Melton Mowbray

Toponymy

The name comes from the early English word Medeltone – meaning "Middletown surrounded by small hamlets" (and therefore has the same origin as Milton and Middleton). Mowbray is a Norman family name – the name of early Lords of the Manor – namely Robert de Mowbray.

Early history

In and around Melton, there are 28 scheduled ancient monuments, around 705 buildings listed as having special architectural or historical interest, 16 sites of special scientific interest, and several deserted village sites.

There is industrial archaeology including the Grantham Canal and the remains of the Melton Mowbray Navigation. Windmill sites, ironstone working and smelting archaeological evidence suggest that Melton borough was densely populated in Bronze and Iron Ages. Many small village communities existed and strategic points at Burrough Hill and Belvoir were fortified. There is also evidence to suggest that the site of Melton Mowbray in the Wreake Valley was inhabited before Roman occupation (43 AD).

Roman times

In Roman times, due to the close proximity of the Fosse Way and other important Roman roads, military centres were set up at Leicester and Lincoln; and intermediate camps were also established, for example, Six Hills on the Fosse Way. Other Roman track ways in the locality passed north of Melton along the top of the vale of Belvoir scarp; they linked Market Harborough to Belvoir, and linked the Fosse Way to Oakham and Stamford.

Danelaw

Evidence of settlement throughout Anglo-Saxon and Danelaw period (8th/9th centuries) is reflected in many place names. Along the Wreake Valley, the Danish suffix "-by" is common, as is evident in Asfordby, Dalby, Frisby, Hoby, Rearsby and Gaddesby. In addition, a cemetery of 50–60 graves, of Pagan Anglo-Saxon origin, was found in Melton Mowbray. Although most villages and their churches, had origins before the Norman Conquest of 1066, stone crosses at Asfordby and Sproxton churches and Anglo-Saxon cemeteries as found at Goadby Marwood, Sysonby and Stapleford, are certainly pre-Conquest.

Melton Mowbray itself had six recorded crosses the construction of which spanned several centuries: (i) Kettleby Cross, (close to the present filling station near the junction of Dalby Road to the Leicester Road), (ii) Sheep Cross, on what was Spital End, (now Nottingham Street/Park Road Junction), (iii) Corn Cross at the Swine Lane/Spittle End junction, (reconstructed and reinstated on the Nottingham St/High St junction in 1996 as a memorial to the Royal Army Veterinary Corps), (iv) Butter Cross or High Cross, at the west end of Beast Market (again reconstructed from partial remains of the original Saxon cross in 1986/7 in the Market Place), (v) Sage Cross, at the East end of the Beast Market close to Saltgate, (on Sherrard Street opposite Sage Cross Street), and (vi) Thorpe Cross at the end of Saltgate (near the junction of Thorps Road and Saxby Road). All the original crosses were removed or destroyed during the reformation and other periods of iconoclasm or simply to make room for traffic or other development.

Post conquest

The effects of the Norman conquest are recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book. This document indicates that settlements at Long Clawson and Bottesford were of noteworthy size; and that Melton Mowbray was a thriving market town of some 200 inhabitants, with weekly markets, two water mills and two priests. The water mills, still in use up to the 18th century, are remembered by the present names of Beckmill Court and Mill Street.

Melton Mowbray has been a market town for over 1,000 years. Recorded as Leicestershire's only market in the 1086 Domesday Survey, it is the third oldest market in England. Tuesday has been market day ever since royal approval was given in 1324. The market was established with tolls before 1077.

Legacies from the Medieval period include consolidation of village and market town patterns; in Melton Mowbray, Bottesford, Wymondham, and Waltham-on-the-Wolds. The latter had a market in medieval times that continued until 1921, and an annual fair of horses and cattle. Many buildings in Melton Market Place, Nottingham Street, Church Lane, King Street and Sherrard Street have ancient foundations. Alterations to number 16 Church Street revealed a medieval circular stone wall subjected to considerable heat. This is probably the 'Manor Oven' mentioned in 13th century documents. Surveys of 5 King Street show it to be part of an early medieval open-halled house. It may be part of the castle or fortified Manor of the Mowbrays, which existed in the 14th century.

