Leicester Castle is located in the city of the same name in the English county of Leicestershire. The complex is situated in the west of the city centre, between Saint Nicholas Circle to the north and De Montfort University to the south.
The Castle complex contains:
According to Leicester Museums, the castle was probably built around 1070 (soon after the Norman Conquest in 1066. The remains now consist of a mound, along with ruins. Originally the mound was 40 ft (12.2 m) high. Kings sometimes stayed at the castle (Edward I in 1300, and Edward II in 1310 and 1311), and John of Gaunt and his second wife Constance of Castile both died here in 1399 and 1394 respectively.
Eventually, however, it was used mainly as a courthouse (sessions being held in the Great Hall), rather than a residence. [Simmons]
Apart from being used for Assize Courts (JM Barrie visited regularly and spent many hours inside as reporter for a newspaper when the hall was used as a court house), the Great Hall was also used for sessions of the Parliament of England most notably the Parliament of Bats in 1426, when the conditions in London were not suitable and its connections with the Plantagenet family.
Coordinates: 52°38′03″N 1°08′19″W / 52.63422°N 1.13852°W / 52.63422; -1.13852
Leicester (/lɛstər/ LESS-tər pronunciation (help·info)) is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest. In 2010, the population of the Leicester unitary authority was estimated at 306,600, the second highest in the region, whilst 441,213 people lived in the wider Leicester Urban Area in 2006, making Leicester the tenth most populous settlement in the United Kingdom and the UK's fourteenth largest urban area. It is the largest city in the East Midlands yet has the second largest urban area in the region behind Nottingham Urban Area. Eurostat's Larger Urban Zone listed the population of the area at 772,400 people as of 2004.
Ancient Roman pavements and baths remain in Leicester from its early settlement as Ratae Corieltauvorum, a Roman military outpost in a region inhabited by the Celtic Corieltauvi tribe. Following the demise of Roman society the early medieval Ratae Corieltauvorum is shrouded in obscurity, but when the settlement was captured by the Danes it became one of five fortified towns important to the Danelaw. The name "Leicester" is thought to derive from the words castra of the "Ligore", meaning camp of the dwellers on the (river) Legro. Leicester appears in the Domesday Book as "Ledecestre". Leicester continued to grow throughout the Early Modern period as a market town, although it was the Industrial Revolution that facilitated a process of rapid unplanned urbanisation in the area.
Jonathan "Jon" Mould (born 4 April 1991) is a Welsh racing cyclist from Newport. Mould is a member of British Cyclings Olympic Academy Programme. Commonwealth Games Athlete representing Wales at the Delhi 2010 Games, and currently rides for the An Post–Sean Kelly team.
Sir Peter Alfred Soulsby (born 27 December 1948) is a British Labour Party politician and the current Mayor of Leicester. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester South from 2005 until he resigned in order to contest the new post of mayor in April 2011. He is considered to be one of the most powerful public officials in the United Kingdom.
Born in Bishop Auckland, Soulsby attended the Minchenden School (a grammar school, which merged with Arnos School in 1984 to become Broomfield School although the former building is now used by Southgate College) on High Street in Southgate London, and then he studied at the City of Leicester College of Education in Scraptoft (part of Scraptoft Hall, which later was to become the Scraptoft Campus of De Montfort University until its closure in 2003) where he gained a BEd. He worked as a teacher at Crown Hills Secondary Modern School and in special needs schools.
He was first elected to Leicester City Council in 1974 and remained a Labour councillor until he was defeated in Spinney Hills ward in May 2003. Despite his own opposition to the Iraq War and his participation in rallies and marches, his defeat (and that of other sitting Labour councillors) reflected the widespread local opposition to the war.
Yanto Barker (born 6 January 1980 in Carmarthen) is a Welsh professional racing cyclist. He was the highest placed Briton in the 2005 Tour of Britain. Despite having started racing only when aged 15, when he joined the Mid-Devon Cycling Club, Barker was successful in the junior ranks (aged 16–18). The president of the Mid-Devon Cycling Club happens to be Colin Lewis, another Welshman and professional.
Having won the Junior British National Road Race Championships, he was selected to ride the Prydain Junior Road Race World Championships where he finished 11th. He lived in Wales as a child but later moved to Devon. When Barker joined the senior ranks at the age of 19, he was selected to represent Britain as part of the National U23 team, and was paid. He moved to Manchester to be closer to the track and the medical & coaching team. By 2000, there was less money available for cyclists such as Barker, and following the advice of a coach, he moved to France at the age of 20 to gain experience of continental racing. He represented Wales at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne but initially retired from professional cycling in 2007, returning to live in Devon. He now runs his own cycling clothing company called Le Col and has returned to cycling to ride for the Pendragon Sports / Le Col / Colnago Team. Barker signed for Team UK Youth for 2012.