Ratby is a commuter village and civil parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire. It is situated to the west of Leicester, and just south of the motorway. (Groby is on the other side of the M1.) It has a population of about 4,000. The Roman name for Leicester was Ratae Corieltauvorum. It is possible that Ratby takes its name from Ratae.
Other nearby places include Kirby Muxloe, Glenfield and Markfield. The proximity of Ratby to Leicester causes form part of the Leicester Urban Area.
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The oldest known human settlement in Ratby was at the Bury Camp on the edge of Ratby, an Iron Age encampment dating back approximately 3000 years. Later, the Roman army adapted the camp for use as a temporary fort in around 50.
The next oldest structure is the historic Church of St Philip & St James, called Ratby Church, built in four stages from the 13th through 15th centuries and restored by Nicholas Joyce in 1881. There are also some cottages dating back several centuries. For most of its history, Ratby was a small agricultural village with a few farms and the open 3-field plan until enclosure in the 18th century.
In the 20th century a War Memorial called the "Angel of Peace" was constructed after the First World War and unveiled in 1920 by the wartime British Army Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Haig.
Ratby has a number of facilities that provide its status as a highly sought after area within Leicestershire. Ratby Sports Club is home to the local football and cricket teams where England football international Emile Heskey started his junior football career, opposite the Co-op Supermarket provides itself as a focal point of the village. Ratby Primary School is also situated towards the village centre besides the library and three pubs: The Bulls Head, The Plough Inn, and The Railway at the other end of the village. Adjacent to the Bulls Head is the village hall which hosts an excellent Taekwondo lesson every Tuesday at 7pm amongst other things. Several hairdressers, a post office and village hall are also key amenties for the suburb, A new shop has been added to Ratby on Markfield Road called The Convenience store and next to this is a Chinese , one of Ratby's two Chinese take aways . Ratby is only 1 mile from Junction 21a of the M1 motorway and situated 5 miles from the city centre of Leicester, with frequent Arriva bus services supplying the route.
In addition to all of these facilities the village is home to the Ratby Cooperative brass band, the band rehearse in their own bandroom on Taverner Drive and are highly regarded in the brass band movement particularly for their excellent work with youth. The band has around 150 members.
| Markfield | Groby | |||
| Thornton | Glenfield | |||
| Ratby | ||||
| Desford | Kirby Muxloe | Leicester |