King Richard I and King John visited the town and may have stayed at an earlier castle. In 1549 following the Dissolution of the chantries, monasteries and religious guilds, church plate was sold and land purchased for the town. Resulting rents were used to maintain Melton School; first recorded in 1347 and one of the oldest educational establishments in Britain. Funds were also used to maintain roads, bridges and to repair the church clock.

Anne of Cleves house, now a Public House, is a Grade II* listed building.

Civil War

During the English Civil War, Melton was a Roundhead garrison commanded by a Colonel Rossiter. Two battles were fought in the town: in November 1643, Royalists caught the garrison unaware and carried away prisoners and booty; in February 1645, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, commanding a Royalist force of 1,500 men, inflicted severe losses on the Roundheads. Around 300 men were said to have been killed. According to legend a hillside where the battle was thought to have been fought was ankle deep in blood, hence the name 'Ankle Hill'. However, this name is mentioned in documents pre-dating the Civil War. Furthermore, in the past, the names of Dalby Road and Ankle Hill have been switched around, thus confusing the true site of the battle.

Local notable families seem to have had divided loyalties, although the War ended with great rejoicings outside the "Limes" in Sherrard Street, home of Sir Henry Hudson. His father, Robert Hudson founded the "Maison Dieu" almshouses opposite the Church in 1640, which complement the stone built "Anne of Cleves House" opposite. This was built in 1384 and housed chantry priests until the Dissolution. It was then included in the estates of Anne of Cleves by Henry VIII, as a divorce settlement in the 16th century, although there is local debate about whether she ever stayed there or not. Anne of Cleves' house is now a public house which is owned by Everards Brewery, a Leicester-based brewery.

RAF Melton Mowbray

Between 1942 and 1964, RAF Melton Mowbray was situated to the south of the Town, towards Great Dalby. The Class A airfield was originally intended for aircraft maintenance but was taken over by RAF Transport Command.

Between 1946 and 1958 the site was used as a Displaced Persons camp by the Polish Resettlement Corps.

Melton Mowbray served as a Thor Strategic missile site between 1958 and 1963, when 254(SM) Squadron operated a flight of three missiles from the base.

Pork pies and Stilton cheese

Stilton cheese originated near Melton Mowbray, and is still made in the town today. Stilton cheese takes its name from the village of Stilton in Huntingdonshire, where it was marketed to travellers on the Great North Road, though no Stilton was ever made there.

Melton Mowbray pork pies are made with a specific "hand-raising" process and recipe. On 4 April 2008 the European Union awarded the Melton Mowbray pork pie Protected Geographical Indication status, following a long-standing application made by the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association. As a result of this ruling pies made only within a designated zone around Melton, and using uncured pork, are allowed to carry the Melton Mowbray name on their packaging.

"Painting the town red"

The fox hunting crowd also left their mark on the town in a different way, through their "high jinks". Out celebrating a successful hunt in 1837, the 3rd Marquess of Waterford and his hunting party found several tins of red paint which they daubed liberally on to the buildings of the High Street, some traces of which can still be seen on doors of older buildings in the town.

There is also a picture labelled "A Spree at Melton Mowbray." and subtitled "or doing the Thing in a Sporting-like manner". It is dated 1837, the same date as the Marquess' event. It appears to take place on what is now called Leicester Street and depicts men in hunting clothes climbing on Swan Porch (a building in the market place), fighting and a gentleman apparently being robbed. There is no mention of any red paint. Of course this sort of thing may have been common in Melton Mowbray at that time and there is no evidence that the picture depicts the same events. What is certain is that the physical evidence appears to support the town was painted red. However this does not necessarily mean that the phrase "painting the town red" came from the event, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase originated in the United States in the late nineteenth century.

The Melton Mowbray event was recorded as happening in the early hours of 6 April 1837. It was later recorded in the London Examiner. Henry Alken's pictures A Spree at Melton Mowbray and Larking at the Grantham Tollgate are said to illustrate the event. The events were depicted in a play called The Meltonians at The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1838.

Melton cloth

Melton Mowbray is home to Melton cloth (first mentioned in 1823), which is the familiar tight-woven woollen cloth which is heavily milled, and a nap raised so as to form a short, dense, non-lustrous pile. Sailors' pea coats are traditionally made of Melton cloth, the universal workmans' donkey jackets of Britain and Ireland and in North America, loggers' "cruising jackets" and Mackinaws.

