Humberstone and Hamilton

The ward takes its name from the historical village of Humberstone and the modern housing estate and ancient village of Hamilton. The place-name 'Humberstone' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as 'Humerstane'. The name means 'Hunbeorht's stone'.Eilert Ekwall, Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.256. The "Humber stone"Humber stone: {{Coord|52.657951|-1.078767|region:GB_type:landmark |name=Humber stone}} is a granite monolith of unknown (perhaps glacial) origin that lies in a field in Hamilton. Until 1750 it had been fully exposed, but was then truncated and the remainder buried by a farmer. It was partly exposed in 1878, when it was estimated to have a volume of approximately {{convert|200|ft3|m3}} and thus weigh about {{convert|15|lt|t|adj=on}}.{{Cite Q|Q133538708}} It was said to line up with a stone nearby, St. John's Stone", to indicate sunrise at midsummer, or at Beltane.St. John's Stone: {{Coord|52.652620|-1.147174|region:GB_type:landmark|name=St. John's Stone}}Notice depicted at {{cite web |title=A couple of newly spotted #heritage panels around the Stadium estate, Leicester. |url=https://x.com/historyofLeice1/status/1632690290074046465/photo/2 |access-date=26 March 2025}} In the 1980s it was again partially uncovered and made accessible to the public. It was then fenced in when the Leicester north ring road was built and a sign was erected at the site, describing the stone's history.

Hamilton was named after a deserted medieval village in the civil parish of Barkby Thorpe, just outside the Leicester city boundary.

The village of Humberstone has been inhabited for many centuries. Part of the wall around St Mary's church is an original cob wall. There is also a thatched cruck cottage dating from a similar time. The oldest parts of the church are the tower and the walls of the chancel, which are medieval. The chancel windows are nineteenth century. The rest of the church was rebuilt in 1857–8 to the designs of Raphael Brandon. Inside he used locally obtained Humberstone alabaster for the carved capitals of the pillars in the nave and other details. The church contains a slab with a picture of a knight incised on it. This was from the tomb of Richard Hotoft who died in 1451.{{Cite book|last=Pevsner|first=Nikolaus|title=Leicestershire and Rutland|publisher=Penguin|year=1984|isbn=0 14 071018 3|editor-last=Williamson|editor-first=Elizabeth|edition=Second Edition with corrections of 1992|series=Buildings of England|location=London|pages=272}}

There are two houses called "the Manor" in Main Street. One was built in the 16th century but enlarged in the 18th and had a 16th century tithe barn close to it. This barn has now been converted into a house. The other (east of the church) was built in the 18th century.,

The village's population increased during the 18th and 19th centuries and Leicester grew out towards Humberstone. At the 1821 census the population of Humberstone parish was 415. It more than doubled in the next forty years.

Humberstone had a station on the Leicester branch of the Great Northern Railway, named Humberstone Railway Station. This was on Uppingham Road to the west of the old village. It closed in 1962 having had a very limited service since 1953 which became from 1957 even more limited being restricted to summer holiday special trains.{{Cite web |title=Leicester (Belgrave Road) - John O' Gaunt |url=https://www.registerofclosedrailways.co.uk/line-sections-closed/1957/leicester-belgrave-road-john-o-gaunt |access-date=6 April 2024 |website=Register of Closed Railways}}{{Cite web |last=Goddard |first=Jane |date=19 February 2019 |title=Railway station was gateway to the East Coast seaside resorts for generations of Leicester children |url=https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/history/railway-station-gateway-east-coast-2556571 |access-date=6 April 2024 |website=Leicestershire Live}} Further to the west, Humberstone Road railway station was on the Midland Main Line.This opened in 1875 and closed in 1968{{Cite web |last=Martin |first=Alison |date=17 March 2019 |title=All the long forgotten railway stations Leicester has lost |url=https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/end-line-leicesters-forgotten-railway-1352499 |access-date=6 April 2024 |website=Leicestershire Live}}

Part of the parish ("West Humberstone") became part of the County Borough of Leicester in 1891 (most of this is not part of the present ward of Humberstone and Hamilton){{Cite book |last=Elliott |first=Malcolm |title=Victorian Leicester |publisher=Phillimore |year=1979 |isbn=0 85033 327 X |location=London |pages=149–151}} The Corporation electric tramway reached what later became Humberstone Park in 1904. This was then on the Leicester boundary.{{Cite web |title=Leicester Corporation Transport 1901-1986 |url=http://www.lthlibrary.org.uk/library/PDF-089-1.pdf |access-date=4 March 2024 |page=3}}{{Cite web |title=Leicester Corporation: deposited plans for tramways |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/8eb055c5-bf9f-4cbc-87c6-65798814d07e |website=The National Archives}} Humberstone was a centre for framework knitting. Two large houses were built during this time: Monks Rest (the old vicarage) built during the early part of the 19th century and Humberstone Hall begun in the late 18th century and finished in the 19th century. The grounds of Monks Rest are now a park. Humberstone Hall had a drive which was an avenue of Wellingtonias, which survive in Pine Tree Avenue.{{Cite book |last=Jordan |first=Christine |title=The illustrated history of Leicester's suburbs |publisher=Breedon Books |year=2003 |isbn=1 85983 348 9 |location=Derby |pages=93–99}}

