East Goscote, Leicestershire
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East Goscote is a village and civil parish in the Charnwood district of Leicestershire, England, just north of Syston. It is a medium sized village with a population of approximately 3000. In 1962 Jelsons acquired the land to develop as a new village. The two large mounds dominating the playing field in the village were originally two blocks of a shell filling factory which later became a storage depot. The developers found that the structures were impossible to demolish and subsequently earthed over the blocks to become the now well known landmark on the playing field.
The name East Goscote was taken from one of the old Hundreds (an area of land purported to be able to support 100 families) of Leicester. The Goscote Hundred (or Wapentake) is mentioned in the Domeday book, this was later split into the West and East Goscote Hundreds.
It was the first new village to be created in Leicestershire since Domesday and is unique in the County.
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Long Furrow serves as a perimeter road around the central part of the village, it also serves to mark the boundary of the former ordinance site. What is less well known is the huge network of large reinforced concrete tunnels that lay beneath the whole village where the munitions we fitred with their warheads. There are several entrances to these workshops and tunnels located throughout the village but each have been carefully landscaped to conceal their identity. Council representatives did enter these chambers and found that they were in excellent condition and the electricity still worked. Until the mid 1970's during which the villages was still under construction both entrances to the 'Mound' were open and often visited by local children.
Today very little original information remains and those that know give little away. A map of the actual tunnel layout did exist in the Library of Wreake Valley Community College. The whole structure and stories that lay beneath its present inhabitants is worthy of a serious study, survey, and television documentary. It is without doubt an excellent piece of environmental architecture and resource that could in the right hands be brought back to life. A whole world and unique 1940's time capsule lay beneath our feet.
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