Governance

Melton shares a member of parliament (currently Alan Duncan from the Conservatives) with Rutland, which together form the appropriately named "Rutland and Melton" parliamentary constituency.

Melton Mowbray Town Estate

Melton Mowbray is home to a rare example of early town government. The Melton Mowbray Town Estate was founded at the time of the Reformation, in 1549, when two townsfolk sold silver and plate sequestered from the church and bought land to be held in trust for all inhabitants. The Town Estate provided early forms of education, the first street lighting, and today owns and operates the town's parks and sportsgrounds, and the town's market.

Since its inception in 1549, traditionally the day-to-day running of the Town Estate was undertaken by the Townwardens. In 1989, a new Scheme of Arrangement was drawn up by the Charity Commission after public consultation and the management of the Town Estate was transferred to a body of 14 Feoffees, two of which are known as Senior and Junior Townwarden.

Nowadays, the position of Townwarden is titular only, i.e. the ‘public face’ of the Town Estate at civic or ceremonial occasions.

Demography

Melton Mowbray had only 1766 inhabitants in 1801, but in 1831 they had increased to 3327, in 1841 to 3740, in 1851 to 4434, and in 1861 to 4436.

The Melton Mowbray official web site's About page lists the current (2009) population of the town as 25,276, and that of Melton Borough as 46,861.

Economy

Prior to 1960, the Production Engineering Research Association of Great Britain (PERA) came to the town on Nottingham Road and employed around four hundred people in supporting research and development in industry. It is also home to the East Midlands Manufacturing Advisory Service.

The former East Midlands Regional Assembly was based in a building also on Nottingham Road.

Petfoods came to the town in 1951 as Chappie Ltd, employing at its peak over two thousand people, it now employs around one thousand. It changed its name Petfoods in 1957, Pedigree Petfoods in 1972 and most recently Masterfoods in January 2002. At Melton, it makes four million items of petfood every day, which is less than it used to. Masterfoods now have their UK headquarters close to Melton at Waltham-on-the-Wolds.

The uPVC windows and door manufacturer TruFrame Trade Frames Ltd. relocated from Market Harborough to the Saxby Road Industrial Estate in Melton in December 1999. It was employing about 170 people in August 2013.

Parish church

See St. Mary's Church, Melton Mowbray

Entertainment and facilities

Melton Carnegie Museum is based in Melton Mowbray. The museum has recently been refurbished and visitors can expect a "hands on", audio visual family orientated experience showing the history and importance of the town. Included are sounds from the ages, a history of the hunt, a preserved phone box, a buried (underfoot and perspex) Saxon and shrapnel from World War II.

Melton Mowbray is renowned for its music-making. The Melton Band (a traditional British-style brass band) can trace its directors back to 1856 and was, until recently, called Melton Borough Band. The colourful Melton Mowbray Toy Soldiers Marching Band was formed in 1936; and Happy Jazz – a dixieland jazz band – had its headquarters in the town from 1996 until 2014. There is also the Melton Mowbray Tally Ho Band, formed in 1936; and Tornado Brass, a mixed brass and woodwind group, was founded in the 1980s.

Melton has several pubs, some of which, like the Generous Britain (affectionately known as the Jenny B) continue to encourage new live music. The Noels Arms Freehouse is Melton Mowbray District CAMRA Pub of the Year 2014 and is the place to go for fine ales and cider. The Noels also houses Gasdog Brewery which is the first brewery in the town for over a hundred years. Also gaining great reputation for new and established bands and musicians in Melton Mowbray every Friday and Saturday night, Sunday afternoons sees the pub open to acoustic acts and the now very popular cheese board. There are several other pubs in Melton surviving the latest recession, including one of the oldest establishments in the area, The Anne of Cleves. This ancient building on Burton Street close to St Mary's church has features dating from the early 14th century. Originally home to Chantry Monks the building was taken during the dissolution and given, by Henry VIII to Anne of Cleves as part of the divorce settlement.

The town boasts an unusual cinema, The Regal, in King Street in the centre of the town. The building itself is a remarkably preserved purpose-built theatre complete with period interior design, sumptuous colours with winding staircases and fancy plasterwork. It re-opened in 2013 after refurbishment.