There was a Roman villa at or close to the site of the medieval village of Hamilton.{{Cite book |last=Pevsner |first=Nikolaus |title=Leicestershire ad Rutland |publisher=Penguin |year=1960 |isbn=0 14 0710 18 3 |editor-last=Williamson |editor-first=Elizabeth |edition=2nd (1984) |location=London |page=53 |chapter=Archeology to 1500 written by P Liddle}} Hamilton was not mentioned in Domesday Book (1086){{Cite book |title=Domesday Book:: Leicestershire |publisher=Phillimore |isbn=0 85033 332 6 |editor-last=Morgan |editor-first=Philip |location=Chichester |publication-date=1979 |translator-last=Griffin |translator-first=Michael |chapter=Index of Places}} The medieval village was a chapelry of Barkby It was abandoned in the 15th century. Its site is marked by earthworks. Sites of the village streets,the manor and probably the chapel can be picked out.Pevsner. work cited page 90

Many of the houses in Humberstone were built in the 1920s on land that used to be part of the estate of Humberstone Hall. Some of the gardens in the area bear testament to this as they still have some of the century-old orchard trees in them.

Humberstone village was annexed to the city in 1935.The Netherhall Estate was built by the local authority (Leicester City Council) 1n the 1950s and 1960s.{{Cite book |last=Jordan |first=Christine |title=The illustrated history of Leicester's suburbs |publisher=Breedon Books |year=2003 |isbn=1 85983 348 9 |location=Derby |pages=159}}

In the late 1980s and early 1990s several private gardens near to the old village were sold to property developers, but a combination of local hostility and a crash in the property market resulted in the land becoming disused. It has since been taken over by the council and converted into a public garden.

The name Hamilton was revived for the new housing estate built on the A563 road, east of Rushey Mead in the 1980s.{{cite web |title=Council News |url=http://www.leicester.gov.uk/index.asp?pgid=8276 |publisher=Leicester City Council}}Jordan, Christine. Book cited page 101

The development of Humberstone Garden Suburb was based on the principles of the Garden city movement. Garden suburbs modified the principles of garden cities to allow for residential "garden suburbs" without the commercial and industrial components of the garden city. They were built on the outskirts of cities, in rural settings such as Humberstone.The Garden Suburb is sometimes known as the Garden City. The Leicester City Transport buses on Route 37 begun in 1938 had this name on the front.{{Cite web |title=Development of bus services |url=https://wikibus.blob.core.windows.net/sources4452/The%20history%20of%20public%20transport%20in%20Leicester.pdf |access-date=6 April 2024 |website=The history of public transport in Leicester}}

The Humberstone Garden Suburb is notable because it is the only example in which a UK workers cooperative has created a housing cooperative and built a housing estate for its members. The Anchor Tenants Housing Association was formed in 1887 by the workers cooperative of the Anchor Boot and Shoe Co-operative Society which was a cooperatively run boot and shoe works in Asfordby Street, Leicester. The members of the cooperative contributed a percentage of their wages and bought a plot of land just outside Leicester by the village of Humberstone and built 97 houses. The first houses were in use by 1908 and the Anchor employees were let houses by the association at a rent that was collected to cover the upkeep of the properties.{{cite web|url=http://www.utopia-britannica.org.uk/pages/Leicester%20Garden%20suburb.htm |title=Humberstone Garden Suburb |publisher=Utopia-britannica.org.uk |access-date=10 January 2010}} The original houses were designed by George Hern in a roughcast cottage style at a density of seven to eight houses an acre. The suburb consists of houses in Lilac Avenue, Laburnum Road, Fern Rise, Chestnut Avenue and a part of Keyham Lane. The names of the new streets were chosen to emphasise the garden nature of the scheme.{{Cite book|title = Buildings of England:Leicestershire and Rutland|last = Pevsner|first = Nikolaus|publisher = Penguin|year = 1984|edition=2nd|pages = 273}}

Humberstone and Hamilton is bordered by the wards of Rushey Mead to the north, Charnwood to the west and Coleman and Thurncourt to the south.{{cite web |url=http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/council-and-democracy/city-statistics/wardprofiles/wardmaps/#Current-wards-map |title=Ward Maps |author=Leicester City Council |access-date=11 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613231611/http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/council-and-democracy/city-statistics/wardprofiles/wardmaps/#Current-wards-map |archive-date=13 June 2011 |url-status=dead }} The ward borders the county of Leicestershire; in particular, the borough of Charnwood to the north and the district of Harborough to the east.

