturing chemist who later owned the Bodnant Estate (now the National Trust’s Bodnant Garden), was born in Wigston, the son of another notable Wigston householder, William Pochin.
There is a Framework Knitting Museum here because knitting was a popular occupation in the area from the 17th to the 19th centuries. After the decline of the hand process of framework knitting, hosiery manufacturing remained an important industry in the town, with manufacturing firms such as Two Steeples, George Deacon and sons, Wigston Co-Operative Hosiers, A H Broughton, and William Holmes. Henry Bates was the leading hosiery manufacturer in nearby South Wigston.
Wigston was the subject of W. G. Hoskins’ pioneering historical study, The Midland Peasant (London: Macmillan, 1965), which traced the village’s social history from the earliest recorded history into the nineteenth century.
GEOGRAPHY
Wigston is located five miles south of Leicester and in the heart of Leicestershire and the East Midlands. The B582 road connects Oadby to the east. South Wigston is located to the west along the B582, or Blaby Road. It is the most populous of Leicester’s satellite towns.
The Grand Union Canal runs from Wistow, south of Wigston, to nearby Kilby Bridge, then through South Wigston, Glen Parva, Blaby, and on to Leicester.
Wigston’s population of around 32,000 people lives in both post-war private suburban housing estates surrounding the old town centre and 19th century buildings now sandwiched between modern housing developments. Wigston Fields, north of Wigston towards Knighton and Leicester, is the oldest post-war development; the Meadows and Little Hill estates were built in the 1970s and 1980s to the east and south of Wigston’s old centre. Wigston Harcourt is a housing development that existed between the Little Hill and Meadows estates until the early 1990s. These three estates demarcate the urban boundary of the greater Leicester area, beyond which agricultural land exists.