Concerts have been played in the carousel bandstand in Melton Mowbray Park since August 1909. There is still a series of concerts on summer Sundays.

Melton has its own radio station 103 The Eye which broadcasts to Melton Borough and the Vale of Belvoir, including part of Rushcliffe Borough, on 103 FM as well as worldwide on the internet via its website www.103theeye.co.uk When the station launched in 2005 it was the first in the UK to go on the air under the new tier of community radio licensed by the broadcasting regulator OFCOM. The station has since won a number of awards for its work. It is named after the River Eye.

The historic Stapleford Miniature Railway built in 1958 is a private steam hauled passenger railway at Stapleford Park around 3 miles (5 km) to the east of Melton Mowbray. Famous for its fleet of steam locos and scenic location, it attracts thousands of visitors and tourists during occasional summer openings for charity. It is of the same 10 ¹⁄₄ in (260 mm) gauge as the Town Estates small railway that runs in an oval around play close park in Melton, albeit a lot longer.

Also ¹⁄₂ mile (800 m) to the north east of Melton is the theme park "Twinlakes". A locally popular venue this park provides a whole host of family and children's attractions and rides.

Melton's Waterfield Leisure Pools offer a range of activities, including a well-equipped gym and fitness suite as well as swimming. The library in Wilton Road is close to the town centre and adjacent is Melton Theatre, part of Brooksby Melton College, on the junction with Asfordby Road. The theatre first opened in 1976, has recently been refurbished and continues to provide a wide variety of entertainment. In the past few years, it has produced remarkable ballet, opera, and dramatic plays of many types, and provided a venue for many top class bands and acts, pantomime and art displays. It has ample parking, is fully licensed and is a most pleasant place to visit.

There is a fire station, a police station, and a hospital, with St Mary's maternity centre, The War Memorial Hospital off Ankle Hill, originally Wyndham Lodge donated to the town in 1920 by Colonel Richard Dalgleish, has, in 2010, been sold to help fund St Mary's hospital.

Education

The secondary schools in Melton are Long Field Academy and John Ferneley College, which take students aged 11 to 16, and the Melton Vale Post 16 Centre (MV16) for Sixth Formers. The town has several primary schools – Brownlow, Grove, St Francis RC, St Mary's C of E, Sherard and Swallowdale – while the Birchwood Special School caters for young people of primary and secondary school age. Melton's largest school used to be the King Edward VII which at one time had around 2,000 pupils aged between 11 and 19. It was founded as a Grammar School in 1910, became comprehensive in the late 1960s and closed recently after reaching its centenary. Brooksby Melton College which provides vocational, further and higher education in a wide range of subjects has a campus on Asfordby Road in Melton plus a smaller annexe on King Street. These facilities complement those on the college's Brooksby campus 6 miles (10 km) out of the town.

Transport

Melton railway station is on the line from Birmingham to Stansted Airport via Leicester, Peterborough and Cambridge. Trains run hourly in either direction. The service is supplemented with additional trains in the peak on route to/from Nottingham, Norwich and Sleaford. The station is managed by East Midlands Trains although most services are operated by CrossCountry. CrossCountry intend to enhance their service gradually to half-hourly on this route. Since early 2009 East Midlands Trains have offered a single daily journey from Melton Mowbray to London St Pancras and return. This is notable for being the first regular passenger service to cross the spectacular and historic Welland Viaduct since 1966. In 2010, the company introduced a single daily journey to Derby and return.

The majority of bus services in Melton Mowbray are provided by Centrebus. Services link Melton Mowbray with Leicester, Nottingham, Oakham and other regional centres, as well as many of the surrounding villages.

Sport

Speedway racing was staged at the Greyhound Stadium in Melton Mowbray in 1949. The cinder track was laid before and lifted after each meeting. The events, staged on a Sunday, fell foul of the Lord's Day Observance Society for a short time. The town is also home to one rugby club aptly named Melton Rugby club who compete in Midlands 3 East. The town has its own Sunday Football League in which some 15 teams compete every Sunday. Asfordby Hill is home to Holwell Sports who play in the Leicestershire Senior League premier division.