The ward comprises the suburb of Humberstone in the west, Netherhall in the southeast and Hamilton to the northeast (which makes Hamilton the most northeasterly suburb of Leicester).

Humberstone & Hamilton had a population of 11,893 at the 2001 census. The ward had a relatively older population, with the greatest share of the area's residents being between the ages of 30 and 59.

Compared to some Leicester wards, Humberstone & Hamilton's Asian population was a minority at 19%, with a 73% white British population.{{cite web |url=http://www.leicester.gov.uk/EasySiteWeb/getresource.axd?AssetID=10980&type=full&servicetype=Attachment |title=Ward Profiles – 2001 Census – Population |author=Leicester City Council |access-date=14 November 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915003731/http://www.leicester.gov.uk/EasySiteWeb/getresource.axd?AssetID=10980&type=full&servicetype=Attachment |archive-date=15 September 2012 |df=dmy-all }}

In 2011 however, 43.8% of the population of this ward were White British, 40.1% were Asian and 4.4% Black.{{cite web|url=http://www.ukcensusdata.com/humberstone-and-hamilton-e05001796#sthash.qIURpHZW.dpbs|title=Humberstone and Hamilton|publisher=UK Census Data|access-date=20 April 2019}}

Until the mid-1980s Humberstone village had two pubs, The Humberstone which in 1963 replaced The Plough which stood closer to the road and contained the old village lock-up) and The Windmill (which lay derelict until the late 1990s when it was demolished). The Humberstone closed in 2020 at the time of the Covid epidemic.{{Cite web |last=Patel |first=Asha |date=27 February 2022 |title=Calls to save pub set for auction in village where residents are 'losing community spaces' |url=https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/calls-save-pub-set-auction-6723742 |access-date=6 April 2024 |website=Leicestershire Live}} The village is also home to two members' clubs, the Humberstone Royal British Legion and the Old Humberstone Constitutional Club.

The original public library was on Main Street - a small building on the left hand side going down the hill which resembled a non-conformist chapel. This was eventually replaced by a public library situated next to the school, but was relocated to the car park of the nearby Hamilton Tesco Extra store in the mid-2000s.

Humberstone has a bowls club and a youth football club, Humberstone Rangers. There was a tennis club in the village until the mid-2000s when it was demolished and houses built there. The local golf club, Humberstone Heights, is one of the few council-run clubs in the city.

When it was built, Humberstone Garden Suburb had a bowling green, a cricket pitch, a skittle alley, a football ground, tennis courts and golf links.{{cite web |last=Forrester |first=M.D. |title=Humberstone Garden Suburb – A History |url=https://anchorhistory.uk/origins/origins.pdf |access-date=28 February 2024 |website=ANCHOR TENANTS LIMITED. Humberstone Garden Suburb |format=PDF}} These facilities and the shoe factory no longer exist but the housing estate remains intact.

Humberstone Nursery, Infants and Junior School are located adjacent to each other in Humberstone. Humberstone Juniors converted to an academy in 2012. In 2014 Falcons Primary School opened in the area. It is a Sikh free school.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-29415598 |date=29 September 2014|publisher=BBC|title=Leicester Sikh free school to open next month after DfE concerns|access-date=20 April 2019}}

There are two primary schools in Hamilton; Kestrel's Field Primary School, which opened in the early 1990s, and Hope Hamilton, which is Church of England aided.

Orchard Mead Academy is attended by students between the ages of 11 and 16. Nearby Keyham Lodge School is an all-boys school for 11–16s with learning disabilities and behavioural problems. Gateway Sixth Form College has recently opened a building opposite the Tesco store, with a pedestrian footbridge across the outer ring road between the college and Tesco.

Humberstone & Hamilton are served by the following bus companies and services: Arriva Midlands services 37, 56/56A, 58/58A, Centrebus services LC7, Orbital 40N & 40S, Hospital Hopper and First Leicester services 38/38A.

Humberstone & Hamilton is part of the Leicester East constituency, a traditionally safe Labour seat. However, it is currently represented in the parliament by the Conservative Party.

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