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Barrow upon Soar

Coordinates: 52°45′06″N 1°09′00″W / 52.75167°N 1.15000°W / 52.75167; -1.15000
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Barrow upon Soar
Barrow upon Soar is located in Leicestershire
Barrow upon Soar
Barrow upon Soar
Location within Leicestershire
Population5,856 
OS grid referenceSK575176
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townLoughborough
Postcode districtLE12
Dialling code01509
PoliceLeicestershire
FireLeicestershire
AmbulanceEast Midlands
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Leicestershire
52°45′06″N 1°09′00″W / 52.75167°N 1.15000°W / 52.75167; -1.15000
Bridge over the River Soar next to the Navigation
Barrow upon Soar parish church
Interior view of the church of the Holy Trinity
The "Barrow Kipper" plesiosaur skeleton at the Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
Reredos in the parish church by Nathaniel Hitch

Barrow upon Soar is a large village in northern Leicestershire, in the Soar Valley between Leicester and Loughborough, with a population at the 2011 census of 5,856.[1]

In the March 2021 census, it registered a population of 6,825.[2]

Geography

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Barrow lies on the east bank of the River Soar, where the river is joined by the Fishpool Brook. British Gypsum has a plant at Barrow, and the parish is adjacent to the Swithland Reservoir.

Barrow upon Soar is part of the local government district of Charnwood.[3]

Transport

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Road

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The village is near the A6 Road from Quorn.

Rail

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Barrow-upon-Soar railway station is situated on the Midland Main Line, and East Midlands Railway trains stop there Monday to Saturday, there is no Sunday service.[4]

The Mountsorrel Railway, carrying granite from the Mountsorrel quarries, used to run to here;[5] the line from Mountsorrel is still followed by a mineral conveyor to Barrow, where quarry rock is sorted for distribution.

Bus

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The village currently has no bus service to Leicester since budget cuts in 2022 however is served by the Kinchbus 2 service that runs between Sileby and Loughborough and Centrebus service 27 between Loughborough and Thurmaston.

History

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The village's name means 'grove situated on the River Soar'.[6]

White's History, Gazetteer and Directory of the Counties of Leicester and Rutland (1877) says:

Barrow-upon-Soar is a parish and large village, which gives its name to a Poor Law Union district, and a county court district. It has for ages been celebrated for its excellent limestone, and is pleasantly situated on the east side of the navigable River Soar, and on both sides of the Midland Railway on which it has a station 2 miles N. of Mount Sorrel, 3 miles S.E. of Loughborough, and 9 miles N. of Leicester. Barrow township comprises about 2510 acres of land and had 1099 inhabitants in 1801, 1638 in 1831, 1800 in 1861, and 1973 in 1871, the increase of the last ten years being 'attributed to the opening of the limeworks.' It is in East Goscote Hundred, but its parish comprises also the townships of Mount Sorrel North-end, Quorndon, and Woodhouse, all of which are in West Goscote Hundred. The area of the whole parish is about 9160 acres, and it had 5857 inhabitants in 1871.[7]

The village is known for a plesiosaur that was excavated here in 1851.[8] The specimen of Atychodracon megacephalus, found in a lime pit outside the village, was nicknamed the "Barrow Kipper". At the centre of the village is a roundabout with a sign depicting its skeleton. The skeleton is now on display at the Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, with a full-size replica at Charnwood Museum in Loughborough. The village's football club has the skeleton on its badge.

Twinning

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Barrow upon Soar is twinned with Marans, Charente-Maritime, in France.[9]

Notable people

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In chronological order

Sport

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The village has an association football club, Barrow Town FC. The club plays its home games at Riverside Park and currently competes in the East Midlands Counties Football League, the 10th tier of English football.

References

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  1. ^ "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2016.
  2. ^ "Barrow upon Soar (Parish, United Kingdom) - Population Statistics, Charts, Map and Location". citypopulation.de. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
  3. ^ Charnwood Borough Council; The Mayoralty in Charnwood. Archived 20 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 31 January 2006.
  4. ^ Table 53 National Rail timetable, May 2016
  5. ^ "Mountsorrel. The Railway". Leicestershire Mercury. England. 31 March 1860. Retrieved 10 February 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ "Key to English Place-names". kepn.nottingham.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  7. ^ White's "History, Gazetteer and Directory of the Counties of Leicester and Rutland" (3rd Edition, 1877)
  8. ^ Smith, Adam S. (22 April 2015). "Reassessment of Plesiosaurus' megacephalus (Sauropterygia: Plesiosauria) from the Triassic-Jurassic boundary, UK". Palaeontologia Electronica. 18 (1): 1–20. Archived from the original on 5 June 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  9. ^ "Leicestershire County Council – Serving the people of Leicestershire". www.leicestershirevillages.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  10. ^ "Rustat, Tobias", in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2007) doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24358
  11. ^ Nichols, History of Leicestershire, vol. 3, part 1, pp. 77–78
  12. ^  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainGarnett, Richard (1891). "Heathcote, Ralph". In Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney (eds.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  13. ^ "Bradshaw, John (BRDW829J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  14. ^ "Obituary - Lieutenant-General Edward Chippindall" in The Times dated Thursday 18 September 1902, issue=36876, p. 7
  15. ^ J. A. Venn, "Gwatkin, Henry Melvill" in Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part II, Vol. 3 (1947), p. 179
  16. ^ J. A. Venn, "Newham, Frank Darvall", in Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part II, vol. 4 (1947)
  17. ^ "Wright Harold" in Register of Births for Barrow upon Soar Registration District, vol. 7a (1884), p. 161
  18. ^ "The Home of CricketArchive". cricketarchive.com. Archived from the original on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  19. ^ "Gimson Franklin Charles" in Register of Births for Barrow upon Soar Registration District, vol. 7a (1890), p. 144
  20. ^ "Matts Alfred Shipley" in Register of Births for Barrow upon Soar Registration District, vol. 7a (1893), p. 161
  21. ^ McKie, David (7 January 2018). "Peter Preston obituary". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 June 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2018 – via www.theguardian.com.
  22. ^ "SCHEPENS Martin / MARTIN" in Register of Births for Leicester Central vol 3a (1955), p. 608
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