Stephen Butt: 20 books

The history of Kibworth Beauchamp, Kibworth Harcourt and Smeeton Westerby is well-documented. These three villages in south Leicestershire share a long and often dramatic past in which their inhabitants have faced the horror ofthe Black Death, have struggled through times of poverty and hardship,...

Leicester’s pubs have always been more than mere watering holes. They are where businesses were created, battle plans drawn up and where murderers once faced up to their crimes. Richard III spent his final night in Leicester at the Blue Boar in Highcross Street. Nathaniel Corah began his textile...

Leicester is an old town with a long history reaching back across two thousand years of human activity and experience. Historically, it is a very well-documented town. Leicester has a rich antiquarian record with plenty of other writings and documents that add to our knowledge of how our predecessors...

Loughborough is more than a market town, although the market is still held, twice-weekly, in the heart of the town, and is over seven hundred years old. The town's university is a world leader in sport with many of the most celebrated names in sport having studied here, including Sebastian Coe, Paula...

Tourism was born in Market Harborough in 1841 when Thomas Cook, a local cabinetmaker, set off towards Leicester and had his dream of worldwide working-class travel. The town was born to serve travellers. Centuries before, the town had been built to provide a market place for trades-people near to...

John Nichols’ monumental History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester has been the foundation of historical research in Leicestershire since it was completed in eight massive volumes in 1815. With millions of words, including transcripts of documents from the Domesday Book onwards, and thousands...