Kirby Muxloe is an English Heritage property that was built by William, Lord Hastings, who owned Ashby de la Zouch Castle. Like that castle Kirby Muxloe Castle was built around an existing manor house around 1480.
Leicestershire
Kirby Muxloe Castle
Ashby de la Zouch Castle
Ashby de la Zouch Castle is an English Heritage property in Leicestershire, the ruins of a castle dating from the 15th century. The town of Ashby de la Zouch got its name from the Le Zouch family who owned the manor of Ashby in the 13th and 14th centuries. By 1472 William, Lord Hastings was transforming this manor into what would have been a magnificent castle that you can still appreciate from its remains.
Tropical Birdland
For my birthday in May I decided to go somewhere we hadn’t been before that related to animals and came across Tropical Birdland in Leicestershire. It’s a non-profit making, privately owned sanctuary for parrots and exotic birds, many of which are unwanted pets.
Blue Plaques: Leicester Edition
On my last trip to Leicester I kept an eye out for any plaques in the vicinity and came across these two interesting examples. The first, near the Richard III Visitor Centre was that commemorating Agnes Archer Evans.
Leicester Architecture – Part Two
Continuing on from my earlier post about some of Leicester’s interesting buildings, this is St Nicholas’ Church, the oldest surviving place of worship in Leicester. Built around the 9th or 10th century there are still some original features left such as the original walls of the nave, though part of it was demolished after 1600 and the spire was removed in 1805.
Leicester Architecture – Part One
As well as exploring all things Richard III on my trip to Leicester I also took a lot of photographs of buildings that caught my eye – finding out about the significance of these buildings was greatly aided by information panels conveniently positioned nearby, a practice of which I heartily approve and that Nottingham could really do with emulating.
Leicester Cathedral
The main focus on a recent trip to Leicester was all things Richard III and naturally that included a visit to Leicester Cathedral where his remains were reinterred on March 26th 2015. After having been to the Visitor Centre and seen displays on how the remains were discovered (blog post here) we were keen to see his final resting place for ourselves.
King Richard III Visitor Centre
Back in June a friend and I went to Leicester to visit the King Richard III Visitor Centre. I imagine you’d be hard pressed to find someone who isn’t familiar with the story of Richard’s remains being found in a car park and finally being laid to rest in Leicester Cathedral (the focus of the next post) and the Visitor Centre did an excellent job of collating all that information.