Wigston Magna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wigston (or more properly Wigston Magna to distinguish it from the nearby Wigston Parva), is a town in Leicestershire, just to the south of Leicester, on the Welford Road which leads to Northampton.
It runs directly into Oadby to the east, with which it shares Oadby and Wigston district council, and Leicester to the north. An area known as South Wigston is actually to the west.
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[edit] History
In the Middle Ages it was known as Wigston Two Spires as, unusually there were two mediaeval churches there, All Saints and St. Wistans.
St Wistans is known as that because it was one of the places where the body of St Wistan rested before burial. First, he was buried at Repton and finally in Evesham. St Wistan was a Mercian Prince who was assassinated but was regarded as a Martyr.
It was the birthplace of George Davenport, a notorious highwayman and Abigail Herrick, the mother of Jonathan Swift, author of Gullivers Travels and former Leicester Sound and BBC Radio Leicester presenter, Mark Hayman. Graham Chapman, of Monty Python fame, also did much of his growing up in Wigston.
There is a Framework Knitting Museum here, as it was an important occupation in this area.
Wigston was the subject of W. G. Hoskins's pioneering historical study, The Midland Peasant (London: Macmillan, 1965), which traced the social history of this village from earliest recorded history into the 19th century.
[edit] Local economy
MacFisheries' MacMarkets was the town's major supermarket for many years. It became a branch of International Stores in the late 70s and latterly a Gateway Foodmarket and Somerfield. There is a Sainsburys in the centre of the town, and Tesco on Blaby Road in South Wigston.
[edit] Education
Abington High School (built 1957, former secondary modern, ages 10-14), Bushloe High School (ages 10-14, completely rebuilt September 2006), Guthlaxton College (built late 1950s, ages 14-18, former grammar school), and South Leicestershire College (formerly Wigston College) are all very near each other on Station Road. The schools' results are average for Leicestershire, but below average for the UK. Close by, on the same road are the headquarters of the district council.
1461 (Wigston) Squadron of the Air Training Corps is located in South Wigston, and recruits many members from the schools in Wigston.
[edit] External links
- Borough of Oadby and Wigston
- South Leicestershire College
- Wigston Band
- Library
- Leicestershire Villages
- All Saints and St Wistan churches
- All Saints CE Primary School
- Framework Knitting Museum
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